By Ebi Kesiena
Three senior Ghanaian officials said on Wednesday that the International Monetary Fund’s executive board has approved a $3 billion, three-year extended credit facility for Ghana.
As the West African country tries to overcome its worst economic crisis in a generation, two other sources familiar with the process said the IMF agreement marked an important step forward for Ghana, but cautioned that authorities in the West African country still faced a long road of negotiations and work with its creditors.
Ghana faces a debt overhaul after its already strained finances buckled under the economic fallout from COVID-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ghana’s official sector creditors formed a committee co-chaired by China and France and agreed to debt restructuring talks, the Paris Club said last week. This paved the way for a sign-off on the IMF loan, which was agreed at staff level in December.
It is negotiating its international debt rework under the Group of 20’s Common Framework platform and completed a domestic debt exchange earlier this year.
Some $5.4 billion of debt to official creditors has been earmarked for restructuring, according to government data, as well as $14.6 billion of debt to private overseas creditors.
