Ghana To Reach HIPC Completion Point This Year - Osafo-Maafo

Ghana expects to reach HIPC Completion Point (CP) this year when she would have attained the triggers for floating CP, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister for Finance, said while presenting the Government's 2004 Budget to Parliament yesterday.

He said some of the triggers for the CP are the preparation and satisfactory implementation of the GPRS for at least a year and the continued maintenance of macroeconomic stability. "These we have met by the satisfactory implementation of the PRGF supported programme. Other benchmarks include an increase in female primary gross enrolment ratios to 74 per cent," he added.

The Minister said by March, this year, Ghana would have implemented the GPRS for one full year after the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) approved it in April 2003. "It is, therefore, expected that by the end of the first quarter our floating CP benchmarks will be assessed.” At Completion Point, our bilateral creditors, including the G-7 countries are expected to provide debt stock cancellation amounting to about 1.5 billion dollars and other commercial creditors will also be expected to give a comparable treatment.

"Multilateral creditors, which are currently providing interim relief are the International Development Association (IDA), African Development Bank Group, International Monetary Fund, (IMF) and the European Development Fund (EDF) and recently the European Investment Bank (EIB). "They are expected to continue to provide debt service reduction until they fully deliver their various shares of the debt relief, the Minister said.

He said Ghana's other multilateral creditors, including the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), BADEA, Nordic Development Fund (NDF) would be expected to begin to provide relief while the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had indicated that they were willing to provide 'back-to-back transaction' (i.e. providing another loan, with terms soft enough to account for their share of relief in net present value (NPV) terms at completion point).