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The House of Legislators has been urged by John Jinapor, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Yapei Kusawgu in the Savannah Region, to vote a resolution compelling Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to exclude pensioners from the government’s Domestic Debt Exchange Program (DDEP).
Mr. Jinapor also urged the passage of a resolution by the Parliament that would oblige the Minister to uphold the terms of the original coupon agreement for each bondholder.
“Let us vote a resolution obliging [the] Minister of Finance [so] that all the pensioners would be excluded from this Exchange,” Mr. Jinapor said in his remarks following the Finance Minister’s presentation on the DDEP in Parliament on Thursday, 16 February 2023.
“Also bondholders’ coupon rates, principal and the terms of the original agreement should stand.”
All retirees who failed to submit their old bonds for new ones under the DDEP, according to Mr. Ofori-Atta, have been spared from the program.
Speaking to Parliament on the DDEP on Thursday, February 16, 2023, Mr. Ofori-Atta stated:
“Government remains committed to the wellbeing of our senior citizens. It has caused me great distress that a number of them have picketed the premises of the Finance Ministry since Monday, I have said that government will honour their coupons… all pensioners who didn’t participate in the debt exchange are exempted.”
He informed the legislature that his organization had written the Pensioners Bondholders Forum regarding their exemption from the DDEP.
In opposition to the inclusion of pension funds in the DDEP, several elderly people have been picketing the Finance Ministry since last week.
They claim that despite their decision to withdraw from the voluntary program, they still want a formal government exemption.
Since Mr. Ofori-Attah was scheduled to be in the House today, they protested outside of parliament to demand that.
The pensioner bondholders forum’s senior members said they are continuing the picketing since the government has not responded to the concerns they made during past protests.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
