The Finance Minister, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, has disclosed that the successful implementation of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) saved Ghana a staggering $12 billion.
Dr. Amin Adam made these remarks during a panel discussion held as part of the 2024 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group, which took place on Wednesday, October 23.
The session focused on the difficulties faced by low-income countries in managing debt, a pressing issue for many nations grappling with financial instability, compounded by global economic uncertainties and other external shocks.
The Finance Minister emphasised that the DDEP had been an instrumental policy measure in addressing Ghana’s financial difficulties and alleviating its debt load, creating a more sustainable fiscal environment.
According to Dr. Amin Adam, the DDEP, launched in December 2022, was a monumental success that laid the groundwork for broader debt restructuring efforts.
He explained that this programme required domestic bondholders to exchange their existing bonds for new ones with different terms, a critical move aimed at reducing the government’s debt service obligations.
The Finance Minister also disclosed that the government is currently working to restructure about $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.”