DDE: Alan Kyeremanten calls for exclusion of individual bondholders
Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, an aspiring flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, has urged the government to exclude individual bondholders from the domestic debt exchange program.
He argues that the financial sector will face dire consequences if the government does not exclude individual bondholders from the program, as they represent a critical part of the economy.
He believes that if the government touches the investments of these bondholders, it will discourage them from saving and that would be a dangerous thing for a country.
He recommended that the government should focus on finding good terms for institutional holders and halt the debate on whether to include individual holders.
Meanwhile, individual bondholders have reiterated calls for their bonds to be excluded from the debt exchange programme following the onboarding of the Ghana Association of Banks.
According to the Individual Bondholders Forum, unlike banks that are set to benefit from various regulatory incentives such as reductions in capital adequacy ratio and cash reserve requirements, individual bondholders have “no fall back or incentives “ and hence will be “condemned to shackled penury “ if included in the debt programme.
The forum has argued that individual bondholders account for only 11% of government’s eligible bonds, hence their exclusion from the debt programme will not in anyway impact government’s ability to achieve the required 80% participation rate.
“We congratulate both parties for reaching a deal towards the reengineering of our economy.
“With the banks onboarding the DDEP, the government is set to reach its 80% target.
“We urge government to stay focused on its responsibility to protect its citizens and for that matter absolutely exempt individual bondholders,” it said in a statement.
