Individual bondholders are pilling pressure on the Finance Ministry to pay the over ¢4 billion in interest and principal on which the ministry defaulted.
The Individual Bondholder’s Forum dispatched a letter to the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta demanding the payment of outstanding bonds that matured on February 6.
The Individual Bondholders Association of Ghana has taken it a step further. A delegation from the association was at the Police Headquarters on Monday to serve a formal notice of an impending 5-day protest.
The protest is expected to start from February 20 to 24.
The Individual bondholders will be picketing at Black Star Square.
Per the agreement, a group of about 30 or 50 individual bondholders will be escorted to the Finance Ministry to present a petition and back within an hour to square.
In an interview, one of the conveners Dr. Joel Akwetey says government can avoid this picketing by just paying the bondholders.
“If they [government] do [pays], this picketing will actually not come on. So we’re doing this in phases we expect between this week and next week – the 20th February, I would hear something favourable from the ministry, then we all rest easy,” he said.
He added that “what we’re simply asking of government is to honor the bonds that are due because before we went into the DDE Programme, we had an understanding that it’s a voluntary process.
“And so government is expected that if one opts out, their coupons are honored and so we are going strictly according to the documents we have, and the assurance we had before this DDE programme, that all voluntary bondholders will not be penalised, they will be honored and so that’s just what we want.”
On his part, a private legal practitioner and convener, Martin Kpebu stated that government should not only honour its promise to bondholders but should also exempt individual bondholders from the Debt Exchange Programme.
According to him, picketing for five days will galvanize more support for the course of the group to push for an exemption.
The exemption protest, he said is a course for which individual bondholders must win at all costs.
Latest Stories
- Life lounge with Edem Knight-Tay: Don’t Die Fixing It
1 hour - ‘If NPP can get a consensus candidate, it’ll help us tremendously’ – Hackman
5 hours - Accra West ECG recovers GH¢675k in revenue mobilisation exercise
5 hours - Hypertension can cause male erectile dysfunctions – Dr Benjamin Toboh
5 hours - 1V1D: Government spent averagely ¢670k on each of the ‘dried dams’ – Research
5 hours - Rastafarian student nearly rejected by Achimota School may represent them at NSMQ
5 hours - ‘You’re abusing fowls’ – Animal Welfare League demands ban on battery cages
6 hours - ‘Family Feud’ contestant who joked about regretting marriage on game show found guilty of murdering wife
6 hours - Can Gyekye-Quayson lawfully run as an MP in the Assin-North bye-election? (Kwaku Azar writes)
6 hours - The Gambia hires US lawyers over syrup scandal – report
6 hours - Fear as Jamie Foxx left ‘paralyzed, blind’ from ‘brain clot’
7 hours - Kizz Daniels welcomes third child
7 hours - Jose Mourinho charged for using abusive language towards official at Europa League final
7 hours - Beneficiaries of StanChart Women in Technology programme share inspiring stories
7 hours - Benin petrol prices soar as Nigeria moves to end subsidy
7 hours