Finance Ministry Explains Why $37 Million Is “Missing” From $750 Million Afrexim Loan
The Deputy Minister for Finance, John Ampontuah Kumah has provided an explanation for what seemed like a “lost” US$37 million from the US$750 million approved loan facility from AfreximBank.
On August 29, 2022, the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Finance Committee, Cassiel Ato Forson drew the attention of the public to the fact that $713million instead of $750million of the loan hit the bank account of the Government of Ghana.
“Where is the remaining $37m?”, he asked in a tweet.
This was responded to by the Deputy Finance Minister who indicated that the full amount was received.
He explained that the “lost” amount has been set aside for “debt service obligations”.
“The Government has received fully the total amount of USD750.0 million today Monday 29th August 2022 from Afrexim as was approved by Parliament. Government also as part of the transaction has created an Escrow Account for debt service for the facility.
“This arrangement is not new as the Ministry of Finance have from time to time created specialised Escrow accounts for specific purposes. In this particular transaction, an amount of USD37.0 million from the facility has been set-aside for debt service obligations”, he said.
According to him, the documentation relating to this arrangement was supplied to Parliament and received approval.
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
