Ghana Finance Minister off to China to negotiate debt as Buhari’s debt hits N44tn
The Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, is currently in China for bilateral talks on debt restructuring and financing.
This is as in December 2022, media reports say as of September 30, 2022, Nigeria’s total debt stock rose to N44.06 trillion as against N42.84 trillion recorded on June 30, the DMO stated.
However, there is no plan to visit China for any form of debt negotiation by the outgoing government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Recall that by September 2022, the bilateral debt profile rose with Nigeria owing China $4.09bn. It also owed France $526.48m, Japan $57.11m, Germany $153.06m, and India $27.17m.
The Ghanaian delegation includes other government officials as well as technical teams from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Ghana News Agency (GNA) reports that members of the delegation will meet with representatives of the Chinese Government and counterparts from the Chinese Ministry of Finance.
Mr Ofori-Atta’s visit is seen as a crucial step towards securing IMF board approval for the country’s economic programme.
The delegation will update the Chinese Government on Ghana’s ongoing debt restructuring process, with negotiations towards a sovereign debt treatment scheduled to continue from where they started with the Chinese Government Delegation that visited Accra in early March.
