Finance Minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam has announced that Ghana’s successful implementation of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) has resulted in an impressive savings of $12 billion. He shared these insights during a panel discussion at the 2024 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group on Wednesday, October 23.
The panel focused on the challenges low-income countries face in managing debt, a pressing concern for many nations dealing with financial instability exacerbated by global economic uncertainties and external shocks.
Dr. Amin Adam highlighted that the DDEP has been a crucial policy measure in tackling Ghana’s financial challenges and reducing its debt burden, contributing to a more sustainable fiscal landscape.
Launched in December 2022, the DDEP required domestic bondholders to exchange their existing bonds for new ones with adjusted terms, a strategic move aimed at lowering the government’s debt service obligations.
The Finance Minister further revealed that the government is currently in the process of restructuring approximately $2.7 billion with its commercial creditors.
“The DDEP was a tremendous success, which we followed up with the restructuring of our bilateral debt, yielding an additional $2.8 billion in savings. Furthermore, we recently completed the restructuring of our Eurobonds, totaling about $13 billion, in the first week of this month, marking another significant achievement,” he stated.
Dr. Amin Adam detailed the benefits accrued from these efforts, including an outright debt cancellation of around $5 billion and debt service relief of about $4.3 billion. Collectively, the savings from bilateral creditors and Eurobonds amount to approximately $12 billion. He affirmed that the government is diligently working on the outstanding restructuring with commercial creditors, involving around $2.7 billion, and is committed to concluding this process efficiently.
