Otumfuo Devises Way To Get Ghana’s External Creditors To Accept Debt Restructuring

The Monarch of the Asante Kingdom, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has come up with a way to get the country’s international creditors to accept the External Debt Restructuring Programme.

According to the King, there is only one best way and that is to make use of the country’s genius irrespective of their political affiliation and differences to carve out the proposal.

“As we move to negotiate with our external creditors, I urge government to bring together the best brains with the requisite expertise from all political perspectives to present the finest proposal so that whatever the country chooses will be everyone’s responsibility”, he recommended.

He is of the strong opinion that the current state of the country should be a wake-up call for all.

“The interest of the country must be paramount. We must all work together to prevent the collapse of the economy”, he stated.

This comes as the country moves to negotiate an external debt restructuring programme after a “successful” Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) as a condition for a US$3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Addressing Parliament on the DDEP in February, Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta disclosed the government has already approached international creditors including the Paris Club creditors and non-Paris Club creditors to form a committee for the debt restructuring process.

But at the end of February, German Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Daniel Krull said Ghana risks losing out on the IMF bailout should China refuse the planned debt restructuring.

He revealed that China was not supportive of setting up a creditors’ committee where the creditors will sit down and agree on an aid package for Ghana.

At the moment, China is Ghana’s single biggest bilateral creditor with US$1.9 billion debt.

Meanwhile, Asantehene has urged the government to channel the meagre resources of the country into productive sectors.

“The current economic difficulty should be a wake up call to us to carefully review our economy and implement some significant adjustments. The moment has come for us to reduce wasteful spending and direct resources towards economically productive areas in order to improve the quality of life of our people.”

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini