The Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) have constituted a five-member consultative committee to act as the liaison between the two state agencies and the financial services industry in developing a debt management strategy that meets the expectations of the government and private sector investors.
The work of the committee is also expected to ensure “orderliness and confidence in the government’s ongoing negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” a statement issued by the Finance Ministry on Tuesday (October 11, 2022) said.
It said the committee would be chaired by a former Chief Executive Officer of the Ecobank Group, Albert Essien, and has the former Managing Director of GCB Bank Plc, Simon Dornoo, as the Vice Chairman.
The press statement, which was issued by the Public Affairs Department of the Ministry of Finance added that other members were Alex Asiedu, Mabel Nyarkoa Porbley, and Peter Enti.
It said the committee will be consultative and will, among other things, lead discussions with the financial services industry and other stakeholders to provide industry-wide inputs and transmit industry concerns on debt management strategy to the Ministry of Finance and BoG.
“The expectations and goals are to ensure orderliness and confidence in the government’s ongoing negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” the statement said.
Background
The statement explained that the formation of the committee followed the Press Briefing held by the Ministry of Finance on September 26, 2022, in which the Finance Minister announced plans to constitute a committee that would collate the views and concerns of the financial services sector in developing a debt strategy.
The statement said following from that, ministry and the central bank constituted the committee “consisting of prominent financial services professionals to lead extensive stakeholder engagements across all the key segments of the financial sector.”
External sector
“As announced during the ministry’s press briefing, a similar engagement will be undertaken with our external bondholders.
“The stability of the domestic financial ecosystem is critical to a successful IMF-supported economic programme and the government will take all necessary steps to protect the sector as we have done in the past.
“We need the support and trust of all Ghanaians to ensure that a historic arrangement is reached with the IMF.
“We are confident that such engagement and collaboration will enable us to recover very quickly and strongly from our current macroeconomic challenges,” it said.
