Celebrating a “pillar of peace”: Kufuor hails Asantehene for facilitating $4bn debt cancellation, Ghana’s exit from HIPC

The timely intervention of Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II ensured Ghana’s exit from the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative in record time, leading to debt relief of approximately $4 billion from the country’s external creditors, the former president John Agyekum Kufuor has revealed.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group’s International Development Association (IDA) agreed on 22 and 26 February 2002, respectively, to support a comprehensive debt reduction package for Ghana under the enhanced HIPC initiative.

But, according to the former president, Ghana would have lost out on the full benefits of the HIPC programme, had Otumfuo not made a critical last-minute intervention.

Challenge

The IMF decided to prolong the country’s exit for a year, which could have had grave consequences.

Speaking as a delegation from the E ON 3 Group and its key partners presented the Otumfuo Commemorative Gold Coin to him at his residence in Peduase on 7 January 2022, the former president explained that although his government worked hard to reach completion point with the HIPC programme, it faced a major challenge.

The IMF board, which was meeting in Washington, DC, decided against allowing Ghana to exit from the HIPC initiative because the government had failed to observe the conditionality of not increasing wages and salaries.

Intervention

The former president said that, coincidentally, Otumfuo Osei Tutu was in Washington at the invitation of the then World Bank president, James D Wolfensohn.

“At that point, I decided to send a message through the Juabenhene, Nana Otuo Siriboe II, who was travelling to the USA to join the Asantehene on his trip, to get the king informed of the development [and] to get his friend Mr Wolfensohn to work something out with the IMF on the development.

“Nana Juabenhene stepped out of my office and phoned Otumfuo, who immediately called me and we had a conversation.

“I pleaded with him to get Mr Wolfensohn to talk to the IMF on the assurance that we would correct the anomaly. Otumfuo did that, leading to the debt relief,” Kufuor said.

Dagbon conflict

The former president also spoke of the role the Asantehene played in resolving the Dagbon crisis in Northern Ghana.

Kufuor said that, as president, when the Dagbon disturbances began in 2002, he set up the Wuaku Commission to investigate the criminal aspect of the conflict, but then realised that the problem was deeply rooted in tradition.

“I decided that, apart from the criminal aspect, the traditional aspect should also be tackled, using our traditional leaders. So, I appealed to three traditional rulers of high repute – Asantehene, Nayiri and Yagbonwura – for help, which they readily accepted, leading to the realisation of the peace process during the presidency of Nana Akufo-Addo,” Kufuor said.

As such, the former president said, it was appropriate for the Asantehene to be honoured with the gold coin.

The delegation at the former president’s residence was led by the executive chairman of the E ON 3 Group, Richard Adjei Mensah Ofori-Atta.

Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Accra