The Ghanaian government is organizing a procedure to temporize its European debt, for the sixth time in a year. The government of Nana Akufo-Addo launches a fundraiser.
Ghana issued $ 3 billion in European debt in 2020, after five takeovers by co-arrangers, the sum reached $ 14 billion according to Bloomberg.
The Ghanaian Ministry of Finance announced on March 9 a new operation on the international financial markets to be able to complete its 2021 budget, which is in deficit at more than 8% according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
For this new rearrangement of the national debt, mainly due to Europe, Ghana intends to raise $ 5 billion. Finance Minister Ofori-Atta, following a tour of the United States, will launch a series of meetings on Tuesday in an attempt to attract investors.
The new deal will be led by US and Ghanaian financial groups. "One of the main mandates of the banks is to advise the government on various alternative financing structures and options, in particular for the euro-bond, which would best meet the financing needs of Ghana," said the Minister of Finance.
Stormy relations between Ghana and the IMF
Ghana was indebted last year in order to carry out a large-scale government development program, which explains the particular appetite of investors for Ghanaian bonds.
Despite extraordinary inflation - public debt has more than quadrupled and weighs heavily on Ghana's GDP today - the Ghanaian government is trying to stay upright in its boots, regularly accusing the IMF interference.
Ghana had quit the IMF aid program in 2019, President Nana Akufo-Addo having, during his presidential campaign in 2017, explained that “Ghana is beyond charity”.
However, the Ghanaian public debt, which represented a 4,7% deficit for 67% of constraint on the GDP in 2018, has already exceeded 8% at the end of the quarter of 2021.
Nevertheless, the country has not yielded to international pressure, in particular from the European Central Bank, the French public treasury, the IMF and the UN. Ghana preferred to go into debt with its American, British, Israeli and more recently Australian private creditors, rather than to join forces with the rest of the countries of the Economic Community of West African States.
However, if the latest IMF ranking is to be believed, the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union, and French-speaking African countries in general, are doing better than Ghana, Mozambique, Angola, Zambia and the five other countries that have become indebted to the United States or China.