The government has successfully finalized a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with its Official Creditor Committee (OCC) concerning the debt treatment agreement established in January 2024.
Ghana’s OCC, co-chaired by China and France, played pivotal roles in this achievement. The MoU formalizes the agreement in principle reached with Official Creditors in January and is a crucial step towards restoring Ghana’s long-term debt sustainability.
The financial terms of the agreement remain unchanged, providing significant debt service relief during the Fund-supported program period. This will allow financial resources to be directed towards critical areas such as infrastructure, healthcare, and education.
The formalization of the OCC agreement is expected to pave the way for the IMF Executive Board’s approval of the second review of the Fund-supported Post Covid-19 Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG), enabling the disbursement of the next tranche of IMF financing amounting to US$360 million.
The IMF Board’s approval should also trigger additional financial assistance from development partners, particularly the World Bank.
The agreement will also strengthen ongoing discussions with private creditors, with whom Ghana remains committed to finding a comparable agreement as soon as possible.
Each official creditor will now follow its internal procedures to sign the MoU. Once signed, the agreed terms will be implemented through bilateral agreements with each OCC member.
The Ministry of Finance has called upon official creditors to expedite their internal processes towards the signing of the bilateral agreements.
Ghana continues to engage in good faith with all commercial external creditors, striving to finalize restructuring agreements that respect Ghana’s need for debt relief and the comparability of treatment principle.
Ghana also reiterates its firm commitment to remain in arrears with its external commercial creditors until agreements compatible with the comparability of treatment principle are reached, said the Minister for Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, in a statement issued by the Ministry.
The Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Republic of Ghana, extended gratitude to all members of the OCC, particularly the committee’s co-chairs, China and France, for their unwavering commitment to assisting the country in resolving its debt issues.
This landmark agreement marks an extraordinary milestone in Ghana’s debt restructuring journey and will further strengthen the country’s ambitious reform agenda with the strong support of development partners, the statement concluded.
