Government has announced it will resume payment of coupons for old bonds by March 13, 2023.
The statement issued by the Ministry of Finance in Accra said in fulfillment of the assurance given by government to bond holders who did not tender, the Ministry was taking administrative steps to ensure that payments of coupons and principals of the old bonds resumes by March, 13, 2023.
The Ministry hailed the positive rating by S&P Global Ratings on Ghana’s local-currency debt as indicative of how successful the domestic debt exchange has been.
The statement which was to update local debt holders on the DDEP referred to the latest rating by the S&P Global Ratings Agency issued last February 24, 2023 and said, “ S&P Global Ratings raised Ghana’s local currency sovereign credit ratings from selective default (SD) to ‘CCC+/C’. This acknowledges the completion of the DDEP with a successful delivery of new securities to bondholders. In doing so, the selective default is substantially cured.”
Ghana’s local credit score was raised to CCC+ from SD — or selective default — by S&P after new domestic debt securities were delivered to creditors, according to the statement.
The Ministry noted that the newly issued bonds had been settled and listed and “will become the new benchmark bonds for the fixed income market. The Ministry of Finance will work with relevant stakeholders, as agreed, to ensure that these new benchmark securities become the basis for deepening the domestic sovereign bond market.”
According to the statement, the success chalked in the DDEP was further expected to accelerate the engagement with government’s external creditors.
“The Government of Ghana also takes this opportunity to assure our external creditors of their equal importance to the Republic of Ghana. We will, therefore, continue to work together to advance the progress of our external debt treatment, in order to ensure Ghana’s long-term macroeconomic stability,” the statement concluded.
