Former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has described Ghana’s debt restructuring under the G20 Common Framework as one of the darkest and most painful episodes of his presidency.

He admitted that while the programme offered temporary relief, the scars it left on citizens and the economy remain deep and troubling.

Speaking at the AU-EU High-Level Seminar in Brussels on Thursday, October 2, 2025, the former President reflected on the turmoil Ghana faced during the debt crisis.

“I witnessed the suffocating grip of debt on our economy and on our citizens. This deeply troubled me and still does,” he told African and European leaders gathered ahead of the AU-EU Summit.

Akufo-Addo recalled that when Ghana opted for the Common Framework in 2023, the process was drawn-out, messy, and painful. Negotiations dragged, burdens were unevenly shared, and uncertainty lingered. Yet persistence, he said, brought results.

By 2024, Ghana had restructured $13 billion in Eurobonds, securing $10.5 billion in external debt service relief through 2026.

The country’s debt-to-GDP ratio dropped from the mid-80s to 70.5 per cent, restoring some investor confidence and anchoring an IMF-supported programme.

But beneath the statistics lay a human cost he described as unbearable.

“The process was sequential, not simultaneous. It prolonged uncertainty. It eroded investor confidence. And it inflicted a heavy cost at home that was a dark cloud moment for me as President,” he admitted.

The former President said the most heartbreaking part was the impact on ordinary citizens. Domestic bondholders, including pensioners, small investors, and young people, were hit hardest.

“These were people whose lives and livelihoods were shattered in the process,” he lamented.

Beyond Ghana’s ordeal, Akufo-Addo insisted that Africa’s $1 trillion debt burden exposes the injustice of a global financial system “not built to free us, but to bind us.”

He warned that more than 30 African countries now spend more on interest payments than on health care.

“Every dollar diverted to creditors is a dollar taken from a hospital, from a child’s vaccination, from a community’s future. This is not economics, but inequity,” he declared.

The former President renewed his call for bold, permanent debt relief for Africa, insisting it should be treated not as charity but as justice.

“Justice delayed is justice denied. Debt relief for Africa is not an act of generosity. It is an act of justice,” he said.

He proposed linking debt cancellation to green investment and climate resilience, stressing that Africa suffers the most from climate shocks despite contributing less than 4% to global emissions. Much of the continent’s debt, he argued, was incurred in responding to crises “not of our making.”

Quoting the International Court of Justice, he reminded world leaders of their legal and moral duty to provide reparations for climate damages. “By even the most conservative estimates, that runs into the trillions,” he noted.

Akufo-Addo urged immediate debt service suspension, comprehensive restructuring, and new concessional financing mechanisms.

“To our European partners, I say this: hear the voice of your neighbouring continent. Stand with the AU and South Africa’s G20 Presidency to advance ambitious reform of the Common Framework.”

While acknowledging Africa’s own responsibility to fight corruption, diversify economies, and strengthen institutions, Akufo-Addo warned that without global reforms, “even the most courageous efforts will be undermined by predatory lending, punitive trade terms, and a financial system that too often works against us rather than with us.”

He ended with a message of hope and solidarity: “The sacrifices we make today, the compromises, the collaborations we engage in today can only inure to the benefit of our world. When Africa rises free from the weight of debt, the whole world rises with it.”