Ken Ofori-Atta to beg for Debt Cancellation in China

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta will in the coming days head to the People’s Republic of China to plead for debt cancellation from Beijing. The government is seeking debt relief as part of a raft of measures to save the economy and as such has started formal talks with Ghana’s external debtors. According to Ken Ofori-Atta, negotiations with China are important because China holds the majority of Ghana’s external bonds. He is expected to lead a top delegation to China to plead for debt cancellation. “The big elephant in the room is China, we will be visiting China by the end of the week to really discuss how they come into the envelope as quickly as possible. So we are looking at that support from them. China represents about a third of the $5.7 billion loan and so it is important that we engage them,” he said. Ghana is currently in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to secure a USD3Billion Bailout to help the government balance the economy in order to be able to access the Bond Market. Last month, the IMF said it is working towards a debt cancellation programme for Ghana and other countries amid a global economic recession scare this year.