At a closed door meeting with the leadership of the Individual Bondholders Forum, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta said the government was opened to discussing alternative means of making the DDEP successful.

Briefing journalists after the closed door meeting, he said “this is a voluntary exercise and we made some changes to extend it to January 31st to give us time to incorporate all ideas that has come up. We anticipate 80 per cent participation to ensure that we are within the parameters.”

Exemption

The Convener of the Individual Bondholders Forum, Senyo Hosi told the media after the discussions that the petition to the ministry was to exempt individual bond holders from the DDEP.

He said the debt swap programme would bring undue hardship on individuals who holds government bonds.

However, Mr Hosi said the forum was ready to hold discussions with the ministry’s technical team on the petition.