Ceditalk has learned that Ghana’s Government is taking steps to begin its debt exchange programme with Eurobond creditors by next week to conclude its debt restructuring with both domestic and external creditors. This was made known in an interview with Bloomberg News by Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance, Abena Osei Asare on Thursday. She indicated that the process of inviting investors to swap their existing securities for new ones will last 10 working days.

Ghana reached an agreement in principle with its creditors in June to restructure about $13 billion of Eurobonds. Under the programme, the investors will be presented with two options: the first which would carry a 37% haircut with two new bonds maturing in July 2029 and 2035 carrying interest rates of 5% from this year through July 2028; stepped up to 6% thereafter. The second option on the other hand presents a 1.5% interest rate on new bonds maturing in January 2037 without haircut.

Ghana begun restructuring its debt as a condition precedent for a $3 billion International Monetary Fund programme in December 2022. The country however completed its domestic debt exchange in 2023, and in May this year received a memorandum of understanding from its bilateral creditors formalising the $5.4 billion agreement reached in January.