Finance Minister Amin Adam has been impressive so far — Franklin Cudjoe

IMANI Africa Founding President Franklin Cudjoe has commended Finance Minister Mohammed Amin Adam for his impressive handling of Ghana's recent debt restructuring negotiations.

In a Facebook post on Monday, July 1, Mr. Cudjoe wondered why Dr. Amin Adam had not been appointed to the role earlier.

"Why was Mohammed Amin Adam not made a minister of finance much earlier? He's been impressive so far with the conclusion of the debt restructuring with some good savings in principal and interest,” read part of his post.

However, Mr. Cudjoe said the Minister's "real test begins with how he can ward off the vampires at the centre from sucking the soul out of nearly $500m (IMF+WB) money for infrastructure in this election year."

The policy advisor urged Dr. Amin Adam to be vigilant against "economic bandits" seeking to profit from public funds ahead of the elections on December 7.

Mr. Cudjoe added "Any attempt to yield to those highway 'gbaga midus' will mean avoidable costs in poor procurement processes and eventually poor delivery of services, roads especially."

He wants the Finance Minister to avoid being "remembered as the last fiscally reckless finance minister of the Nana Addo- Bawumia clan."

The comments come after Ghana completed three major debt restructuring operations: domestic debt restructuring, external bilateral debt restructuring, and commercial bondholders debt restructuring.

“These agreements have provided much-needed breathing space and put our domestic debt-to-GDP ratio on a clear downward trend,” President Akufo-Addo said while speaking about it on Monday, June 24.

“The successful negotiations mean that bondholders will provide $4.4 billion in cash flow relief during the IMF Programme, in addition to the cancellation of $4.7 billion of the debt stock,” added the President.

The President highlighted the significance of the domestic debt restructuring, which achieved a high participation rate of almost 95%.

Coupon rates were reduced from 21% to 9% on average, and maturities were extended, easing the near-term local debt service burden that previously consumed more than 40% of the country’s tax revenues.

This restructuring has set the domestic debt-to-GDP ratio on a path to reach 55% by the end of 2028.