The Individual Bondholders Forum has hinted at a decision to commence picketing at the Black Star Square starting Monday, February 20 until their demand for exemption from the government’s domestic debt exchange programme is granted.
Though the programme was officially closed on February 10, the Forum insists there is still an open window the government can explore to exempt them.
In an interview on Eyewitness News, the convenor of the Forum, Martin Kpebu said they needed to toe the line of the pensioner bondholders who continuously picketed at the Ministry of Finance until they were exempted from the programme.
The convenor called on members of the Forum and the general public “to drive in their cars and trotro and come to the Independence Square, so we can have them [government] do the right thing.”
Mr. Kpebu said the government’s failure to pay the dividends on matured bonds to members of the Forum heightens their scepticism of the ability of the government to safely guard their funds till the first maturity date under the programme in five years to come.
“He [Ken Ofori-Atta] spoke at length in Parliament on Thursday and he didn’t mention when he was going to pay the bonds that have matured and that is a big warning to us that if we don’t wake up and fight, we are going to end up like the people that lost their monies in the banking sector clean-up exercise.
“Governmnt must honour the existing bonds and pay the bonds that have matured because if the government had paid the matured bonds, there wouldn’t have been any issues with exemptions.”
He further stressed that “our main concern right now is that government should honour its existing obligation and just as it has done for the Pensioners, we can also be added. The IMF Board meeting is in March and so the government can reopen and say that the Individual Bondholders are exempted.”
