*Nation may refinance $1.5 billion of existing dollar debt
*Finance ministry to present a plan to lawmakers for approval
14 March 2018, Accra —Ghana raised its target for the sale of Eurobonds to as much as $2.5 billion, of which the country wants to use more than half to pay existing debt, said Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.
The West African nation will use $1 billion to help meet its 2018 budget and may issue another $1.5 billion to refinance dollar debt, should it be able to sell the bonds at a cheaper rate, Ofori-Atta said by phone on Wednesday. Ghana may also issue as much as 500 million cedis ($113 million) in global depositary notes to increase the participation of foreigners in its weekly sale of local notes, he said.
“We will examine the trading pattern of the issues that we have, and if we get better pricing, we’ll ship some out,” Ofori-Atta said.
The ministry will table the plan to lawmakers on Wednesday, according to a copy of parliament’s order paper. Ofori-Atta said in February that Ghana may issue as much as $2 billion in foreign debt.
Ghana will join other sub-Saharan African issuers such as Ivory Coast and South Africa that are rushing to sell debt before the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy-tightening path pushes yields higher. Last week, Senegal attracted more than $10 billion in bids for an issuance of about $2.2 billion in dollars and euro-denominated debt.
*Moses Mozart Dzawu & Ekow Dontoh – Bloomberg
