By Edzorna Francis Mensah
The Finance Ministry will not service any debt to its official creditors from 2023 to 2026 following the successful completion of the Debt Restructuring programme with the Official Creditor Committee (OCC), covering US$5.1 billion dollars resulting in approximately 2.8 billion US Dollars of debt relief.
According to the Sector Minister, they have also concluded negotiations with their Eurobond holders, covering 13.1 billion US Dollars, which will lead to a cancellation of 4.7 billion US Dollars of the debt and provide debt service relief of 4.4 billion US Dollars between the same period, (2023 and 2026).
The Finance Minister, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam also told parliament that, “we have successfully concluded the second review of the Extended Credit Facility with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which led to the disbursement of the 3rd tranche of 360 million US Dollars, bringing total disbursement to about US$1.6 billion”.
He announces “we have concluded our negotiations with five (5) of the seven (7) Independent Power Producers, which will lead to a saving of some of US$6.6 US Billion over the lifetime of the Purchasing Power Agreements (PPAs);
We have reined in expenditures to ensure we are within 2024 Budget Appropriation and exceeded the midyear revenue target by 0.2 percent by end-June, 2024”.
The Minister who was quite happy with the figures said, “Speaker, it is evident that we are on the right trajectory” and “the economy is rebounding stronger than anticipated”.
He said the choices and policies they have made and are implementing and are yielding results as he again announced “we have reversed the negative trends; all the indicators are looking better. I want to assure you that we will stay on this path and continue to make the right choices. Our economic recovery is fast and strong”.
The new Minister over the last six months, have sought to bring some urgency and speed to the implementation of key government programmes and also swiftly provided the necessary support for growth-enhancing initiatives including major reforms of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), especially those in the Energy and Cocoa sectors, to be fiscally prudent and reduce their risk on the budget.
