The individual bondholders who are hoping for an issuer exepmtion from the government have been described as persons who do not want to see the country grow and recover from the current economic duldrums. This is according to Andrew Atariwini, the Deputy Communications Director for the NPP.
“Absolutely [they don’t want to see the country grow]. With the greatest of respect to the senior citizens, I don’t think they have any justifiable reason case. They don’t have a case. When we begin to discuss from the business and technical point of view, they don’t have a justifiable reason,” Mr. Atariwini said when he spoke on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show today, Thursday, February 16, 2023.
Mr. Atariwini reminded the bondholders that they were at liberty to join the programme. Once they didn’t join, they would have to live with the consequences of their actions.
“It is like you have care going to Bawku. If you don’t the car to Bawku, the consequences of how you will get to Bawku are entirely yours,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, the Finance Minister’s understanding of the issue, particularly why the pensioner bondholders are still picketing is however being called into question. When Professor David Millar, an individual bondholder and the President of the Millar Open University spoke on the Day Break Upper East Show, he suggested that the Minister may have lost his ability to understand the English language.
“For me, all of a sudden, the Finance Minister has lost his power over the English language. He has suddenly become illiterate, he can’t read English anymore. It is a simple thing [he has to say]; I exempt you from this debt restructuring,” he said.
According to Professor David Millar, the Finance Minister’s insistence on voluntary exemption by the Finance Minister is worrying.
In an earlier interview, the founder of the Millar Open University and individual bond holder, Professor David Millar, is worried that the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, and his Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, are not grasping the actual consequence of their insistence on individual bond holders in the ongoing Domestic Debt Exchange (DDE).
As part of the government’s effort to secure board level agreement for an IMF programme, it launched the Domestic Debt Exchange programme in December last year. The programme was to help the government restructure its debt and prove debt sustainability. The government included individual bond holders in its attempts to satisfy the pre-conditions for an IMF deal.
The decision was met with stiff opposition by the individual bond holders.
When Professor Millar spoke at a round table discussion on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show, he expressed worry about losing the value of his investments.
“I am a bond holder; quite a substantial amount. We were made to understand that it was the most secure way of keeping your money. The government bonds served as a very secure place to put your money. [I want to start] with the borrowing spree we went on. For me, borrowing is not the problem. The problem is what you use the borrowed funds to do. You can borrow excessively and invest in such a way that you pay plus profits. This is what we missed. That is where the government failed.”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
