(Bloomberg) -- Ghana expects to start a eurobond exchange program this month, after reaching an agreement in principle with private creditors to revamp $13 billion of debt, Finance Minister Mohammed Amin Adam said.

“The next step is to prepare for the launch of the consent solicitation and the exchange memorandum on the international capital market, which we expect to commence in July” and conclude by September, he told reporters at a joint press conference with the International Monetary Fund on Monday in Accra, the capital.

The West African nation, which began working to revamp its debt 18 months ago, reached a memorandum of understanding with bilateral creditors in June to rework $5.1 billion of obligations under the Group of 20’s Common Framework and $13 billion with private creditors last week.

Given the framework’s comparability of treatment, the next step will be for the official creditor committee to assess whether the deal fulfills the comparability-of-treatment principle to ensure that debt losses are reasonably shared between bond investors and bilateral lenders.

Approval from bilateral lenders will pave the way for Ghana to wrap up talks with bondholders and issue the new instruments to replace the existing dollar bonds.

Ghana’s eurobonds extended losses on Monday. Dollar bonds maturing in 2032 fell a sixth day by 0.3 cent to 51.16 cents on the dollar by 4:37 p.m. in London. Securities due 2034 recorded a similar losing streak by 0.1 cent to 51.1 cents on the dollar, the lowest in more than one month.

The cedi weakened 0.4% to a fresh record low of 15.33 per dollar.

The debt exchange, which will mark the end of external debt restructuring, is set to spur Ghana’s economic recovery. The IMF expects the economy to grow 3.1% this year from a prior forecast of 2.8%. 

Ghana embarked on the debt reorganization to qualify for a $3 billion extended credit facility program with the IMF. 

Once concluded the deal with bondholders will provide debt service relief of $4.7 billion and the pact with its official creditors $2.8 billion.

Ghana’s progress under the G-20 framework has been hailed as one of the quickest, when compared with Zambia’s which took almost four years.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.