The ministry of finance in Ghana has revealed that after a meeting with the minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, the country is expected to secure financing assurances “very soon”.

A source revealed that the minister met Chinese officials on Wednesday to discuss a proposed restructuring of Ghana’s debt.

According to China’s commerce ministry, the discussion centered on strengthening bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

Ken Ofori-Atta said on Twitter, “So far had very positive and encouraging meetings in China! Looking forward to securing external assurances very soon, even as we pass our outstanding domestic revenue bills back home. Great progress and all fronts.”

Ghana has been struggling with its worst economic crisis in a generation and secured a staff-level agreement with the IMF in December for a $3 billion loan. Still, approval is contingent on it restructuring its debt of 575.7 billion cedis ($47.6 billion).

The West African country agreed on a staff-level agreement through the International Monetary Fund in December for a $3 billion loan but must first ask bilateral lenders to provide financing assurances on existing debts before the IMF board can sign off on the programme.

China is Ghana’s biggest bilateral creditor with about $1.7 billion of debt and the Chinese delegation visited Ghana this month for initial debt talks which the finance ministry said were “cordial and fruitful.”

A recent survey released in South Africa shows that consumer confidence plunged to its lowest level since 1994 in the first quarter as the effect of continued power outages.

The survey revealed that the consumer confidence index, sponsored by the First National Bank (FNB) and compiled by the Bureau for Economic Research, slumped to a reading of minus 23 points, from minus 8 points in the fourth quarter of 2022.

FNB chief economist Mamello Matikinca-Ngweny, said “the alarming increase in power outages since December and the concomitant deterioration in South Africa’s economic prospects no doubt rocked consumer sentiment during the first quarter.”

The development is indicative of extreme concerns among consumers about South Africa’s economic prospects and their household finances, according to the survey.

There are concerns that the South African Reserve Bank would hike interest rates by 25 bps at its meeting next week as headline inflation rose slightly in February to 7% from 6.9% in the prior month, data showed on Wednesday,

The country lately has had challenges with its electricity supply which has forced struggling state power company, Eskom to announce the previous series of power rotation arrangements.

Eskom has implemented scheduled electricity outages every day in 2023, with most households and businesses without power for up to 10 hours a day.