The Ghana Securities Industry Association (GSIA) has reiterated its position that Individual Bondholders under the Domestic Debt Exchange (DDE) programme should include persons who hold bonds directly and those who hold bonds indirectly.

According to the GSIA, the current form of the programme is not beneficial for all investors.

“We take this opportunity to remind the Ministry of our unwavering position that Individual Bondholders should include persons who hold bonds directly and those who hold bonds indirectly i.e. individuals having shares/units in Collective Investment Schemes that have invested in government bonds and persons on whose behalf bonds are held for in Trust Accounts, a position also espoused by the Ghana Individual Bondholders’ Forum”, a statement from the association said.

Welcoming government’s decision to extend the deadline, the GSIA said Minister of Finance must show commitment that it will equally apply any better terms that may be extended to all party under a domestic debt sustainability programme in a letter it authored on January 13, 2023.

“The Ministry’s position that it will use this period “to further engage with stakeholders, especially individual bondholders to mitigate any adverse impacts” is also heart-warming given that we also reiterated that the commercial terms of the amended offer fell below our expectation”.

It added that this is critical to ensure equity and fair treatment of all Individual Bondholders and will further make the exchange program more progressive.

“We at the GSIA are still committed to working with the Ministry of Finance to arrive at a fair exchange program where we all contribute to overcoming our economic challenges”, it added.