Ghana bilateral lenders in talks to form official creditor committee

Ghana’s bi­lateral lenders are discussing the formation of an official creditor committee, a first step needed to engage in debt relief talks for the country, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

The Paris Club of creditor nations has contacted other bilateral creditors, such as China and India, to engage in forming the committee and deciding who would chair it, one of the sources said.

“Hopefully, it should be resolved soon,” a second source added, without providing further details on the timing.

Ghana in January became the fourth nation to apply to the common framework platform, an initiative of the Group of 20 ma­jor economies launched in 2020 to streamline debt restructuring efforts for poorer countries.

China is Ghana’s single biggest bilateral creditor with $1.7 billion of debt, while Ghana owes $1.9 billion to Paris Club members, ac­cording to data from the Institute of International Finance (IIF).

Chinese lending represents around 80 per cent of non-Paris Club debts. The country’s total external debt is $28.4 billion.

The government decided to restructure its domestic debt in December, and after five exten­sions, it announced on Tuesday that they have received support from 80 per cent of creditors.

Also, the largest holders of Ghana’s overseas debt formed a creditor group in December for debt rework talks with the government.