Pension Funds continue to remain in government’s plan for a second Domestic Debt Exhange Programme (DDEP), Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has revealed.
While presenting the 2023 Mid Year Budget Review Statement, the sector Minister said “
although Pension Funds were exempted from the main DDEP, we
continue to engage them.
To complete the domestic debt operation Government announced in April 2023 its intention to further pursue the discussions around the following domestic debt instruments which were excluded from the DDEP perimeter:
i. Energy sector Independent Power Producers (IPPs);
ii. Cocobills;
iii. Local US dollar denominated bond; and
iv. Bank of Ghana non-tradable debt.
Out of these remaining Debt instruments, Government launched debt operations
for the Cocobills and local US dollar-denominated bonds on 14th July, 2023.
The settlement date is today 31st July, 2023.
In response to the inclusion of Pension Funds,
Organised labour opposed new attempts to restructure pension funds worth about $2.7 billion.
On 5th December 2022, government launched the DDEP in a
transparent manner while seeking to minimise its impact on bondholders.
After three (3) months of negotiations with the different bondholder groups and
amendments to the original terms, Government successfully completed the DDEP
on 14th February.
Total bonds outstanding at the settlement date amounted to GH¢126,978.5 million, of which GH¢29,286.2 million were held by Pension Funds, bringing the total eligible bonds to GH¢97,749.6 million.
The Finance Ministry received final participation of GH¢82,994.5 million, representing 84.9 percent of total eligible bonds.
According to Mr Ofori-Atta, the DDEP has provided the Government with increased fiscal flexibility and addressed cash and other liquidity constraints.
Source: Andy Ogbarmey Tettey