A medical doctor and financial advisor got emotional on Monday morning when addressing the government’s ongoing Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).
Dr Yaw Perbi, while speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, said he had encouraged many health practitioners in the country to cultivate the culture of investment and thus is pained by the turn of events.
While reminiscing the sacrifices he and his colleagues had to make to gain the principal to buy bonds, Dr Perbi could not help but break into tears.
“We sacrificed student loans and some entertainment among others. And now, those who were just blowing their money are laughing at us. They’ll be saying ‘you should have chopped the money’,” he said on Monday.
Although hurt by the ongoing debt exchange, Dr Perbi encouraged his colleagues not to regret their decision to invest.
“Part of the reason I came here was to let the several tens and thousands of people who have invested to know that this is not a Ponzi Scheme. They did the right thing.
“I am trying to convince myself that I did the right thing, I did not leave them to go and throw themselves over a cliff. We did the right thing but our leaders have not done the right thing by us and they need to be called out on it,” he stated.
In December 2022, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta launched the debt exchange programme as part of efforts to access the $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
This final lap has, however, been fraught with challenges as various interest groups including labour and individual bondholders have lamented the possibility of the development leaving them in a sorry state.
So far the government has extended the deadline for eligible bondholders two times. But individual bondholders are asking for their bonds to be excluded from the restructuring.