Delayed coupon payment: Pensioners holding bonds to resume MoF picketing

The Pensioner Bondholders Forum has said it will resume picketing the Ministry of Finance Friday, April 28, 2023, to continue clamouring for its members' coupons and principals that have been delayed for months.

The pensioners were exempted from the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) and were promised by Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta that their coupons and principals would be paid once due.

However, the governmemt has failed to pay the coupons and principals totalling about GHS1 billion since February 2023 despite several reminders and threats of picketing.

On Friday, April 14, 2023, the ministry said it engaged the representatives of the Coalition of Individual Bondholders and the Pensioner Bondholders Forum toward agreeing a payment plan for their coupons.

In a statement, the ministry said: "Following the meeting, significant progress has been made on the outstanding domestic debt service obligations."

The meeting, chaired by deputy finance minister Abena Osei-Asare, agreed that the joint technical committee constituted on 18 January 2023, "reconvene and agree on a pathway toward the settlement of the outstanding debt obligations by 28 April 2023."

The ministry thanked the Coalition of Individual Bondholders and the Pensioner Bondholders Forum "for their forbearance during the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) and subsequent administrative processes."

However, the money has still not hit the accounts of the pensioners, thus, their threat to resume picketing.