Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana’s finance minister, is certain that Ghana would receive the IMF board’s blessing for a bailout by March of this year.
Ofori-Atta stated that in order to receive board approval from the International Monetary Fund, a debt profiling agreement from the Paris Club under the G20 Common Framework and a successful domestic debt exchange program are prerequisites (IMF).
“I’m confident that we’ll get approval for the IMF deal … we have a deadline of the end of February for the Paris Club.”
“So, we need to be able to do that and in between that we would have completed our Domestic Exchange Programme and, therefore, to be able to go to the [IMF] board in March for this to be executed,” Ofori-Atta told George Wiafe on the PM Express Business Edition on Joy News.
“T-bills are sacrosanct”
Meanwhile, Ofori-Atta has allayed fears that treasury bills will be affected by the government’s debt exchange program.
He said treasury bills will forever remain untouchable as far as the debt exchange program is concerned.
Ofori-Atta said the government has conducted a debt sustainability analysis which does not include T-bills.
“We can’t afford to touch it. Let me assure you, treasury bills will forever remain sacrosanct. Treasury bills are exempted completely.
“We have done the sustainability analysis. We are not including treasury bills. That is how government funds its operations,” he told George Wiafe on PM Express Business Edition on Joy News.
So far, the government has been meeting with various stakeholders to build consensus on the debt exchange program
“Building consensus is key to a successful economic recovery for Ghana. Pending further stakeholder engagement with institutional and individual investors, recently invited to join the debt exchange program, the government is extending the expiration of the DDE to 31 January 2023,” a tweet from the Office of the Finance Minister said.
Holders of individual bonds
Ofori-Atta met with the Individual Bondholders Forum (IBF) this week to discuss issues raised by members regarding the program.
To address the issues made by the IBF with reference to the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, the government has established a technical committee within the Ministry of Finance.
The IBF has stepped up its demands that the government excludes individual bondholders who participate in collective investment plans from the debt restructuring process altogether.
In December 2022, Ghana declared a domestic debt swap program and stated that external restructuring was being discussed with creditors.
The Domestic Debt Exchange Program’s registration deadline had previously been extended by the Finance Ministry from its original 19 December 2022 date to 30 December 2022 and then again to 16 January 2023.
The revised cutoff date is January 31, 2023.
