{"id":1261455,"date":"2022-12-04T15:33:44","date_gmt":"2022-12-04T15:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/12\/04\/ghanas-dreaded-debt-restructuring-programme-will-be-announced-monday-ato-forson\/"},"modified":"2022-12-04T15:33:44","modified_gmt":"2022-12-04T15:33:44","slug":"ghanas-dreaded-debt-restructuring-programme-will-be-announced-monday-ato-forson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/12\/04\/ghanas-dreaded-debt-restructuring-programme-will-be-announced-monday-ato-forson\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghana&#8217;s dreaded debt restructuring programme will be announced Monday &#8211; Ato Forson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"612\" height=\"284\"  alt=\"\" title=\"Ato and ofori atta\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Ato-and-ofori-atta.png\" data- class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image lazyload\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"612\" height=\"284\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Ato-and-ofori-atta.png\"   alt=\"\" title=\"Ato and ofori atta\"\/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ato Forson (left) and the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Member of Parliament for Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam, Cassiel Ato Forosn has said that the government is going to announce what he believes is debt restructuring tomorrow Monday December 5.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He described the yet-to-be announced programme as \u201cdreaded.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am hearing the announcement of Ghana\u2019s dreaded Debt restructuring programme will be made tomorrow! Never again should Ghana allow such reckless fiscal behaviour occasioning a massive debt accumulation over 6yrs! God save us all,\u201d he tweeted on Sunday December 4.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"533\" height=\"505\"  src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Ato-300x284.png\" data- class=\"alignnone wp-image-273111 lazyload\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-273111\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Ato-300x284.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"533\" height=\"505\"  \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>Earlier, the Former Deputy Finance Minister said that the government\u2019s debt exchange programme as captured in the 2023 budget statement was actually debt restructuring that was being embarked on.<\/p>\n<p>In the budget statement, the\u00a0Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta\u00a0said on Thursday November 24 that \u201cdespite the heightened debt levels, Government remains committed to ensuring that debt is brought to sustainable levels over the medium to long-term.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Folks,<br \/>I am hearing the announcement of Ghana&#8217;s dreaded Debt restructuring programme will be made tomorrow! <\/p>\n<p>Never again should Ghana allow such reckless fiscal behaviour occasioning a massive debt accumulation over 6yrs! <\/p>\n<p>God save us all!<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Cassiel Ato Forson(PhD) (@Cassielforson) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Cassielforson\/status\/1599366606232358912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 4, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cTo this end, we will implement a debt exchange programme to address the challenges identified in the portfolio in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders including the Ghanaian public, investor community and development partners.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on this , Mr Ato Forosn who is also a former Deputy Finance Minister said \u201cGovernment of Ghana has finally announced a Debt restructuring programme as part of the 2023 budget! The Ghanaian public, investor community and development partners must get ready for a crude HAIRCUT!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is recalled that analyst\u00a0including Former Finance Minister Mr Seth Terkper had ealier indicated that debt restructuring in Ghana was unavoidable given the spending that have been engaged in by the government over the period.<\/p>\n<p>Ghana commenced discussions with domestic bondholders on a restructuring of its local-currency or cedi debt as part of plan to secure at least $3 billion loan from the\u00a0International Monetary Fund\u00a0(IMF)<\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg reported that the nation\u2019s largest debt investors including local banks and pension funds are preparing to engage in discussion on debt reorganization that could entail extension of maturities and haircuts on principal and interest payments, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak publicly.<\/p>\n<p>The restructuring was to be part of a debt-sustainability plan required by the IMF, would include part of the $19 billion Ghana has in outstanding local debt.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 with Alfred Ocansey, Monday September 26, Mr Terkper said \u201cDebt restructuring at this point is inevitable because if you are having difficulties paying your bills \u2026you have to be smart with your borrowing otherwise, the debts keep increasing. The alarming part of it which we have not highlighted very much is the intervention of Bank of Ghana.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRemember we moved from Zero financing in 2016 to Bank of Ghana coming to the aide of government, gradually and reaching a peak of 10billion Cedis which is 1.7bn US dollars more than the Covid loan that we took and the World Bank and other injections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana\u00a0 commenced discussions with the IMF for an IMF-supported programme.<\/p>\n<p>A key prerequisite for a programme was confirmation that Ghana\u2019s debt was on a sustainable path.<\/p>\n<p>That required a comprehensive Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA), which is currently ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>A statement issued by the Finance Ministry on Monday September 26 said the Government of Ghana was putting together a comprehensive post Covid-19 economic programme to form the basis for the IMF negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe programme seeks to establish a macro-fiscal path that ensures debt sustainability and macroeconomic stability underpinned by key structural reforms and social protection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGovernment negotiations with respect to the IMF-supported programme is commencing this week and we are optimistic about making progress in our discussions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGovernment remains committed, and shall continue to actively engage all stakeholders, both public and private, in a clear and transparent manner as we seek to fast-track this process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ato Forson (left) and the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta Member of Parliament for Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam, Cassiel Ato Forosn has said that the government is going to announce what he believes is debt restructuring tomorrow Monday December 5. He described the yet-to-be announced programme as \u201cdreaded.\u201d \u201cI am hearing the announcement of Ghana\u2019s dreaded Debt restructuring programme [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1261456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[3521,4072,1580,29576,4073,250,3605,2631,11160],"class_list":{"0":"post-1261455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-announced","9":"tag-ato","10":"tag-debt","11":"tag-dreaded","12":"tag-forson","13":"tag-ghanas","14":"tag-monday","15":"tag-programme","16":"tag-restructuring"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1261455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1261455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1261455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1261455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}