The German Ambassador to Ghana, Daniel Krull, has indicated that if the request for debt cancellation with China fails, Ghana’s application for an IMF bailout will suffer.
He told journalists that China has so far rejected attempts by Ghanaian officials to persuade them to commit to the formation of a creditors’ committee in order to reach an agreement on a debt package.
President Akufo-Addo had asked Germany to “encourage” China, an ad hoc member of the Paris Club, to help Ghana with debt restructuring.
During a meeting with visiting German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, Ghana’s President asked Germany to support Ghana’s request.
A Ghanaian delegation was scheduled to travel to China to meet with Chinese creditors about the situation.
The planned high-level meeting with Chinese creditors over Ghana’s debt restructuring, however, has been pushed back to late March 2023.
The postponement was caused by the upcoming National People’s Congress of China, which is set to take place in early March.
The German Ambassador said “We are prepared to live up to our responsibility as one of the major bilateral creditors to Ghana, but we are only ready to implement our solidarity only if certain criteria are met. In this first place, it has to be done in an internationally coordinated fashion, and therefore we have the G20 common framework. The G20 has agreed on how to deal with these kinds of crises, and we feel that it is important that this framework is respected.
“The second condition is that we are ready to take our part when others are ready to do that so all major creditors must be ready to help Ghana. The Big elephant in the room is China. China is the largest creditor to Ghana and so far [China] is not supportive of setting up of a creditors’ committee, where the creditors will sit down and agree on an aid package for Ghana.”
“The President and the Finance Ministers have appealed to Germany to support Ghana in convincing China to come to the table, and we are ready to do that but at the same time, I want to appeal to all Ghanaians who have strong ties to China, who are doing nice business with China to also engage them and convince them that it is time to sit down with all the creditors and agree on a package. Time is of the essence. Without this agreement, the IMF package is in severe danger.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
