Ghana’s public creditors are scheduled to meet this Monday, January 8, according to information from Reuters. Objective: to discuss the restructuring of the approximately 5.4 billion loans that Accra has contracted with them. An important renegotiation for the country.
1 min
Ghana needs this restructuring to receive from the International Monetary Fund a second tranche of the $3 billion in aid promised last May.
According to sources cited by Reuters, donors are expected to discuss the timetable this Monday. They must in fact agree on a “ deadline », the one after which the new loans will not be restructured. This date has become a stumbling block in the discussions. Some creditors would be in favor of a restructuring of the debt contracted before December 31, 2022. It was that month that Ghana defaulted. Others would prefer March 24, 2020, the date the G20 kicked off its debt service suspension initiative. But Ghana did not participate in this mechanism intended to give a boost to the poorest countries at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In any case, this is only a portion of the debt weighing on Accra. Bilateral creditors hold about a quarter of Ghana’s twenty billion dollars of external debt eligible for restructuring. Last October, BNP Paribas considered the renegotiation with private players more uncertain.