Africa

Ghana reached an agreement in principle with private creditors to restructure about $13 billion of debt, a key milestone in the West African country’s efforts to overhaul its loans. The nation’s bonds rallied, Bloomberg News reported. Under terms of an accord announced on Monday, investors accepted nominal losses of 37% on their holdings, according to a statement issued by the advisers to an international creditor committee and the government..

Ghana and its bondholders will restart talks next week to hash out a debt restructuring deal on $13 billion of international bonds, four sources told Reuters, on the heels of a deal finalised with official creditors earlier this week, Reuters reported. Ghana, a gold and cocoa producer, defaulted on most of its $30 billion in external debt in 2022, weighed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and rapid global interest rate hikes that boosted borrowing costs.

Zambia has finally ended nearly four years of default on its dollar bonds, issuing two series of restructured notes that were the product of intense negotiations, Bloomberg News reported. The southern Africa nation became the first in Africa to renege on its obligations during the pandemic in November 2020, setting the stage for what would become a complex restructuring fraught with setbacks.

Ghana reached a deal with creditors formalizing debt treatment plans agreed in January, opening the the way for the disbursement of aid from the International Monetary Fund, the finance ministry said Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported. “The financial terms of the agreement remain unchanged,” the ministry said in a statement.

Zambia is set to receive an extra $388 million from the International Monetary Fund as soon as this month to help the southern African nation deal with its worst drought in at least four decades, Bloomberg News reported. The Washington, D.C.-based lender’s staff reached a deal with the government on the third review of an existing $1.3 billion economic program, as well as a request to augment it to about $1.7 billion, the IMF said in an emailed statement Tuesday.

A Nigerian court has adjourned a tax evasion case against Binance to next month for possible arraignment of the cryptocurrency exchange and two of its executives after a trial stalled on Wednesday, the judge said, Reuters reported. The matter stalled because authorities failed to bring Tigran Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and Binance head of financial crime compliance, to court. No reason was given for Gambaryan's absence in court. On Friday, an Abuja court ruled that Gambaryan could stand trial in the tax evasion case on behalf of Binance.

A Nigerian court on Friday ruled that Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan can stand trial on behalf of the cryptocurrency exchange in an ongoing tax evasion case, Reuters reported. Binance and executives Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and head of financial crimes compliance, and British-Kenyan national Nadeem Anjarwalla, a regional manager for Africa, face four counts of tax evasion. In a separate case, they have also been charged with laundering more than $35 million and engaging in specialised financial activities without a licence.

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday said that discussions with Zambia over the third review of its loan package were focused on the impact of its drought and "difficult financing conditions," Reuters reported. The staff level agreement would unlock the next tranche of money from Zambia's $1.3 billion three-year loan. The country is in the midst of a punishing drought that has impacted and is also in the final stages of reworking its debt after a 2020 default. Read more.

Talks between the International Monetary Fund and Ethiopia around a new loan and reform package have "made substantial progress", but are ongoing, an IMF spokesperson said on Thursday, Reuters reported. "We have made substantial progress towards establishing how the IMF can support the authorities' economic programme, and we will continue to work closely with the authorities in these virtual discussions," the IMF's Julie Kozack said during a press briefing.

Ghana has started a market for trading short-term debt, a platform that builds on the fixed income market created more than eight years ago, and comes as the country restructures debt to make it sustainable under an International Monetary Fund program, Bloomberg News reported. The market for selling and buying of commercial paper provides the avenue for companies and organizations seeking to issue debt within the shortest possible time frame to do so and for investors to find enhanced credit worthiness, Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange Abena Amoah, said in the capital, Accra.