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The Ministry of Finance has announced that over 80% of local bondholders signed on to government’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).

This was disclosed in a statement by the ministry announcing the closure of the programme on February 14, 2023.

“The Government’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) closed on Friday 10th February 2023 with over 80% participation of eligible bonds. The government wants to thank the people of Ghana for their forbearance and support throughout the very difficult times,” the statement said.

The ministry further emphasised that participation in the programme was voluntary and that the right of bondholders to self-exempt was never in doubt.

“However, under the circumstances, Government at the same time, always made a strong but humble appeal to bondholders to participate in the DDEP; seeing it as a very critical act of burden-sharing in the ongoing national effort to tackle the economic crisis, bring back microeconomic stability and guarantee sustainable growth and prosperity for the people of Ghana,” the ministry said.

While emphasising the significance of the exercise and the impact the economy would have felt if it was not undertaken, the ministry stressed that government’s commitment to honour payments to bondholders who elected not to participate in the exercise.

“We would like to stress that, all individual bondholders, especially our senior citizens should be rest assured that their coupon payments and maturing principles, like government bonds, will be honoured in line with government’s fiscal commitments,” the statement said.

With an economy under heavy stress from rising inflation, currency depreciation and ballooning national debt, the government of Ghana is looking at a US$3 billion International Monetary Fund loan for salvation.

The government in an effort to meet requirements to secure the IMF loan, introduced a debt restructuring programme.

The DDEP programme which aims to tackle government debt on the local front, sought to vary the terms of existing bonds.

The ministry at the commencement of the programme announced a target of 80% or more of bondholders.

The exercise, however, attracted resistance from several bondholders including some pensioners who took to picketing at the premises of the ministry demanding total exemption from the programme.

The Pensioner Bondholders Forum are expected to take their protest to parliament on Tuesday, February 14, 2023.