By The Finance Minister, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, has revealed that the successful implementation of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) has saved Ghana an impressive $12 billion.
Dr. Amin Adam made this statement during a panel discussion at the 2024 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group, which took place on Wednesday, October 23.
The session addressed the challenges faced by low-income countries in managing debt, a critical issue for many nations struggling with financial instability amid global economic uncertainties and other external shocks.
The Finance Minister highlighted that the DDEP has been a crucial policy measure in tackling Ghana’s financial challenges and reducing its debt burden, fostering a more sustainable fiscal environment.
Dr. Amin Adam stated that the DDEP, launched in December 2022, was a significant success that paved the way for broader debt restructuring efforts.
He explained that the program required domestic bondholders to exchange their existing bonds for new ones with revised terms, a vital step aimed at reducing the government’s debt service obligations.
The Finance Minister also revealed that the government is currently working to restructure approximately $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.”
