Debt cancellation: Government postpones visit to China

The government has postponed its high-level delegation visit to China this week over talks for a possible debt cancellation, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has said.

The government secured a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in December for a US$3 billion loan, but the money’s approval is contingent on it restructuring its debt of GHC467.4 billion (US$39 billion).

Ghana owed about US$13 billion in Eurobonds and US$4 billion in bilateral loans in September 2022, of which US$1.7 billion is owed to China, according to the International Institute of Finance.

Ofori-Atta said the postponement is as a result of the upcoming meeting of the National People’s Congress of China scheduled for early March.

Speaking at a bilateral meeting at the Ministry for Finance with the German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Svenja Schulz, Ofori-Atta said the talks with China will now be held later next month.

The ministers discussed among other things, the role that the KfW played in the post-World War II revitalisation of the German economy, and the need to deploy a similar mechanism using the newly established Development Bank Ghana as a catalyst for Ghana’s economic recovery.