Second DDEP, cocoa bills restructuring aims to secure sustainable debt levels - Osei-Asare

A Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei-Asare has said the recently launched Debt Exchange Programme for cocoa-related bills and the restructuring of the dollar-denominated domestic bonds is aimed at securing debt levels.

She noted that these measures, although painful, have become necessary to secure the country's debt levels as part of conditionalities contained in the approved IMF-supported programme for Ghana.

“We have taken this painful and difficult pathway because we know the alternative is simply unthinkable,” Osei-Asare said in her remarks at the 2023 Deloitte Economic Dialogue: Pre-Mid-Year Budget Discussion.

On July 14, 2023, the government through the Ministry of Finance invited eligible domestic dollar bondholders of approximately US$809 million to exchange their bonds and notes for new ones.

The invitation which is a sequel to the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) launched in December 2022, seeks to aid government in its objective of managing its public debt and bringing it to sustainable levels.

On that same day, the Ghana COCOBOD also extended an invitation to holders of its short-term debt securities (cocoa bills) to exchange approximately GH¢7.93 billion for longer-term debt securities.





MA/NOQ