Defend the interest of Ghana in deal negotiations with bondholders – IMF boss tells Finance Minister
Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, has told the Finance Minister, Mohammed Amin Adm to defend the interests of the country in his negotiations with external bondholders.
She advised the Finance Minister to reach a better deal with bondholders asserting failure to do so risks prolonging the country’s debt situation.
Making the assertion during a courtesy call to President Akufo Addo, Ms Georgieva quipped the Government must ensure that the country is not shortchanged in all of its negotiations with creditors.
“We need to complete negotiations with private creditors and Eurobond bond creditors but completely defending the interest of the country. I heard a bit of discussion, but the sooner we do it the better for the country. The sooner we do a great deal the better for the country.
“To do a deal that would reverse progress is not going to be good for the country. You cannot allow the Eurobond creditors to twist your arm because you have done a very painful domestic debt restructuring that has hurt people here. You have agreed to debt principle with official creditors of Ghana under certain conditions”, she posited.
Speaking further, she warned of a fair deal with the Eurobond holders to avoid the Zambia situation where the official creditors disagreed with the restructuring terms with the commercial creditors.
“The deal with the Eurobonds has to be a fair deal otherwise we risk seeing what happened in Zambia. In October 2023, I thought the deal was done then the private sector twisted Zambia’s arm and then tried to give them a better deal than the official creditors.”
“So that is my reflection, a critical time close to the top. But we still need to do a bit of climbing”, she remarked.
