The Government agreed today to cancel NOK 69 million of the debt owed to Norway by the Republic of Ghana.

The agreement with Ghana is based on two multilateral framework agreements concluded in the Paris Club, which is a joint forum for creditor countries, in December 2001 and May 2002, respectively. On the latter occasion, the Paris Club decided to grant debt relief to Ghana in accordance with the international Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, known as the HIPC initiative.

In keeping with the Norwegian Plan of Action on Debt Relief for Development the debt will be cancelled without taking any funds from the budget. Thus, the debt relief will serve as a supplement rather than resulting in a reduction in other assistance to poor countries.

Ghana’s remaining debt to Norway will then be NOK 8 million. This will be cancelled when the country has met its HIPC requirements.