2023-05-12 20:30:00
NEGOTIATIONS. After obtaining support from bilateral creditors led by China and France, Ghana is opening the way to an IMF loan of 3 billion dollars.
Par Africa Point
© NIPAH DENNIS / AFP
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LGhana, which is going through a serious economic crisis, has provided sufficient guarantees for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to approve an aid plan in its favor, the Washington-based financial institution announced in a statement on Friday.
Weakened in particular by the repercussions of the war in Ukraine, Ghana had resolved to appeal to the IMF and had concluded in December with the institution a preliminary agreement to obtain 3 billion dollars in loans spread over three years and conditional on the implementation of economic reforms.
However, the country had to provide guarantees to the IMF on the sustainability of its debt in order to move on to the final stage, namely the examination of the aid plan by the Fund’s board of directors with a view to formal approval.
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A country on the verge of bankruptcy
In its statement on Friday, the IMF ruled that the conditions were now met, welcoming the recent promise made by Ghana’s creditor countries, led by France and China, to open negotiations for a restructuring of its debt. “The members of the creditors’ committee have undertaken to negotiate with the Republic of Ghana (on) the terms of a restructuring of their claims,” the Paris Club said.
This commitment “provides the necessary financing guarantees for the IMF board of directors to consider” approving the aid plan, said the Fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, quoted in the press release.
A major producer of cocoa and gold, Ghana also has gas and oil reserves, but its debt burden has exploded, as in other sub-Saharan African countries, under the impact of the Covid pandemic. -19 and the Ukrainian conflict. This crisis, the most serious that the country has known for decades, forced President Nana Akufo-Addo to reconsider his past positions by turning to the IMF, in order to ward off the specter of a payment default evoked by some economists.
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