The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has confirmed to Parliament that all pensioners who declined to sign onto the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) have been exempted from the programme.
According to him, all their coupons and principals of the nonparticipant pensioners would be duly paid when they mature.
“Government remains committed to the wellbeing of our senior citizens. It has caused me great distress that a number of them have picketed at the premises of the Finance Ministry since Monday I have said that government will honour their coupons…all pensioners who didn’t participate in the debt exchange are exempted.”
Mr Ken Ofori Atta also indicated that he has officially written to the nonparticipating pensioners about their exemption from the programme.
This comes after the pensioners demanded a formal communication from the Minister that their investments would not be included in the DDEP.
It would be recalled, however, that the Minister on Tuesday announced that the DDEP closure on February 10, 2023, saw over 80% participation of eligible bonds sign onto the programme.
GH¢82,994,510,128 worth of old bonds was thus swapped from a possible GH¢97,749,624,691.
Consequently, the amount representing 84.91% exceeded the government’s target of 80% participation rate.
