The Ghana Individual Bondholders Forum has said Ghana’s capital expenditure for 2023 is around 27.6 Billion Cedis, while another expenditure is around 26.74 Billion cedis and individual bondholders are 6.6 Billion Cedis, and could not understand why the government can't raise 6.6 billion to pay individual Bondholders.

Speaking in an interview with Sompa Tv on Monday 16th January 2023, David Tetteh, a leading campaigner for Individual Bondholders Forum said if the government has the resources to execute capital expenditure and other expenditures, why can't the government pay individuals Bond?

According to him, there are enough funds for the government to pay individual bondholders, and the government can break down principal payments.

“There are so many ways to go about it than to say I am not paying anything, you can say I will pay interest and the coupons and even decide to break down principal payments for 2 years, I don't see anything wrong with that, he said.

He argued that the bond is not worthless and has no consequences derailing the deal with IMF

“It's worthless because the government is refusing to pay but there are enough funds for the government to pay the individual bond holdings until the government decides not to pay that's when you say the bond is worthless but it's never true that the bond is worthless, it's a contract between bondholders and the government that the government needs to pay, he added.

He added that the Bondholders Forum is ready to meet with the government and his advisors and find a better solution that will not affect individual bondholders.

“The government is targeting reducing debt rate from 100% to 55% to meet IMF debt sustainability, we are ready to meet with the government and give solutions that will see a successful IMF deal.

The Individual Bondholders’ Forum is a representative body for individual investors such as the Government of Ghana’s local USD Bonds, the ESLA PLC bonds, Daakye Bonds, Ghana Eurobonds, and Collective investment schemes with investments in the above securities.

Source/sompaonline.com/Eric Murphy Asare