Payment of principals, coupons on old bonds to resume March 13 – Finance Ministry
The Finance Ministry has disclosed that payment of coupons and principals on old bonds in respect of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) will start on March 13, 2023.
This was contained in a release issued by the Ministry on February 27, which states the payment only applies to old bondholders who did not sign up for the DDEP.
“Secondly, in fulfillment of the assurance given by Government to bondholders who did not tender, the Ministry is taking administrative steps to ensure that payments of coupons and principals of the old bonds resume by 13th March 2023,” part of the statement read.
The assurance comes against the backdrop of three bondholder groups marching to the Finance Ministry on Monday to demand the immediate payment of coupons and principals which matured on February 6th and 20th February 2023.
They are the Coalition of Individual Bondholders Groups made up of the Pensioner Bondholders Forum, Individual Bondholders Association of Ghana, and Individual Bondholders Forum.
Also, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta promised that outstanding bonds which matured on February 6 for which the government defaulted will be honored after February 21.
“Settlements will be made after Tuesday, February 21 and then we can begin to look at processing everybody’s [bonds],” the Finance Minister assured the pensioner individual bondholders when they met to thank him for exempting them from the Debt Exchange Programme.
But in an interview with the media on February 27, the convener of the Pensioner Bondholders Forum, Dr Adu Anane Antwi said the group wants to know what is causing the delay in payment.
According to him, the individual bondholders are worried.
“We are here to find out why coupons the Minister said will be paid on the 21st after the settlement day, we haven’t heard any information from the Ministry and therefore, we have come to find out why the payment has not been made yet,” he said.
Meanwhile, the release further noted that the newly issued bonds have been settled and listed and will become the new benchmark bonds for the fixed-income market.
The Ministry of Finance noted that it will work with “relevant stakeholders, as agreed, to ensure that these new benchmark securities become the basis for deepening the domestic sovereign bond market.”