Ghana Individual Bondholders’ Forum calls on domestic bondholders to join them
Ghana Individual Bondholders’ Forum (GIBF), a voluntary group of government bondholders, has called on direct and indirect bondholders to join the forum to help protect the value of their bonds under Government’s Domestic Debt Exchange programme.
A Statement signed by Mr Senyo K. Hosi, one of the Conveners, the Forum said: “… is a group of individual bondholders established with defined governance structures to coordinate and defend the interests of individual bondholders in respect of the DDE program and to engage the GoG.”
The Forum provides legal and public advocacy and negotiation, represents members with investments in: GoG Local Cedi Bonds, GoG Local USD Bonds, ESLA Bonds, Daakye Bonds, Ghana Eurobonds and Collective Investment Schemes (i.e., Mutual Funds, Cash Trusts, Balanced Funds).
Government of Ghana (GoG) last year announced that under its Domestic Debt Exchange (DDE) program, individual bondholders were to submit to a “voluntary” arrangement to exchange their domestic bonds for new benchmark bonds.
Some economists and financial analysts deemed the arrangement as “irreversibly taking away the wealth and livelihoods of direct and indirect individual bondholders.”
“We have been presented with painfully stark, impoverishing and unsustainable choices – a situation deeply troubling and wholly untenable,” the Statement said.
It urged direct bondholders to reject and refrain from complying with the mandatory deadline imposed under the DDE programme and join the efforts of the GIBF.
“Inform your fund managers not to accept the DDE with regards to the indirect Bondholders (Investors in mutual funds, cash trusts, balance funds),” the Statement said.
It said: “We call on labour unions to join us in this fight for the preservation of hard-earned savings invested by the Ghanaian public which also includes their members. We also look forward to partnering like-minded groups and organizations to achieve our joint goals.”
Source: GNA