The proposed Domestic Debt Exchange Program’s mandated deadline has been rejected by members of the Individual Bondholders Forum (IBF), who have urged direct bondholders to avoid from complying with it.
The group joins a large number of others who are attempting to reject and file class action lawsuits against the government about the debt exchange scheme as part of the debt restructuring initiative suggested by the IMF bailout.
Senyo Hosi, the Forum’s convener, urges indirect bondholders to advise their respective fund managers not to accept the planned DDE program in a statement that was released and signed by Senyo Hosi.
“In an unfortunate oppressive fashion, government has shown total disregard for the contractual rights of Individual bondholders and has made no effort to structure reasonable consultations with individual bondholders,” portions of the statement read.
“In the process, we (IBF) have been presented with painfully stark, impoverishing and unsustainable choices – a situation deeply troubling and wholly untenable. This is only possible because of the absence of effective representation and the perceived ease of oppressing a dispersed section of investors into submission,” it added.
The IBF added that the arrangement under the DDE programme irreversibly takes away the wealth and livelihoods of direct and indirect individual bondholders whose only crime, they say, has been to place trust in government with their investments.
“The medium-to-long-term prospect and outlook of the domestic investment culture in Ghana is going to be affected by this DDE initiative and we call on government to demonstrate the needed sensitivity to enable a constructive resolution in the best interest of all,” the statement stressed.
The IBF however urged labour unions to join in efforts aimed at rejecting the debt exchange programme toward the preservation of hard-earned savings invested by the Ghanaian public.