Ghana’s Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, is confident his country will soon conclude the process for a restructuring deal with its official creditors by the end of next week.

The “cut-off date”—the date after which new loans will not be restructured—and the comparability of treatment between creditors were the major outstanding issues, Ofori-Atta told reporters, adding that any cut-off date would be fine for Ghana.

The minister stated that no single creditor, with a committee co-chaired by France and China, was impeding the debt restructuring because they were all worried about protecting their own interests. To receive approval from the executive board of the International Monetary Fund for the next $600 million payout from a $3 billion rescue loan, Ghana must come to a restructuring agreement with its official creditors.

“I hope that by the end of next week, we’ll have what we need,” Ofori-Atta said. “One of the key issues is the cut-off date and ensuring that treatment is comparable.”

“We can manage either way. So the issue is (for) the membership of the OCC to get comfortable with how it impacts them,” Ofori-Atta said when asked if there was a date that Ghana preferred.

“Everybody is looking at the comparability of treatment, and China and France are certainly the (official creditor committee) co-chairs, so they have a good impact on what will happen.”

Ghana, one of the first African nations to default on its foreign debt, is a major producer of cocoa, gold, and oil, but it has also been experiencing the worst economic downturn in a generation, with double-digit inflation and skyrocketing public debt.

Protests against the government were held last month in Accra due to worries about the nation’s economic situation.

Ghana defaulted on most of its external debts in December 2022 after it was locked out of international capital markets; and its debt costs spiralled out of control, exacerbating an economic crisis in which its currency slid and inflation soared.

The official creditors, who hold about $5.4 billion of Ghana’s $20 billion external debt that is being restructured, were considering dates in March 2020 and December 2022, Reuters reported in September.

While Dec. 31, 2022 is close to when Ghana defaulted, March 24, 2020 was being considered as a cut-off date because that was when the G20 introduced its debt service suspension initiative (DSSI) to help the world’s poorest countries cope with the fallout of the COVID-19 crisis, two sources said at the time. Ghana did not participate in the DSSI.

Ghana is restructuring its debt under the G20 Common Framework platform, which has been criticised for delays and divisions between creditors groups. Zambia’s process was derailed earlier this month when its official creditors rejected a deal the country reached with international bondholders.

Ghana owes about $13 billion to overseas bondholders. Good discussions were ongoing with them, Ofori-Atta said.