Former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, Senyo Hosi, is urging individual bondholders to reject the government’s debt exchange agreement.

According to him, till the government does the needful by properly engaging them and seeking their input towards finding a sustainable solution to the economic crisis, any deal should be rejected.

This follows the creation of the Individual Bondholders Forum “to fight against the impoverishing of individuals who have invested in bonds or collective investment schemes.”

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he said the refusal of the government to engage with individual bondholders was unacceptable and the situation ought to be remedied.

“Anybody who has been contacted by their bank, write back to your bank and say you do not accept it. Anybody who has his money in any of the funds, whether it is the Databank Mfund or a balance fund, Tesah Capital Triple T, EDC whatever it is, let’s get this clear. Do not accept it.

“It does not augur well for your good or the sustainability of this economy. You are under no compulsion to accept it. We must be at the table, you deserve to be represented, you deserve to be respected, you deserve to also be given a fair and equitable place in this discussion,” he said.

“Individuals have not been engaged whatsoever, you’ve engaged the pensioners, you’ve engaged the fund managers, you’ve engaged the banks, where are the individuals? Reject it now; this DD as it is cannot stand. We will meet and government must open an immediate channel for us to engage and find an amicable resolution that creates a win for the politics that they want to pursue and also for the sustainability of the real life that we have here,” he added.

According to Senyo Hosi, the government’s proposal is not the optimal solution to Ghana’s economic crisis.

He noted that while the government is seemingly absolving themselves of the chunk of responsibility for the current crisis, they are instead offloading the burden on ordinary Ghanaians through their debt exchange programme.

“This is not the optimal solution for Ghana’s current crisis. Ghana’s current crisis and the problems start from the fiscal. It starts from no other space than the fiscal. Government must start cutting its coat according to the size of its cloth. Are we seeing that from government?

“But you want us to always be the one coming in to take the brunt for your misbehavior, for your recklessness, for your sub-optimal management, that is what is really very very painful. There are crises, we’ll all sacrifice, but we’ll all engage and we’ll understand and we’ll work on it together as a country,” he said.