IMF deal: Gov’t will be more aggressive with external creditors – Finance Minister

The Finance Minister, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, has indicated that the government will be more aggressive in its negotiations with Ghana’s external creditors to reach a favourable agreement that will not affect the debt sustainability target under the ongoing International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) extended credit facility programme.

The West African nation needs to secure an actual memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the country’s debtors to secure IMF board approval of its third review under the IMF external credit facility programme.

Ghana is expected to receive about US$3 billion in balance of payment support under the programme. So far, Ghana has received two tranches amounting to US$1.2 billion.

Moreover, the IMF review committee has concluded its two-week-long assessment of Ghana’s programme and recommendations will be submitted to the board of the global lender.

Despite achieving significant success in the review process, one key requirement is for Ghana to secure an agreement with its international bondholders.

“As I said, the negotiations are ongoing and over the last two months, we will be more aggressive in our negotiations with the commercial creditors and the euro bondholders,” said Finance Minister Dr. Amin Adam.

“We are very confident that if things go the way they are, we certainly will be getting a deal at some point but what is significant is that in all these negotiations, we are mindful about the fiscal target, we are mindful about the debt sustainability target,” he added.

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“We do not want to reach a deal which falls outside the programme targets for debt sustainability. This is guiding all the negotiations that we are doing with our bondholders.”

He further noted that the government will soon provide updates on the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that it signed with the external creditors, which is expected to end on Monday.

$360m IMF 3rd tranche at risk following reports of Ghana’s inability to reach deal with int’l bondholders – Joe Jackson

“The NDA we have signed with the bondholders is supposed to expire somewhere on Monday and we will provide an update on the progress we have made, the working formula we have, and our determination to continue to negotiate to the level where we can have a deal that is acceptable to all,” said the Finance Minister.

According to the Minister, this is to ensure that the “deal does not deviate from the IMF programme target for debt sustainability.”

Meanwhile, a financial analyst, Joe Jackson, has underscored that Ghana risks not receiving the $360 million 3rd tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) following reports that the country has been unable to reach a debt agreement with its external bondholders.

According to a Reuters report, Ghana has failed to strike a deal with two bondholder groups to restructure some $13 billion of international bonds.

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