Ofori-Atta heads to China for crucial debt restructuring talks

Ofori-Atta’s trip to Beijing is hinged on efforts to secure a deal for restructuring of Ghana’s bilateral debts with the Asian economic powerhouse.

Even though Ghana is seeking a US$3 billion facility from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the need to restructure both domestic and external debts has been given as a key conditionality.

China is a key player relative to Ghana’s external debtors, holding about $1.7 billion of Ghana’s $5.5 billion bilateral debt.

According to the Ghana Business News portal, the specialised nature of their lending windows means that Ghana cannot add them to the model used to negotiate with the G20 and the Paris Club members.

Talks with China were originally slated for mid-February but they were postponed to late March 2023.

Ofori-Atta, has however met with representatives of the Chinese government and its quasi-agencies in Accra since the postponement was announced.

Despite securing an IMF Staff-Level Agreement last year, government is undertaking external restructuring of its debts in order to get a Board Level approval later this month.

The first two months of 2023 saw a heated domestic debt restructuring programme adopted under the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).

Meanwhile, the Minority in Parliament insist that government’s plans to get the IMF Board approval by end of March will likely not materialize.