Ghana seeking $10.5bn in savings from debt restructuring

The government will use the IMF bailout window to renegotiate debts towards saving about $10.5 billion.

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta is looking forward to a fruitful engagement with Ghana’s bilateral and private creditors in the days ahead.

The external creditors include bilateral and commercial creditors.

The government announced a suspension of debt service on external commercial obligations on December 19, 2022 and has since been engaging with them on a debt restructuring.

The government is seeking to restructure debts totalling $14 billion, out of which $13 billion are in bonds with its external commercial creditors.

Following the formation of the Creditor Committee of the Paris Club backed by China, the government is also expected to begin debt restructuring negotiations with its bilateral creditors in the coming days in a bid to restructure debts of about $5.4 billion.

At a press conference Thursday afternoon by the IMF in the United States capital, Washington DC, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, said the government was looking forward to a fruitful engagement with its bilateral and private creditors in the days ahead, as the country worked towards achieving debt sustainability that would anchor economic stability.

Under the IMF programme, Ghana is expected to reduce its debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP)-ratio from the current 93.5 per cent to 55 per cent.