Ghana’s Finance Minister leads a delegation to begin Eurobond roadshow

The government delegation comprises a team from the Ministry of Finance and officials from the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

The bond, when raised, will cater for infrastructure development in the 2019 budget as well as retire some maturing debt.

According to the Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta, he is hopeful the issue of the Eurobond and the Cocoa syndicated loan will help stabilize the cedi from further depreciating.

Mr. Ofori-Atta told Accra-based Citi FM that various measures have been put in place to ensure the cedi stabilizes soon.

“I think we are at a good place and as I mentioned. We are looking for not only stability but a reversal. So the Central Bank has that money, and COCOBOD also concluded its 300 million facility and so that’s nearly a billion, the Eurobond roadshow is going well. We expect a reversal and stability.”

Officials from the Finance Ministry have stated that the government will use 2 billion of the expected Eurobond fund to support government infrastructure budget in the 2019 expenditure pattern of the country.

Meanwhile, the remaining one billion is expected to be used to clear maturing debts owed by the government.

Speaking on strategies to improve revenue collection and also stabilize the cedi Mr Ofori-Atta said that plans are in place to ensure that Ghana’s ports are very competitive to bridge the high importation of goods.

“We are going to have a comprehensive review very soon of all of our port charges and statutory charges there to make sure that we are the most efficient port and most competitive so we don’t import any inflation from outside.”