Afreximbank tells investors Ghana up to date on loans, risking creditors' ire
Afreximbank has signalled that Ghana has kept up loan repayments to it, two sources told Reuters, potentially setting Accra on a collision course with its other lenders that have already agreed to take losses to help the country recover from default.
The African lender, the sources said, told investors on a May 15 call that Ghana and Malawi — which is also undergoing a debt restructuring — were "up to date" with their loan facilities, suggesting neither country had run up arrears.
While Ghana's restructuring of $13bn (R232.29bn) worth of international bonds and debts to official creditors concluded last year, it must also restructure its commercial debt before it can fully emerge from default.
Afreximbank says it is a multilateral institution which, like the IMF and the World Bank, is exempt from taking losses when countries default.
But sources told Reuters last month that the Paris Club group of official lenders has made it clear that Ghana, and also Zambia which similarly agreed a deal with its primary creditors last year, must restructure their debts to Afreximbank and the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB).
In a letter seen by Reuters from Ghana's finance ministry to Afreximbank, dated May 21, the government requested the bank to begin debt treatment discussions.
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