President Nana Akufo-Addo on Friday urged Germany to “encourage” China, an ad hoc member of the Paris Club, to support Ghana’s debt restructuring efforts.
He said the Paris Club quickly created, with the participation of other official creditors, a committee of creditors, to support efforts that would allow Ghana to restore economic growth.
The President made the call when visiting German Finance Minister, Christian Lindner called on him at Jubilee House, Accra.
Linden, who was the head of the delegation from his country, held bilateral talks with the President with the aim of improving relations and economic ties between the countries.
President Akufo-Addo told the Minister that the main concern for the government is to conclude negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), especially at the Level Board and seal the agreement with the Bretton Woods institution in mid-March this year.
“Our main concern now is the arrangement we are finalizing with the IMF…
“Our target is that by mid-March, we should be before the Council for a full agreement. We have taken important steps to finalize the staff-level agreement with the IMF and now we are going to finalize the agreement. We hope that it will be completed by mid-March.
“One of the steps towards the program is the domestic debt exchange program, which, unfortunately, we had difficulties with, but now we have completed it,” he said.
However, President Akufo-Addo emphasized, that there is an urgent need for other creditors to support the government’s efforts to restructure the country’s external and domestic debt, so that the IMF deal can be implemented as soon as possible.
“Now we have a relationship with the Paris Club and a general framework, and we are looking for a committee of creditors quickly, so we will have a body that can participate in these discussions quickly. .
“We have good relations with China. We want you to encourage China to participate in the program as soon as possible…One very important consideration for us is the financial stability fund that has been promised as one of the main results of the negotiations and of course again, your voice in trying to make it something that we will appreciate very much,” President Akufo-Addo told Finance Minister Lindner.
The President praised the German government for extending its support to Ghana so that it can overcome its current economic difficulties.
He said the German government has proven to be a reliable ally and that Ghana will continue to count the European country as a “privileged partner” as the country seeks assurances from the IMF.
The IMF last December reached a Staff Level Agreement on a $3 billion, three-year Extended Credit Facility with Ghana to ease its debt woes. The package agreement is subject to Ghana comprehensively restructuring its domestic and external debt.
The President in further discussions with the German delegation praised the German government for supporting peace efforts in the West African region.
He is deeply concerned about the spillover of terrorism from the Sahel region and the instability caused by cross-border terrorism in West Africa.
Currently, there are about 4,000 Burkinabe citizens taking refuge in Ghana following terrorist and suspected militant attacks in Burkina Faso.
“We are directly in the line of fire. Burkina Faso is our neighbor to the north and we have a jihadist threat there, which is very real, I think in the last six weeks about 4,000 young people from Burkina Faso have come to seek refuge here in Ghana and people- the person who is the refugee center can count officially.
“And usually, in this matter, you have to add another third of the number that entered, it is not counted, so we are talking about many people who have come to the south because of the difficulties in Burkina Faso to Ghana.
“So we have an immediate strategic interest in doing whatever we can to stop this insurgency and help stabilize the government in Burkina Faso and in that exercise you have been very useful and helped us,” he said.
For his part, Mr. Lindner said that the German government would do anything to support West African issues.
“We know that stability and security in this African region is important for our security in Europe and we see economic challenges in Ghana but opportunities for bilateral trade and that is why we are here,” he said.
Source: GNA
| Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not reflect Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no legal or other responsibility for the accuracy of the content. Please report inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a priority. |
Featured Videos