The DDEP is Done. Full Stop

First Published on April 18, 2023

It hurts to have to write again about this painful experience that took so many Ghanaians through helplessness and despair for months before ordinary Ghanaians won a semblance of victory over a heartless Government that sought to take the life savings of even the destitute elderly.

It is even more painful that this second round of this heartlessness is now being spearheaded by industry players I know and have worked with who should know better.

It is not enough for this financial industry players that they have sat by for the government to perpetuate a very deceptive position that the exempted or self exempted bonds are somehow of an inferior quality in terms of liquidity; allowing the Government to create further uncertainty for these bonds by choosing when and how to pay back their coupons and Matured principals.

They have now taken up the flawed position to further argue to pension holders that somehow exchanging their bonds for devalued and more risky bonds will magically restore liquidity.

A finance professional must maintain certain standards or you are no better than a money swindler. The rules of global finance has not suddenly been suspended by Ken Ofori-Atta. Bonds with higher net present values are better bonds and must have higher liquidity. Money now is better than money in the future, especially when the person promising you the money in the future will not be there to give you that money.

These are simple principles of Finance we all know. Let’s stop deceiving the people of Ghana with terminologies that mean nothing!

We are systematically destroying the building blocks of financial education laid for years to move this country towards the fabled ‘Financial Independence’.

There is nothing in the new proposal by the government to the Pension funds that is in the interest of the Pension funds. It hands over a higher risk instrument to them with the pain frontloaded. It keeps the Pension funds from diversifying their portfolios away from toxic government bonds to serve their true purpose of providing long term financing for the private sector as the engine of growth. It provides an excuse for this government to continue to mismanage its payments on coupons and principals because we are by signing up accepting those excuses as genuine. It gives future governments the laxity to perpetuate even more harmful changes to the terms of payments.

This government respects Power. That’s the only thing they have shown to understand. This ‘weakness’ being displayed by the Pension Fund Managers and some Bondholder groups is allowing this government to continually visit its version of tyranny on Ghanaians.

The DDEP is Done. It is not up for discussion.