Ghana will aim to issue a Eurobond of as much as $1 billion by the end of June, bringing forward the timing of the issuance which had been scheduled for the second half of the year, the head of the parliamentary finance committee said on Monday.
In an apparent about-face, the government has also decided not to pursue a bridge finance loan that would have been worth up to $1 billion, James Avedzi, head of the parliamentary finance committee, told Reuters.
The government said in a memo to Parliament in March it had started talks over the loan with a consortium including Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Belstar Capital and hoped to complete it before July.
"The government has rescinded its decision. It is not going for the bridge loan," Avedzi said.
"We will proceed with the Eurobond which Parliament has already approved and so the Ministry of Finance has started the process, hoping that by June they will go to the market," he said.
There was no immediate comment from the finance ministry.
The International Monetary Fund agreed a deal with Ghana this month for $918 million to stabilise an economy that faces high levels of public debt, a currency that has fallen sharply, a stubborn budget deficit and inflation that recently rose as high as 17%.
Ghana was for years one of Africa's fastest growing economies through its exports of gold, cocoa and oil but gross domestic product growth is forecast for 3.9% this year, lower than the average for sub-Saharan Africa.
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