Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Baah Forson has ruled out compensation for investors who lost money under the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), citing no legal or contractual basis for reimbursement.
Speaking at a joint press briefing in Accra to mark the completion of Ghana’s US$3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) Extended Credit Facility (ECF), Forson said no agreement signed with bondholders during the 2022 and 2023 restructuring created a state liability to make affected parties whole.
He described the 2022 crisis as “very traumatic for the Ghanaian people,” but argued that the law is silent on reimbursement and that the State carries no enforceable obligation on the haircuts taken by corporate, retail, and pension investors.
The minister inherited a public debt stock that had ballooned to US$63 billion, equivalent to roughly 88 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the close of 2022. The DDEP that followed restructured about GH¢137 billion in domestic bonds with more than 95 per cent participation, while the Bank of Ghana (BoG) absorbed losses to keep the financial system upright.
The pain delivered results on paper. Public debt has since fallen to 56.6 per cent of GDP by the end of 2024, the country booked a 1.7 per cent primary surplus, the BoG rebuilt reserves to US$6.7 billion, and inflation eased to 3.4 per cent in April 2026 from a crisis peak of 54.1 per cent.
With the financing facility now closed, Forson pivoted to the next phase. He announced a flagship initiative, the New Economy programme, targeting sectors with strong job creation potential and backed by three years of non financial technical assistance from the IMF under a successor arrangement.
IMF Mission Chief for Ghana, Ruben Atoyan, defended the restructuring as a necessary trigger for stabilisation. He credited the exercise with opening fiscal room for growth and urged authorities to harden discipline by building buffers from the gold windfall and ringfencing risks from State Owned Enterprises (SOEs).
Atoyan said the new Policy Coordination Instrument (PCI) replacing the ECF would lean heavily on safeguards against contingent liabilities and quasi fiscal risks, the very channels through which Ghana’s debt burden previously crept beyond manageable levels.
