Ofori-Atta sets up technical committee after meeting bondholders

A joint technical committee has been constituted by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to look into concerns raised by individual bondholders ahead of the rollout of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.

This was announced by the minister following a crunch meeting with the bondholders under umbrella body Ghana Individual Bondholders Forum (IBF) on Wednesday, January 18.

The Forum had petitioned the Minister to be excluded from the Programme, which has been scheduled to be rolled out after Tuesday, January 31.

They claimed they have not been adequately engaged by government in an attempt to include their bonds in the Programme.

They accused the government of short-changing them especially as the Programme comes at a time a promise was made there will no haircuts to such investments.

Interacting with journalists after the meeting with the individual bondholders, Finance Minister Ofori-Atta indicated that the Programme is not mandatory and remains voluntary.

He, therefore, urged bondholders to subscribe to the Programme to help government in efforts to address the economic challenges.

“I think the clarity for all of us is that it is a voluntary programme,” he said.

“We have anticipated may be getting up to 80 percent which will still put us under the parameter, so we are asking everybody to really join and may be things we may do and that’s why I believe the technical committee will do.”

The committee is expected to begin sitting from Thursday, January 19.