APA – Accra (Ghana)
The German Ambassador to Ghana, Daniel Krull has advised businesses with strong ties to China to use their relationship to encourage and convince the Asian country to sit with other bilateral creditors to agree on a package to help the West African nation out of its current economic crisis.
The Graphic quotes Ambassador Krull as saying “Time is of the essence. Time is running out. Without an agreement by Ghana’s bilateral creditors, the IMFs package will be difficult,”.
Mr. Krull made the call when he interacted with selected journalists in Accra on Sunday on the outcome of the visit of a number of German delegations to Ghana in the past few weeks.
The delegations, which visited Ghana separately, included teams led by the Minister for Development Corporation, Director General of International Labour Organisation, Minister of Finance, and Legal Committee of the German Parliament, who interacted with their counterparts in Ghana’s Parliament and representatives of some government state institutions.
The German Ambassador also called on Members of Parliament (MPs) who were engaged with China to also encourage the country to sit with Ghana’s bilateral creditors to finalize arrangements to help Ghana to return to economic growth.
China is Ghana’s largest bilateral creditor but Mr. Krull said: “It is so far not fully supporting the setting up of the creditors’ committee where all the creditors will sit down and agree on a package for Ghana.”
Ghana was owing about $13 billion in Eurobonds and $4 billion in bilateral loans in September 2022, according to the International Institute of Finance in a publication on February 4, 2023.
Out of Ghana’s total debt, it estimated that the country owed China about $1.7 billion and the other bilateral creditors were likely to take a deal based on what the Chinese would receive.
GIK/APA