The successful implementation of the Domestic Debt Exchange Program (DDEP) saved Ghana an incredible $12 billion, according to Finance Minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam.
These comments were from Dr. Amin Adam at a panel discussion on Wednesday, October 23, which was part of the 2024 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
A major concern for many countries struggling with financial instability, the session’s focus was on the challenges low-income countries confront in managing their debt, which is made worse by external shocks and global economic concerns.
In order to address Ghana’s financial challenges and reduce its debt load, the Finance Minister underlined that the DDEP had been a crucial policy tool in establishing a more sustainable fiscal climate.
Dr. Amin Adam claims that the DDEP, which was introduced in December 2022, was a huge success and set the stage for more extensive debt restructuring initiatives.
He clarified that in order to lower the government’s debt service commitments, this initiative required domestic investors to swap their current bonds for new ones with alternative terms.
The Finance Minister also disclosed that the government is currently working to restructure about $2.7 billion with its commercial creditors.
“The DDEP was a great success and we followed that with the restructuring of our bilateral debt, which was also very successful and this led to a significant savings of about $2.8 billion and then following this, the restructuring of our Eurobonds which is about $13 billion, which was concluded in the first week of this month which is another great success.
“The benefits we have derived from this so far include an outright debt cancellation of about $5 billion and another debt service relief of about $4.3 billion and so between the bilateral creditors and the Eurobonds, we are talking about savings of about $12 billion and we think this is a great success and we are still having an outstanding restructuring with our commercial creditors involving about $2.7 billion and we are working very hard to conclude that.”
Source: Citinewsroom