By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
Ghana has successfully reached a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with its Official Creditor Committee (OCC) regarding the debt treatment agreed upon in January 2024.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Finance explained that Ghana’s OCC, co-chaired by China and France, played pivotal roles in this achievement.
The MoU, according to the finance ministry, formalises the agreement in principle reached with Official Creditors in January and is a crucial step towards restoring Ghana’s long-term debt sustainability.
The financial terms of the agreement, it said, remain unchanged, thus providing significant debt service relief during the Fund-supported program period. This will allow financial resources to be directed towards critical areas such as infrastructure, healthcare, and education.
The formalisation of the OCC agreement is expected to pave the way for the IMF Executive Board’s approval of the second review of the Fund-supported Post Covid-19 Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG), enabling the disbursement of the next tranche of IMF financing amounting to US$360 million.
The IMF Board’s approval should also trigger additional financial assistance from development partners, particularly the World Bank.
The agreement will also strengthen ongoing discussions with private creditors, with whom Ghana remains committed to finding a comparable agreement as soon as possible.
Each official creditor will now follow its internal procedures to sign the MoU. Once signed, the agreed terms will be implemented through bilateral agreements with each OCC member.
“We call upon our official creditors to fast-track their internal processes towards the signing of the bilateral agreements.
Ghana continues to engage in good faith with all commercial external creditors, striving to finalize restructuring agreements that respect Ghana’s need for debt relief and the comparability
of treatment principle.
Ghana also reiterates its firm commitment to remain in arrears with its external commercial creditors until agreements compatible with the comparability of treatment principle are reached,” Minister for Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam mentioned in a statement issued by the Ministry.
“The Ministry of Finance on behalf of the Republic of Ghana extends our gratitude to all members of the OCC, particularly the committee’s co-chairs, China and France, for their unwavering commitment to assisting our country in resolving its debt issues.
This landmark agreement marks an extraordinary milestone in Ghana’s debt restructuring journey and will further strengthen our ambitious reform agenda with the strong support of our development
partners,” the statement concluded.
