'There will be no slash on principals of your investments,' Oppong Nkrumah clarifies

“I also want to assure all Ghanaians that no individual or institutional investor, including pension funds, in Government treasury bills or instruments will lose their money, as a result of our ongoing IMF negotiations. There will be no “haircuts”, so I urge all of you to ignore the false rumours, just as, in the banking sector clean-up, Government ensured that the 4.6 million depositors affected by the exercise did not lose their deposits,” he added.

But in an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, October 31, Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah clarified the president’s statement on ‘haircuts’ on investment saying; “My understanding is that no principals would be touch, the debt sustainability strategy is yet to be announced in full”.

The minister also noted that it is unfair for people to speculate which has panicked the market.

“It has not been helpful that people have chosen to do this speculation, that has also panicked the market thus people going into the banking hall just to cash out of their treasury bills and go and buy forex as a store of value.”

Mr. Oppong Nkrumah further added that the form of the restructuring will be known in full when they are done.

Meanwhile, some banks have also issued statements to their customers explaining the 'new valuation method for collective investment schemes'.

The new method will reflect the prevailing market performance of bonds. That means your total investment will go up or down depending on the bond market prices. When the bond market is strong, the value of your investment will go up. Conversely, the value will dip (as is the case now) when the bond market is weak

“You will notice changes in the unit value and the full value of your investment after October 28th, 2022, when the new valuation method is implemented. This applies to both Stanbic Cash Trust and Stanbic Income Fund Trust,” Stanbic bank sent to customers.

EDC Investment Limited also sent a communique to their customers urging that investors keep their monies until maturity to enjoy the full benefit.

“Kindly note that in view of the change in valuation method to the fair value approach, any Unitholder who decides to redeem his/her investments would have to do so at the current values of the bonds and other assets of the fund which may result in losses for that Unitholder,” portions of EDC Investments Limited read.

The Government of Ghana is currently seeking $3 billion in economic recovery support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The government, as part of the processes for securing IMF support, is currently conducting a debt sustainability analysis and there are fears that investments in government securities may be affected.