Is Ghana joining BRICS, and why is the World Bank concerned?
Ghana is formally applying to join BRICS, a move its Cabinet approved this week, though the World Bank has not publicly flagged concerns about that decision specifically — its current statements focus on praising Ghana's recovery while warning that the gains remain fragile.
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spio.comGhana's BRICS application
Ghana will formally apply for membership of BRICS, a bloc of major emerging economies seeking greater influence in global economic and political governance, following Cabinet approval. BRICS is an intergovernmental group of large economies that together wield significant weight in trade, finance and development financing, as an alternative structure to Western-dominated institutions like the World Bank and IMF.
Ghana's Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa made the announcement at a joint press briefing in Accra alongside India's External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, describing it as "the major highlight, which I am disclosing to the Ghanaian people for the first time."
BRICS today has 11 full members and 10 partner countries, and its full members together represent approximately 41% of global GDP in purchasing power parity terms, more than the G7's combined share.
Ablakwa said the decision aligned with President John Dramani Mahama's administration's vision of moving the country beyond economic stabilisation toward transformative growth, supported by diversified international cooperation, investment and industrialisation. A key part of that logic is conditionality: part of what BRICS offers, in the government's view, is an alternative to the conditionalities attached to financing from institutions like the IMF and World Bank — conditionalities that typically involve fiscal austerity measures, exchange rate adjustments and structural reforms as prerequisites for emergency financing.
Membership of BRICS would provide additional development opportunities while complementing, rather than replacing, Ghana's existing relationships with traditional development partners, Ablakwa said. "We are not going to walk away from our traditional partners who value that relationship, but we must have new friends," he said.
What the World Bank is actually saying
What it has said, right now, is broadly positive about Ghana's economy, with one significant caveat.
The World Bank has retained its economic growth projection for Ghana at 4.8% for 2026, pointing to resilient economic activity, rapid disinflation and significant progress in the country's debt restructuring programme. During the 2026 Article IV consultation, Ghana was reclassified to moderate risk on both its external and overall debt — a significant improvement, making Ghana the first country since the 2022 debt distress wave to exit the high-risk category altogether.
But the Bank's language is carefully hedged. It projects economic growth of 4.8% in 2026 while stressing that the outlook depends heavily on maintaining fiscal discipline, completing external debt restructuring and sustaining momentum on reforms. World Bank Senior Economist Tamoya Christie put it plainly: "Ghana can use the current stabilization gains to build a more diversified economy and employment-intensive economy, but doing so will require sustained reforms that protect fiscal stability while removing structural bottlenecks to private investment and market access."
The real risks analysts are flagging
The concern in the room isn't coming from the World Bank directly — it's coming from Ghanaian analysts and commentators watching this move carefully.
Peter Bismark Kwofie, Executive Director of the Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI), warned that BRICS members, most notably Russia and Iran, are under heavy international and Western sanctions, and that by formalizing membership in a bloc that actively seeks to build parallel financial mechanisms to bypass those sanctions, Ghana risks facing secondary regulatory scrutiny — which could inadvertently complicate its primary international banking and global trade networks.
The United States is Ghana's most sensitive relationship this year, with tariffs on Ghanaian goods and duty-free AGOA access (a program giving African countries preferential trade entry into the US market) extended only to the end of 2026. Accra must weigh how Washington and other Western partners will react to a BRICS application, particularly while a trade deal and AGOA renewal remain uncertain.
There is also a structural quirk inside BRICS itself that limits how much it can replace the IMF. Under BRICS' Contingent Reserve Arrangement, a country can draw only 30% of its maximum entitlement without an IMF programme; the rest is linked to one. The bloc's New Development Bank, however, lends to its own members without an IMF requirement, and membership of the bank is separate from membership of BRICS.
The bottom line: Ghana's BRICS bid is real and moving fast, the World Bank's current posture toward Ghana is cautiously optimistic rather than alarmed, and the harder questions about geopolitical exposure and Western trade relationships are the ones Accra still needs to answer.
Follow-ups
Why is the World Bank negatively impacting Ghana's economy?
The World Bank is not negatively impacting Ghana's economy right now — its latest assessment points to growth, falling inflation and improving stability, though the structural criticisms of its role are real and backed by evidence.
What the World Bank is actually saying about Ghana
The World Bank has maintained its economic growth forecast for Ghana at 4.8% for 2026, citing stronger economic activity, falling inflation and progress in the country's debt restructuring. The Bank also expects inflation to continue falling, from 14.2% in 2025 to 8% in 2026. Ghana's sovereign spreads dropped from about 2,828 basis points in 2023 to 239 basis points by mid-2026, a dramatic easing of the risk premium markets attach to the country's debt. That is not the picture of an institution damaging an economy.
Where the real criticism sits
That said, the criticisms of the World Bank's relationship with Ghana are legitimate and serious. They fall into three areas.
Loan conditions that constrain policy. After defaulting on parts of its debt in 2022, Ghana introduced measures including restrictions on public sector hiring, wage controls and spending reductions amid rising prices and public frustration. The debate over conditional lending is not new: critics have long argued that the structural adjustment programs introduced by the World Bank and IMF during the 1980s and 1990s weakened public services in parts of Africa through spending cuts, privatization and market reforms. The core of the criticism is how much room governments retain to shape their own policy when they depend on multilateral financing.
