Ghana To Beg China For $1.7B Debt Cancellation 

As part of Ghana’s debt restructuring programme, the government has disclosed it will be pleading for a debt cancellation with China- the country’s largest bilateral creditor- Citi News reports.

China is Ghana’s single biggest bilateral creditor with $1.7 billion of debt according to the Institute of International Finance (IIF).

The move follows a successful Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) which saw over 80% participation to restructure GHc137 billion of the country’s domestic debt.

Addressing Parliament last week on the DDEP, Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta said the government has already approached international creditors over the debt restructuring programme.

He said the Paris Club creditors and non-Paris Club creditors have been asked to form a committee for the debt restructuring process.

In furtherance of that, Citinews reports the Minister for Finance will be leading a delegation to China at the end of this week to plead for debt cancellation.

“The big elephant in the room is China, we will be visiting China by the end of the week to really discuss how they come into the envelope as quickly as possible. So we are looking at that support from them. China represents about a third of the $5.7 billion loan and so it is important that we engage them”, Citi News quoted Ofori Atta.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini