According to second deputy speaker Andrew Asiamah Amoako, the parliament reconvened after a break to evaluate the excise tax stamp and approve concessional loans worth $710 million. A bill to reform the method for allocating school trust money was put off while the house also adopted guidelines for the automated transmission of financial account information, he added.
This report is courtesy of Bloomberg, an American news publication.
Ghana is awaiting the outcome of a formal creditor committee’s assessment regarding its debt relief request. The West African country is in the midst of restructuring virtually all of its debt, which stood at 576 billion cedis at the end of November. If funding assurances are received favorably, the IMF’s board will be able to authorize a $3 billion loan for the country.
However, Ghana is already making efforts to increase its tax base and move it from being among the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the finance ministry, the nation’s tax-to-GDP ratio in 2022 was less than 13%, which was lower than the sub-regional average of 18%.
Additionally, according to Business Day, a Nigerian business news publication, the decision by Ghana to restructure the majority of its estimated 576 billion cedis ($49 billion) in public debt is placing pressure on banks from the UK to Nigeria.
The West African nation traded bonds that returned as little as 8.35% for notes that paid an average of 87.8 billion cedis, causing losses for financial institutions.
The financial losses suffered by certain Nigerian banks as a result of Ghana’s failure to repay its debts highlight the importance of country risks faced by international lenders and, more crucially, the contributions made by Nigeria’s financial institutions to the development of Africa.
Since many Nigerian banks have subsidiaries throughout Africa, they have contributed significantly to the continent’s economic development over the past 20 years. Some have experienced financial setbacks and continue to face numerous obstacles as they grow across the continent, but as is frequently said, Africa must be developed by Africans.
