The Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Ghana Industries, Seth Twum Akwaboah, has noted that the country's current debt situation has necessitated the need for restructuring.
According to him, the situation has left Ghanaians with no choice but to partake in the programme.
He said if this is a requirement to achieve an IMF deal, then it is important that Ghanaians complied.
“We’ve reached a point where we don’t have a choice. So I think that it is generally believed and accepted that the IMF intervention is very critical for us at this stage and it’s also a conditionality by the IMF that for you to access its funds at this particular moment you have to look at your [debt levels] ….they did a debt sustainability analysis and obviously the signs were there that our debt level is not sustainable,” he is quoted by myjoyonline.com.
He continued, “And the debt has both foreign and domestic components and they’re asking that you restructure the debts. So it looks like we don’t have a choice because if you don’t do the restructuring then you cannot access the IMF funds, and if the IMF’s intervention doesn’t come in it will have dire consequences on the economy, macro level and micro level and all that. So I think at this particular moment, there’s absolutely no doubt about it; we need to go ahead and do it. How you do it is the critical thing.”
He however expressed optimism that the government may achieve its 80% target for participation.
“The good thing is that we’ve seen the key stakeholders in this, the banks, the insurance companies and some institutions cooperating with the government and signing on to be part of it. So that is good, it means we’re making progress. And as you said we have about 70% so far…so let’s see what happens in the coming days,” he said.
Meanwhile, the deadline for signing on to the debt exchange programme is February 10, 2023, as the government expects more bondholders to sign on.
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Seth Twum Akwaboah is CEO of AGI