Ghana extends deadline for domestic debt swap programme to Jan 31

The Ghanaian government has extended the deadline for its domestic debt exchange programme to January 31, 2023.

Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana’s finance minister, disclosed this in a Twitter post on Monday.

This would be the third time the deadline is being extended.

On December 5, 2022, the government asked domestic bondholders to exchange their instruments for new ones.

It had explained that the existing domestic bonds would be exchanged for a set of four new bonds maturing between 2027 and 2037, with the hope that the programme would help the government restore macroeconomic stability.

But the deadline for the debt swap, which was initially fixed for December 19, was later extended to December 30 and then to January 16.

In Ofori-Atta’s tweet on Monday, he said the extension was to allow the government to build consensus while engaging with stakeholders and investors.

Building consensus is key to a successful economic recovery for Ghana. Pending further stakeholder engagement with institutional and individual investors, recently invited to join the debt exchange programme, government is extending the expiration of the DDE to Jan 31, 2023.

— Office of the Finance Minister-Ghana (@oofmghana) January 16, 2023

“Building consensus is key to a successful economic recovery for Ghana,” he said.

“Pending further stakeholder engagement with institutional and individual investors recently invited to join the debt exchange programme, government is extending the expiration of the DDE (domestic debt exchange) to January 31, 2023.”

Last year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it was helping Ghana to restore its macroeconomic stability.

This was after Ghana, one of West Africa’s largest economies, approached IMF for support in July, after street protests hit the country over spiralling inflation, currency depreciation, and other economic woes.

On December 13, 2022, IMF and Ghana reached a staff-level agreement for a three-year loan package of $3 billion, after the country “announced a comprehensive debt restructuring”.