GSIA will commit to fair debt exchange programme – Governing Council

The Ghana Securities Industry Association (GSIA) says it’ll commit to a “fair” domestic debt exchange programme where “we all contribute to overcoming our economic challenges.”

This is coming on the back of the extension of voluntary participation in the programme again to Tuesday, January 31, 2023, as the government scrambles to find a solution to the country’s worsening economic condition. The previous deadline was set to expire at 4:00 PM on Monday, January 16, 2023.

Announcing the extension in a tweet seen by the Business and Financial Times (B&FT), the Office of the Finance Minister said: “Building consensus is key to a successful economic recovery for Ghana. Pending further stakeholder engagement with institutional and individual investors, recently invited to join the debt exchange programme, the government is extending the expiration of the DDE to Jan 31, 2023.”

Reacting to the development in a statement, the Governing Council of GSIA welcomed the Ministry’s decision, noting that: “This is critical to ensure equity and fair treatment of all Individual Bondholders and will further make the exchange program more progressive.”

“The Ministry’s position that it will use this period “to further engage with stakeholders, especially individual bondholders to mitigate any adverse impacts” is also heart-warming given that we also reiterated that the commercial terms of the amended offer fell below our expectation,” the statement said.

“We take this opportunity to remind the Ministry of our unwavering position that Individual Bondholders should include persons who hold bonds directly and those who hold bonds indirectly i.e. individuals having shares/units in Collective Investment Schemes that have invested in government bonds and persons on whose behalf bonds are held for in Trust Accounts, a position also espoused by the Ghana Individual Bondholders’ Forum,” the statement added.