Some individual government bondholders are asking the government to divert funds meant for the construction of roads and the contingency fund to settle their matured investments or face legal action.

The government in December disclosed that this group of bondholders who hitherto were exempted from the local debt exchange program will be included in the program.

The decision to include the individual bondholders was taken after the government yielded to demands by Labour Union to exempt pension funds from the debt exchange programme.

Speaking to Citi News, lawyer for the individual bondholders, Martin Kpebu, said the new directive will negatively impact his clients.

“Anybody who makes the argument that we need these individual bondholders whose total monies sum up to about GH¢8 billion for the debt exchange before the government gets a deal with the IMF is lying to you. It is not true.”

“We have been building roads for so many years so if in 2023 we have to step back the building of roads and pay individuals who we owe then so be it…I appreciate good roads, but now people are owed about GH¢8 billion so pay them first. We are not asking the government for a favour.”

Ghana in December further extended the deadline to register for its domestic debt exchange to January 16 in order to “secure internal approvals” from the financial sector, according to the Finance Ministry.

The Ministry of Finance also announced a change to the debt exchange, with eight additional instruments to be created.

Under the original plan, local bonds were to be exchanged for new ones maturing in 2027, 2029, 2032 and 2037, with annual coupons set at 0% in 2023, 5% in 2024 and 10% from 2025 until maturity.

Announcing the latest extension, the Finance Ministry said that eight additional instruments would be created, bringing the total number of new bonds to 12, with one maturing each year from 2027 to 2038.