Ghana hopes to finish by Friday reviewing a draft term sheet on debt relief from its official creditors to restructure $5.4 billion of debt, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
An agreement between Ghana and its official creditors including China and France would pave the way for the IMF Executive Board to approve the disbursement of $600 million under its $3 billion bailout programme.
Citing Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, Bloomberg reported that “in terms of the broad framework, all part ies are in agreement,” which he said would allow the IMF to sign off on the money for Ghana.
A Ministry of Finance spokesperson did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
“Discussions between Ghana and the official creditor committee are ongoing, good progress is being made and we’re confident that an agreement can be reached soon so that we can rapidly bring the program to our board,” IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack told reporters during a press briefing.
“I don’t have anything to add,” she said, when asked if the draft term sheet would be suffici ent for the board to approve the next loan tranche.
The West African nation defaulted on most of its external debt in December 2022 and needs to secure restructuring deals with official creditors, international bondholders and other commercial lenders, to successfully implement the IMF loan deal and emerge from its worst economic crisis in a generation.