The Finance Minister, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, has revealed that Ghana saved an impressive $12 billion through the successful implementation of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).
Speaking during a panel discussion at the 2024 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group on October 23, Dr. Amin Adam stressed the significant impact of the DDEP on Ghana’s fiscal stability.
The panel, which focused on the challenges low-income countries face in managing debt, discussed how Ghana’s DDEP has helped address the nation’s financial struggles.
Dr. Amin Adam explained that the programme, introduced in December 2022, was designed to reduce the government’s debt service obligations, providing a much-needed fiscal relief in a challenging global economic environment.
He noted that the DDEP played a critical role in creating a more sustainable financial framework for the country.
The Karaga Member of Parliament also stated that by requiring domestic bondholders to exchange their existing bonds for new ones with adjusted terms, the programme helped lighten the government’s debt burden, making it more manageable.
The Finance Minister praised the programme as a key element of Ghana’s broader debt restructuring strategy, which has been instrumental in mitigating the nation’s economic challenges.
He also highlighted that the successful execution of the DDEP has set the stage for ongoing efforts to restructure the country’s debt.
Dr. Amin Adam further disclosed that the government is now working on restructuring about $2.7 billion in debt with its commercial creditors, a move aimed at further alleviating Ghana’s financial pressures and stabilizing the economy.
“The DDEP was a great success and we followed that with the restructuring of our bilateral debt, which was also very successful and this led to a significant savings of about $2.8 billion and then following this, the restructuring of our Eurobonds which is about $13 billion, which was concluded in the first week of this month which is another great success.”
“The benefits we have derived from this so far include an outright debt cancellation of about $5 billion and another debt service relief of about $4.3 billion and so between the bilateral creditors and the Eurobonds, we are talking about savings of about $12 billion and we think this is a great success and we are still having an outstanding restructuring with our commercial creditors involving about $2.7 billion and we are working very hard to conclude that,” he stated.
Source: Myjoyonline
