Ghana’s Finance Minister, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, has revealed that the successful implementation of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) saved the country an estimated $12 billion.
Dr. Amin Adam 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 session, which focused on the debt management challenges faced by low-income countries, highlighted the significant financial strain many nations face due to economic uncertainties and external shocks.
The Finance Minister emphasized that the DDEP was a crucial policy intervention in addressing Ghana’s financial challenges, helping to reduce the country’s debt burden and create a more sustainable fiscal outlook.
According to Dr. Amin Adam, the DDEP, which was launched in December 2022, was a pivotal step in Ghana’s broader debt restructuring efforts. The programme involved domestic bondholders exchanging their existing bonds for new ones with revised terms, significantly reducing the government’s debt servicing obligations.
He also provided updates on the government’s efforts to restructure approximately $2.7 billion with commercial creditors.
“The DDEP was a great success, and we followed that with the restructuring of our bilateral debt, which was also very successful. This led to significant savings of about $2.8 billion. Following this, the restructuring of our Eurobonds, worth about $13 billion, was concluded in the first week of this month, which is another great success.”
He continued, “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. So, between the bilateral creditors and the Eurobonds, we are talking about savings of approximately $12 billion, and we believe this is a great achievement. We are still in the process of restructuring around $2.7 billion with our commercial creditors, and we are working diligently to conclude that.”
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