Pensioners Bondholders Forum, which is lobbying for pensioners to be exempted from the government’s debt exchange program, has suspended plans to mass up at the Ministry of Finance in order to drive home their demands. The forum is campaigning for the exemption of retirees from the programme.
According to the Forum, which had earlier submitted a petition to the government requesting that all retirees who held government bonds be exempted from the Domestic Debt Exchange Program, the government has not responded to the appeal.
The forum informed the authorities that approximately fifty of its members planned to congregate at the premises of the Ministry of Finance on Monday, January 23, 2023, at 9:00 in the morning in order to demand that the Minister hold a meeting with its representatives over the petition. This was done in order to further press the forum’s request.
However, the forum indicated in a statement released prior to the demonstration that it had already begun the process of engaging with former Presidents John Agyekum Kufuor and John Dramani Mahama “to seek their sympathy, support, and intervention for our cause.” This was mentioned in the context of the forum’s efforts to prevent the protest from occurring.
“As a consequence of these engagements, we have canceled our anticipated convergence in the premises of the Ministry of Finance on Monday, the 23rd of January 2023, and we have notified the police accordingly,” the statement said.
On the other hand, it made it clear that “action will be taken should the necessity arise.”