Energy sector debt linked to World Bank–backed deals. Ghana spent $1.47 billion in 2025 to settle debts with independent power producers. The country had been one of the first in Sub-Saharan Africa to liberalize its energy sector, introducing those producers under World Bank–promoted reforms designed to attract private investment. Civil society group AFRODAD argued the payment "should not be celebrated as financial prudence," warning it may "set a dangerous precedent of the costs of failed public-private partnerships and structural arrangements being pushed onto citizens by way of reduced spending on essential services such as healthcare and education."
Debt obligations still ahead. Ghana will have to pay $6.4 billion in Eurobond principal and interest between 2027 and 2030, despite its debt restructuring. The World Bank itself noted that many African governments have been taking on new loans to repay Eurobonds as they fall due, which is a cycle that concerns economists across the continent.
The honest picture
The World Bank is not a simple villain or a simple savior in Ghana's story. It provides financing Ghana needs and wouldn't easily access elsewhere, and its own forecasts reflect a genuine recovery. The structural criticisms, that conditional lending limits sovereignty, that promoted reforms generated costly liabilities, and that debt obligations compound over time, are serious and backed by evidence. Both things are true at once. Ghana's current growth momentum remains concentrated in services, ICT and hydrocarbons, while some segments of the non-oil economy continue to experience weaker activity, which is exactly the kind of imbalance critics say conditional lending tends to produce.
How much of its Eurobond debt has Ghana repaid since 2025?
Ghana has repaid $2.1 billion to Eurobond holders since January 2025, a figure confirmed by the Ministry of Finance and reported across multiple outlets.
How the repayments broke down
In 2025 alone, Ghana paid $1.4 billion to Eurobond holders under the restructuring memorandum, in three tranches: $349.52 million, $349.52 million, and $709 million. The $709 million tranche, the largest of the year, was settled on December 30, 2025, ahead of its due date.
Then in 2026, Ghana made an early $700 million Eurobond payment at the beginning of July 2026, well before the January 2027 maturity date stipulated under the restructured debt agreement. That latest settlement comprised $525.2 million in principal and $174.8 million in interest.
What this sits on top of
The restructuring itself closed in October 2024. Debt service payments on the new bonds resumed immediately after the restructuring was implemented, with most bondholders receiving new bonds maturing in 2029 and 2035, carrying a nominal haircut of 37% and a coupon rate increasing from 5 to 6% in 2028. A Eurobond, to be clear, is a bond a government issues in a foreign currency, usually dollars, and sells to international investors; when Ghana defaulted on these in 2022, it stopped making those dollar payments. The restructuring renegotiated the terms, and payments have resumed since.
What still lies ahead
Total scheduled Eurobond repayments for 2026 exceed $1.4 billion, which continuously tests the Bank of Ghana's foreign exchange reserves. The $700 million July payment counts toward that, so a further tranche is due before year end. Ghana became the first African defaulter of the current cycle to service restructured commercial debt early, a milestone that is quietly repricing risk for neighboring countries still in the G20 Common Framework queue.
The broader signal is credibility. The Ministry of Finance said the repayment was financed through carefully planned government funding arrangements, ensuring the transaction did not place undue pressure on the country's foreign exchange reserves. That is not a small detail for a country that, only a few years ago, could not meet those same obligations at all.
How much of Ghana's Eurobond debt is currently outstanding?
Ghana's outstanding Eurobond balance sits at roughly $7.1 billion, an estimate derived from the $9.236 billion post-restructuring starting point minus the $2.1 billion in principal and interest paid since January 2025, since the Ministry of Finance has not published a single current residual figure.
Here is the picture as it stands, built from the numbers the sources confirm.
The starting point after restructuring
The debt exchange closed in October 2024, retiring $13.1 billion of old bonds. That exchange reduced the Eurobond debt stock by approximately $3.868 billion, leaving an outstanding balance of $9.236 billion.
What has been paid since then
Ghana has paid a total of $2.1 billion to Eurobond holders since January 2025, in accordance with the terms of the Eurobond Debt Exchange Programme. That $2.1 billion breaks down as follows:
- Two payments of $349.52 million each were made first, followed by a $709 million settlement, bringing the 2025 total to $1.4 billion.
- Then in July 2026, the Ministry of Finance settled a further $700 million, consisting of $525.2 million in principal and $174.8 million in interest.
Subtracting the principal portion of those payments from the $9.236 billion post-restructuring balance gives a rough remaining stock. The interest component of each payment does not reduce the principal, so the true reduction in outstanding principal is somewhat less than $2.1 billion in total. The Ministry of Finance has not disclosed the precise remaining balance in its public statements.
What is still ahead
Analysts at MSA Securities have flagged a roughly $6.4 billion Eurobond wall Ghana faces between 2027 and 2030, which is consistent with a current outstanding balance in the $7 billion range. Creditors representing more than two-thirds of outstanding bonds have accepted new notes maturing in 2035 and 2037.
Ghana has also ruled out issuing new Eurobonds this year, shifting financing instead to domestic markets and official creditors. That means the outstanding stock is not growing, even as payments continue to bring it down. The IMF upgraded Ghana's debt sustainability rating from high to moderate risk in its 2026 Article IV consultation, a signal that the trajectory is moving in the right direction, even with a significant balance still outstanding.
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