Kenneth Yaw Ofori Atta, Finance Minister of Ghana, has postponed his bilateral debt cancellation talk with the Chinese Government to late march this year, 2023, which was originally slated to have taken place this weekend.
Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, had initial plans of going with a high-level government delegation to the Chinese creditors for a bilateral debt restructure or cancellation conversation this weekend. However, that arrangement has been altered by the upcoming National People’s Congress of China, which has been scheduled for early March, 2023.
Assuredly, Ofori-Atta said the bilateral talks with China will continue ahead of this important mission.
The Finance Minister made this known while having bilateral talks with the German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Ms. Svenja Schule in Accra on Wednesday, February 22, 2023.
The Federal Minister from Germany, Ms. Svenja Schule, in turn assured Ofori-Atta of her country’s readiness to engage with other development partners on Ghana’s behalf, who are yet to sign unto the creditors committee, at the yet to be held G20 Finance Ministers’ scheduled meeting to do so.
The government on February 10, 2023, successfully completed its Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), with over 80% participation from local bondholders and is moving on to engage its external creditors for a restructure and possible debt cancellation.
Ken Ofori-Atta indicated that this bold step taken by the government is to further improve upon the economic state of the country thus, its upcoming trip to China. This, he went on to reveal will facilitate the International Monetary Fund (IMF) board approval of $3 billion bailout loan to the country.
The government of Ghana has started to actively engage external creditors with the view of getting debt cancellation, especially, from the Paris Club of creditors. Its first stop will be in China with Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, leading the delegation assigned to Beijing.
Financial Analysts Perceive A Tough Journey Ahead for Ghana
Some economic analysts, in the meantime, forsee Ghana’s engagement with its external debt creditors to be a tough one.
The Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, Prof. Peter Quartey, shared varied opinions with these analysts by expressing hope in Ghana securing the IMF deal if government is successful at its engagement with China.
According to Prof. Quartey, Ghana’s move will only be successful if it is able to engage with its external creditors on time to be able to meet the first quarter target set by the Finance Minister.
“I think with the external, what I can see is that there is a consultant from France, who has been engaging them already while we were going through this Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.
“Within, I believe the consultation has started already and also, the IMF as the World Bank has a framework which will guide the whole discussion.”
Prof. Quartey
With this view therefore, Prof. Quartey believes that the external engagement will be much better than the domestic.
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