As part of efforts to address climate change, President John Dramani Mahama has advocated for the scaling up of green and blue bonds across the continent to finance environmental protection, clean energy, and sustainable agriculture.
Ghana is exploring these financing options alongside broadening the tax base, digitizing revenue collection, and enhancing domestic capital markets to reduce dependency on external borrowing, President Mahama stated in his remarks at the opening of the African Union Conference on Debt in Lomé, Togo.
The three-day meeting, convened by the African Union Commission’s Department for Economic Development, Tourism, Trade, Industry, and Minerals (ETTIM), is being held under the theme: “Africa’s Public Debt Management Agenda: Restoring and Safeguarding Debt Sustainability.”
The conference brings together AU Member States, policymakers, financial experts, and key stakeholders, including representatives from Ministries of Finance, African Central Banks, Regional Economic Communities, African Multilateral Financial Institutions, and Civil Society Organizations.
President Mahama emphasized that African leaders must acknowledge what is not working.
“And what is not working? First, the G20 Common Framework remains slow and creditor-driven,” he said.
The G20 Common Framework is a debt treatment initiative for Low-Income Countries (LICs) with unsustainable debt. It aims to provide a structured approach to debt restructuring by coordinating official creditors (including Paris Club members and others like China) to facilitate timely, orderly, and durable debt treatment, while ensuring fair burden-sharing between official and private creditors.
The President noted that of the five African countries that applied for the G20 Common Framework, only three had seen material progress under the initiative.
He further pointed out that vulture funds and aggressive litigation undermine good-faith restructuring efforts, and that Special Drawing Rights (SDR) reallocation remains far below the $100 billion target set for Africa.
“These issues demand multilateral reform, and Africa’s voice must be heard at the table,” he stated.
“Ghana is committed to rebuilding its fiscal buffers, strengthening institutions, and promoting inclusive growth,” President Mahama added.
He stressed, however, that fiscal consolidation must not come at the cost of social protection. Ghana’s strategy, he said, includes three key priorities:
Protecting investments in education, youth empowerment, and rural development.
Enhancing debt transparency through the establishment of an independent fiscal council.
Expanding the role of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund to attract private capital.
“Our goal is not just to reduce debt, but to transform our economy. Debt must not erode our dignity or delay our development. It must finance opportunity and lay the foundation for intergenerational progress,” he said.
Touching on the broader continental agenda, President Mahama called the Lomé conference a potential turning point — not only for Ghana but for Africa as a whole.
He announced his support for a common African position ahead of the 2025 G20 Summit to demand timely, fair, and transparent debt restructuring frameworks.
He also called for: Standardized debt transparency benchmarks across the African Union.
The integration of climate adaptation and sustainable development goals into national debt strategies.
Source: GNA
