Pensioner Bondholders To Resume Picketing At Finance Ministry Over Unpaid Coupons

The Pensioner Bondholders Forum, will today, return to the Finance Ministry to demand the payment of matured coupons and principals of their bonds.

This is because the government has failed to meet its obligations to pensioner bondholders who were exempted from the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) and to individual bondholders who did not participate in the scheme.

Since February 2023, principals and coupons on 22 bond issuances totaling over GH¢1 billion have been outstanding.

Pensioner bondholders who picketed at the Finance Ministry for two weeks to demand an exemption from the debt exchange scheme have stated that if payments are not made immediately, they will resort to the same action.

“We were promised to be paid, as and when it is due. But now here we are, coupons are overdue. Some of them including the principals are well overdue for more than two months.

“All that has not been paid and that is what we are facing. That is the sad situation we are facing. This is where we have said that, if the government does not pay us by today, pensioners will resume their picketing at the Ministry of Finance,” they said in a statement.

The forum in an earlier statement expressed disappointment over the government’s inconsistency regarding assurances to pay all pensioners their outstanding coupons and principals of bond investments.

The convener of the Forum Dr. Adu Anane Antwi expressed the pain and financial hardships members have had to go through as a result of the delays and requested that the payments be made as demanded in the Forum’s letter of March 30, 2023, to the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.

The government is yet to respond to the demands of the Pensioner Bondholders Forum.

The situation remains tense as pensioners await the outcome of the meeting with the Finance Ministry.