Two former military men turned politicians, Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe and Brigadier General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah have chastised Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta over his purported treatment of pensioner bondholders.
The minister has been in the news following the two-week picket by the pensioners group demanding total exclusion from government's Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).
Nyaho-Tamakloe, who is a founding member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), said in an interview on Happy FM that he predicted the country’s current difficulties and complained about them, but “nobody appeared to listen, and here we are where we are today.”
In response to pensioners picketing at the Ministry of Finance, he warned: “To Ken Ofori Atta, I will only say one thing, he must know that he is dealing with people who are not at all his age group.
“They are elderly folks, and like Sophia mentioned, he is not treating them with respect, and he should know the consequences,” he remarked on Happy 98.9FM’s Epa Hoa Daben show.
For his part, Nunoo-Mensah, a former Chief of Defence Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces, and member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) told Accra-based Citi FM that there was the need for an explicit issuer exemption of pensioners from the DDEP.
He joined the pensioners in Parliament on February 16 when Ofori-Atta appeared before the House to brief lawmakers on the why and how of the programme.
“Until you have gone through the mill, you will not understand pensioners. Pensioners who have worked and saved money for when they retire are now being asked to pay for government’s mismanagement.”
“This is totally wrong, the money belongs to the Pensioners. Government cannot come demanding it against their will,” he stressed.
Over 80% of local bondholders have signed on to government’s domestic debt exchange programme.
Government’s three-day window for bondholders to complete tender processes of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) expired on Friday, February 10, 2023.
The minister appeared before parliament on February 16 to explain the why and what goes into the DDEP.
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