Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Yofi Grant, has indicated that Ghana is preparing for external debt restructuring that is projected to secure financing of around $2.5 billion in the near future.
This announcement comes as the GIPC indicated that negotiations with important partners are nearing completion and are expected to be concluded by the end of the week.
The CEO emphasized that the country’s existing fiscal gaps will be addressed through external financial measures, including an anticipated agreement of $3 billion with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the aforementioned debt restructuring.
“With the current fiscal gaps, we anticipate external financing for the budget through the anticipated $3 billion agreement with the IMF. Additionally, we are working on some external debt restructuring to provide financing of approximately $2.5 billion,” he said.
“We anticipate concluding negotiations with our other key partners tomorrow to further enhance our financial position,” he added.
In December 2022, government introduced the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), bringing it one step closer to securing a $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout. The programme was introduced to enable Ghana restructure its debt.
The government had initially earmarked 126.97 billion cedis ($10.67 billion) of domestic bonds for restructuring, but agreed to exempt pension funds in late December after labour unions threatened a general strike.
As of February 2023, the Finance Ministry said that around 85% of eligible bondholders had registered for the DDEP.