The Ministry of Finance as a measure to ensure transparency, accountability and predictability of Government’s borrowings, has for the first time in the history of Ghana published an Annual Borrowing and Recovery Plan for 2019.
The Ministry has for the 2019 fiscal year set a ceiling on external non-concessional borrowing
The plan consists of the financing requirement of the 2019 budget, the strategy for financing under the Medium Term Debt-Management Strategy (MTDS) and the ceiling for non-concessional borrowing based on the latest Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA).
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Portions of a statement from Ministry of Finance read; “We do believe that the recent passage of Fiscal Responsibility law, as well as the newly constituted Fiscal Council and Financial Stability Council, will contribute to Ghana’s drive towards ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’.
This maiden Annual Borrowing and Recovery Plan, the first in the series, and in fulfilment of Section 60 of the PFM law, is one of the major initiatives to ensure responsible borrowing and transparency to the markets.
The Preparation of the plan benefited significantly from the contribution of the management of the Ministry, especially, the Hon. Deputy Minister responsible for Finance. The Chief Director of the Ministry, Director and Staff of newly created Treasury and Debt Division were instrumental in preparing the document and engaging major stakeholders on the contents of the plan.
The valuable contributions of the Controller and Account-General’s Department, Bank of Ghana and Technical Assistance from the IMF are also duly recognized.”
Meanwhile in a document titled, ‘2019 Annual Borrowing and Recovery Plan’ signed by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta disclosed that Government has set two ceilings for external non-concessional borrowings. The first ceiling is a maximum cap of $3.0 billion for the Sovereign bond Programme. This would cover the regular Eurobond issuance, century bond, green bond, Panda bonds, samurai bonds and any other bank loans or bridge financing arrangement. However, the second ceiling for external non-concessional loans for projects is $750 million
