Source: newsthemegh.com
A Ghanaian delegation led by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has been meeting with the nation’s foreign creditors to press them to grant the country quick debt relief so it can obtain the second tranche of the $3 billion IMF loan.
The gatherings are taking place concurrently with the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Marrakech, Morocco.
Last week, the government and the IMF came to a staff-level agreement that will allow the IMF executive board to assess Ghana’s program.
Ghana would immediately be granted access to the second tranche of US$600 million of the US$3 billion awarded by the fund to help the country’s economic recovery program upon receiving board approval.
“We’ve been doing our side meetings with external creditors in line with our programmes with the fund. Generally, the meetings are going smoothly,” Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, told Nana Oye Ankrah of Asaase 99.5 Accra.
Ghana’s overall debt, which needs to be restructured, is US$29.9 billion, or 41% of the entire amount owed to foreign creditors.
“We are exchanging and validating data and the possible contours of the external debt programme, and we are hopeful that it will end well,” said Oppong Nkrumah.
In the meanwhile, the IMF expressed confidence that Ghana’s creditors would grant favorable debt reliefs.