The government has rejected claims that the country has been declared as a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC).

There have been some media reports this week suggesting Ghana has been declared a HIPC country.

But speaking at the Nation Building Updates on Tuesday, October 27, 2020, Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said the reports are false.

He insists that such reports are a deliberate attempt to discredit the work the Akufo-Addo government has done since assuming office in 2017 to revive the ailing Ghanaian economy it inherited from the National Democratic Congress.

“We (government) categorically say that it is not true that Ghana has been declared HIPC or have been added to a list of HIPC countries. The highly indebted poor countries initiative or the HIPC Initiative was a particular programme that was rolled out by international organisations like the World Bank, the IMF and the Donor partners in 2001.”

“It was a programme limited to a particular point in time in which Ghana and other countries applied for, benefited from it and exited and was done with. Currently, there is no HIPC programme ongoing for any country to apply for.”

“So if anybody is spreading and adding to it a narrative that Ghana is now a HIPC and has been listed on an IMF or World Bank publication as such, we want to encourage all Ghanaians and the media to be circumspect and be aware that it is not true. It is a false narrative.”

He said there is evidence for all to see that Ghana’s economy is doing very well under the Akufo-Addo government.

“Indeed the evidence is that the Ghanaian economy has seen a significant recovery from 2017 to 2019 under the leadership of the Akufo-Addo administration.”

When was Ghana declared HIPC?
In February 2002, the Executive Boards of the IMF and the IDA agreed to support a comprehensive debt-reduction package for Ghana under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative.

At that time, a set of floating triggers was agreed for Ghana to reach the completion point under the Initiative.

Source: Citinewsroom.com