Month: September 2024

Economic Development

• 19 Sep 2024

Strange “Strategic Advisor” pops up in Ghana’s Eurobond default saga

The government needs 95%+ of Eurobond investors to sign up to the restructuring Word on the street is that a few days to the “early consent deadline” of 20th September, Ghana’s Finance Ministry and their Eurobond restructuring advisors started to get jittery. They didn’t like the rate of signups. As...

International Political Economy

• 19 Sep 2024

International Comedian threatens to sue Ghana over Eurobond default

The government of Ghana is halfway through a process to convince holders of Ghana’s $13.1 billion of Eurobonds to return them in exchange for new versions that will pay them substantially less. Such erosion of wealth is always a solemn affair but there is no law that stops a comedian...

Macroeconomic Governance

• 15 Sep 2024

Ghana’s biggest lender is not who you think

Is it China? Ghana’s debt crisis naturally shone the spotlight on the country’s biggest creditors. At one point, China, as the country’s largest bilateral (country-to-country) creditor was seen as a potential stumbling block. But as a proportion of Ghana’s total debt, or even foreign debt, China’s ~$1.7 billion or so...

Political Economy

• 13 Sep 2024

Government of Ghana goes on a secret borrowing binge

Ghana has been hard up of late Except for those who have been living under a rock, everyone knows that Ghana, once an African poster child of the Eurobond markets, hit a rocky patch in 2021-2022, defaulted on its international debt in late 2022, followed that up with a painful...

Entrepreneurship Theory

• 9 Sep 2024

“Making money with your brain is hard in Ghana”, one company’s efforts to disprove this

Intravenous Infusions’ CEO praises Ghana Stock Exchange A few days ago, it was reported in the Ghanaian business press that the CEO of biopharma firm, Intravenous Infusions, has profusely praised the Ghana Stock Exchange for its role in helping the company to “double its capacity and sustained profitability”. Seeing as...

Political Governance

• 7 Sep 2024

Why Ghana’s “galamsey” fight has become a waste of time

The last few weeks has witnessed another mass outcry over the menace of “galamsey” in Ghana. Galamsey is a catchall word used to describe “illegal mining”, usually for gold. Ordinarily, it should mean “mining without a license”, but in Ghana several individuals, groups, and companies purporting to have small-scale or...

Political Economy

• 4 Sep 2024

Strange Matters at GIPC, Ghana’s Investment Promoter

Some readers may have noted recent exchanges between Ghana’s lead investment promotion agency, GIPC, and myself in recent days. I posted on social media that the agency has seen a drastic decline in its service fee income from private investors and is now trying to push the government to pick...