Former Finance Minister Dr Mohammed Amin Adam has raised concerns about Ghana’s rising domestic debt, saying the country’s improving debt position must be assessed against the sustainability and transparency of its financing arrangements.
Between January and July 2026, central-government domestic debt increased from GH¢340.98 billion to GH¢396.69 billion, representing a rise of GH¢55.71 billion, or 16.3%. Total central-government debt also increased from GH¢663.43 billion to GH¢733.94 billion over the same period.
In his analysis of the country’s debt position, Dr Amin Adam said the recent improvement in public finances had benefited from debt-service relief under the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), external debt restructuring, IMF programme discipline, expenditure compression and favourable gold prices.
However, he cautioned that these developments did not automatically eliminate refinancing risks.
“Through unconventional debt issuance methods, we are seeing a material build-up in domestic debt obligations,” he said in the write-up.
The former Finance Minister noted that Treasury bills accounted for GH¢31.2 billion of the domestic debt increase, while reopenings of eight DDEP bonds contributed GH¢21.8 billion and a new seven-year bond added GH¢2.8 billion.
He argued that the figures pointed largely to new issuance rather than exchange-rate valuation effects, although the actual cash raised remained unclear because the debt stock was recorded at face value.
