Government of Ghana is yet to come clear on the exemption of pensioners from the domestic debt exchange programme, leaving pensioners no option but to picket at the Finance Ministry as hinted by its group.
Group (Pensioner Bondholders Forum) advocating for the protection of its members funds from ‘haircut’ hinted to picket at the Finance Minister in its quest to get government succumb to their demands.
The government of Ghana reached out to the IMF for a bailout from the harsh economic conditions that have hit the country.
Ghana is expected to go through debt restructuring- a prerequisite to reaching a deal but yet to accomplish that as some stakeholders including pensioners have kicked against the programme.
On February 1 Organized labour also threatened to reject government’s offer should it be repackaged.
The group in a statement bemoaned that all efforts have proved futile as they engaged government on exempting pensioners from the programme.
They added that the Police have been notified about their intentions to picket at the Ministry of Finance.
On 10 January 2023, we submitted a petition to the Minister of Finance to exempt all pensioners holding Government Bonds from the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme on the same basis used for the exemption of Pension Funds from the programme, as the impact of the programme on pensioners who are bondholders will be very severe.
We have as of today not been granted the exemption we requested. To further press home our request, we have notified the Police that about 50 of our members intend to converge at the premises of the Ministry of Finance on every working day from 10 am-11 am, beginning from Monday 6th February 2023 till our request is granted by the Minister.” The group’s statement read
Government on the other hand extended the deadline of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme to Tuesday, February 7, 2023 hoping to get other stakeholders interest.
