Ghana’s Finance Minister Says Global Investors Are Unfair to Africa
After helping to secure a debt freeze, a former banker says deeper reforms are needed.
KEN OFORI-ATTA, 61, worked at Morgan Stanley and Salomon Brothers before returning in 1990 to Ghana, where he helped found Databank Group, a leading West African investment banking and fund management company. In 2017 he became Ghana’s minister for finance and economic planning, focusing on cutting the country’s budget deficit to below 5% of gross domestic product and exiting an International Monetary Fund bailout program in April 2019. Then the pandemic dealt a blow to GDP growth, which had exceeded 6% for three straight years. The government redirected its energies toward keeping its people healthy and safe. Ofori-Atta has played a leading role in helping to negotiate a debt standstill for African countries. He spoke with Bloomberg Markets in early July about Ghana’s fiscal challenges, inequities he sees in the global financial infrastructure, and his reaction to the global racial justice movement sparked by the killing of George Floyd in the U.S.
EKOW DONTOH: What are the main challenges that Ghana is facing amid the Covid-19 pandemic?