Ghana’s Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, announced on Monday the country’s plans to resume discussions with its international bondholders starting next week.
This move comes in the wake of a recent successful deal to restructure $5.4 billion of official creditor debt, as Ghana aims to further enhance its financial position.
Ghana, with approximately $13 billion in outstanding Eurobonds, plans to pursue ongoing discussions with bondholders following a meeting held in Marrakech in October.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta revealed this intention during an interview at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting.
Additionally, officials are scheduled to visit China on January 23, according to Ofori-Atta. The co-chairing responsibilities of Ghana’s Official Creditor Committee by China and France played a pivotal role in the agreement, unlocking further funding from a $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue loan.
Ghana defaulted on most of its overseas debt in December 2022 after debt servicing costs soared. It is looking to restructure $20 billion of external debt, which totaled about $30 billion at the end of 2022, and has already restructured most local debt.
Restructuring negotiations last year were a “very difficult, painful process,” but Ghana has “built pretty good momentum”, Ofori-Atta said.
The IMF board is due to meet on Friday to decide on a $600 million disbursement from Ghana’s bailout program. Getting approval is usually seen as a formality once a meeting has been scheduled and would unlock funding from other multilateral lenders.
The World Bank was expected to decide on $550 million of “sorely needed” funding on Jan. 25, Ofori-Atta added.
Ghana is reworking its debts under the Common Framework, a restructuring process set up by the G20 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic that has been criticized for slow results.
Ofori-Atta said the 2022 macroeconomic situation had been “cage rattling”, but was improving, and he pointed to a rise in revenue and a decline in inflation.
The latest data showed consumer inflation had slowed to 23.2% year-on-year in December compared to the more than 50% when the country tipped into default.
Meanwhile growth was running at 3%, more than twice the IMF’s projected rate of 1.2%, Ofori-Atta said.