Dr. John Kumah, the deputy finance minister, has urged bondholders to follow the government's debt exchange programme.
Dr. Kumah said in an interview with JoyNews' PM Express on Monday that institutional bondholders who reject the scheme will be responsible for their own actions.
"If you don't receive the benefits, protections, or rewards that have been offered, you are left on your own. If the market is unable to redeem, it signifies that you are vulnerable to defaulting, he told Evans Mensah of JoyNews.
He claims that beginning on Monday, December 5, 2022, interested bondholders have ten days to join the program.
The government unveiled a debt restructuring plan on December 5, 2022.
The goal is to "ask holders of domestic debt to voluntarily swap roughly 137 billion of the domestic notes and bonds of the Republic, including E.S.L.A. and Daakye bonds, for a package of New Bonds to be issued by the Republic," according to Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.
Pension funds, banks, and insurance companies who own bonds will have to trade them in for ones that will pay no interest in 2019.
Only in 2024 will the new bonds start to pay interest, which will be 10% for the duration of their term. The first bonds only reach maturity in 2027 due to the extension of maturity dates.
But some organisations, including the Ghana Medical Association, the Trade Union Congress, and the Chamber of Corporate Trustees of Ghana, among others, have already turned down the offer.
The debt restructuring initiative, according to Dr. Kumah, is the only way to save the economy.
In order for the stakeholders to "feel at ease that we stand to gain better together than to fight over this topic," he continued, the government will continue to engage them.
According to Isaac Adongo, the deputy ranking member on the finance committee, bondholders who will be impacted by the domestic debt restructuring should file a lawsuit against the government to protect their rights.
He claims that the debt exchange scheme is being run by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, and not the government, necessitating immediate action.
"My team and I are prepared to support any investors and bondholders who decide to band together for a class action to challenge the government and the minister of finance to have this decision overturned.
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Dr. John Kumah, the deputy finance minister, has urged bondholders to follow the government's debt exchange programme.
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