Debt exchange: We will not accept government's amended offer - Martin Kpebu

The lawyer for a collective of individual bondholders, Martin Kpebu, has said that his clients will not accept the amended Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) of the government.

The government extended the deadline for voluntary participation in the DDEP to February 14, 2023, from January 31, 2023, citing its latest offer to individual bondholders.

The latest offer includes instruments with a maximum maturity of 5 years instead of 15 years and a 10% coupon rate for individual bondholders below the age of 59 to encourage them to participate in the DDEP.

Additionally, all retirees (including those retiring in 2023) will be offered instruments with a maximum maturity of 5 years instead of 15 years and a 15% coupon rate.

Reacting to this in an interview on Neat FM monitored by GhanaWeb on Wednesday, lawyer Kpebu said that the individual bondholders will not accept the new deal by the government because it makes them worse off.

He refuted assertions that the government has no money to pay bondholders, saying that the increase in the government's expenditures in the 2023 budget shows that the government has money.

"We are not happy with the new offer, and we are not going to accept it. If we accept the new deal, it will make us worse off.

"A government that says it does not have money is spending 40 percent more than it spent last year in some sectors and 20 percent more in other sectors. How can a government that says it has no money be spending more? It doesn’t make sense,"  he said in Twi.

"The government must reduce its expenditure; it must suspend some projects for at least one year. We live on the interest of our bonds, the government cannot tell us it does not have money to pay us while it is constructing new projects," the lawyer added.

Watch the interview below:



IB/BOG