Pensioner bondholders exempted from the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) have returned to the Ministry of Finance to demand their mature coupons and principals.
The pensioners resumed picketing on Monday, May 8 after claiming that the Finance Ministry has failed, on many occasions, to pay their due coupons and principals.
They had on Monday, April 17 served notice of returning to the Ministry to “further press home our demand for the payment of all coupons and principals in arrears, and an end to payment delays”.
The pensioners gave government up to Friday, April 28 to pay the principals for those exempted from the DDEP.
Convener of the Pensioner Bondholders Forum Dr Adu Anane Antwi said they are only at the Finance Ministry for one thing, that is for their mature principals and coupons to be paid.
“When our mature bonds are due, you pay [and] when our coupons are due, you pay because we are an exempted group,” Dr Anane Atwi told journalists on Monday, May 8.
He said they had engagements with the Ministry after consistent failure to pay their dividends.
He said the Ministry gave assurances at the meetings that the payments will be made following measures to reconcile data from the DDEP.
The legal practitioner said their complaints seemed to have fallen on deaf ears, hence the resumption of their mass action.
Among the placards held by the protesting pensioners read: ‘Our Livelihoods Are Dependent on Our Bond Investments’, ‘Why Exempt Pensioners And Refuse to Pay Them?’, ‘Every Country Respects Their Pensioners Except Ghana’ and ‘Use Treasury Bills Proceeds to Pay Us!’
source: myghanadaily
