Ofori-Atta hopeful China will grant Ghana financial assurances "in weeks"

The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, is optimistic that the country's biggest bilateral lender, China will grant it financial assurances "in weeks" to enable the government to move forward with its bailout request.

China, which holds $1.9 billion of Ghana's $5.5 billion bilateral debt, has been seen as a potential source of delay to the granting of financial assurances to the country, which is the only outstanding pre-condition to the final approval of the request by the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

But speaking to journalists at the ongoing IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington D.C., Mr Ofori-Atta said China has been more cooperative, with evidence showing that it will soon endorse the process.

He said the Asian giant has been attending all the meetings of the Paris Club and was now close to offering its financial assurance to the club to be forwarded to the IMF.

“They have joined all of the Paris Club meetings and we really expect them to offer these assurances to the Paris Club so that they will then forward them to the fund,” he said.

The assurances are a mix of debt cancellation, restructuring and commitment of further strategic lending, mainly to support productive sectors of the economy and investments that can lift the poor and vulnerable from the poverty line.

According to the minister, China has been very clear that Ghana was facing short-term problems and was confident in the long-term prospects of the economy.

This, he said informed their decision to offer the needed assurance to enable the country get the approval for its request.

“So I think we have actually enhanced the quality of our relationship and we look forward to working together in the coming days,” he added.