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BondsMedium•9 November 2026•
4 min read

Ghana Completes 16 of 25 Bilateral Agreements to Restructure External Debt

Key Facts

1Ghana had completed 16 of 25 bilateral agreements with official creditors as of November 9, 2026.
2Remaining non-bond commercial creditors account for less than 5% of the debt covered by the restructuring.
3Total IMF program disbursements reached about $3 billion after about $371 million was disbursed on July 27, 2026.
4The assessment of external and overall debt distress risks improved to "moderate," two years ahead of expectations.
5The debt anchor targets reducing debt to 45% of GDP by 2034.

Ghana has completed 16 of 25 bilateral agreements with official creditors, marking further progress in restructuring its external debt, according to a report by the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable cited by MyJoyOnline on November 9. The report said the process was "nearing completion," but the agreements concluded do not mean negotiations with all creditors have ended. The authorities are continuing talks with non-bond commercial creditors, who account for less than 5% of the debt covered by the restructuring. The remaining negotiations are therefore focused on this group, while the report did not set a date for their completion. Progress on the bilateral agreements follows the completion of Ghana's IMF program, while debt treatment remains in an implementation phase.

This progress is distinct from the financing program approved for Ghana: the IMF Executive Board completed the program's sixth and final review on July 27, 2026. The review enabled the disbursement of 265.9 million special drawing rights, equivalent to about $371 million. This brought total disbursements to the country under the arrangement to about $3 billion, according to the Fund. This milestone corrects the impression that the program agreement was still being pursued, as the final review had already been completed in July. The 25 bilateral agreements remain a separate track for addressing debt obligations with official creditors.

Completion of the program coincided with real GDP growth of 6% in 2025, accelerating to 6.4% year on year in the first quarter of 2026, according to IMF data. Headline inflation was 5.3% in June 2026, after reaching 5.4% at the end of 2025. The Fund said gross international reserves nearly doubled to $11.9 billion at the end of 2025, covering four months of imports. The current account also recorded a surplus equivalent to 7.9% of GDP in 2025, supported by gold prices that the Fund described as historically high. These indicators provide an economic backdrop to progress on debt treatment, without in themselves implying that agreements with creditors have been completed.

In its assessment of debt risks, the IMF said the risks of external debt distress and overall debt distress had improved to "moderate," two years ahead of the timeline expected when the program was approved. This assessment concerns the risk of debt distress and does not represent a confirmed change in Ghana's sovereign credit rating. The debt plan sets an anchor to reduce debt to 45% of GDP by 2034. That target is part of bilateral agreements implementing a broader debt treatment, rather than an outcome already achieved. The Finance Ministry said the agreement Ghana signed with Belgium in March was its eighth bilateral agreement with a country on the Official Creditor Committee.

The restructuring process had taken earlier steps before the current number of completed agreements was announced. In March 2026, Ghana signed its 11th bilateral agreement, with the Export-Import Bank of India, according to the Finance Ministry. Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson described the agreement as a step toward consolidating gains made under the broader program. The 2024 Public Debt Report said the memorandum of understanding with the Official Creditor Committee, reached in June 2024, covered about $5,173.9 million in official bilateral debt. The report estimated that the treatment would provide about $2,845 million in debt-service relief over the period of the IMF-supported program. All bilateral creditors completed signing the memorandum of understanding on January 28, 2025, after which negotiations on individual agreements began.

On market indicators, Ghana's 2026 budget said the 91-day Treasury bill rate fell from 28.04% in December 2024 to 10.67% in October 2025. The budget also said Eurobond prices had risen 17% year to date, while yields had fallen by more than 300 basis points over the period covered by the report. In the 2024 bond exchange, participation by eligible Eurobond holders reached 98.6%, and the nominal value of outstanding claims fell 37%, according to the Public Debt Report. Across the restructuring cases tracked by the forum, the Roundtable report said 22 new bilateral agreements had been signed since April 2026. It added that remaining negotiations in those cases, except for Ethiopia's pending bond exchange, involved remaining commercial creditors.

The Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable met in Bangkok on October 14, 2026, and reviewed efforts to improve debt restructuring processes and completion timelines, according to a World Bank statement. As for Ghana's next steps, the 2026 budget said negotiations with remaining commercial creditors were continuing. It said preliminary agreements with major lenders were considered consistent with the principle of comparability of treatment among creditors. The Finance Ministry said the memorandum of understanding with official creditors took effect on October 13, 2025, after the prior conditions for its entry into force had been met. Commercial negotiations and the remaining bilateral agreements remain part of the debt-treatment process, while the government debt target is 45% of GDP by 2034.