By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-West African country, Ghana is seeking between $300 million and $1 billion bridge finance in the second half (HI) of 2015 to redeem maturing domestic debt, a Reuters report quoted a memo to parliament signed by Seth Terkper, finance minister.

According to the report, the government of Ghana will also issue a Eurobond of up to $1.5 billion in the HI period of this year to retire the bridge finance, refinance domestic and external debt and fund 2015 capital expenditure, information from the memo disclosed.

The report says Ghana’s government has started talks with a consortium including Bank of America Merrill Lynch as international advisors and Belstar Capital as local arrangers for the bridge finance.

This is coming on the heels of  Moody’s Investors Service downgrading Ghana’s sovereign rating and putting the country on a negative outlook to reflect an increasing debt burden, large fiscal imbalances and a sharp weakening of the cedi currency.

The report affirmed that the downgrade is a further blow to the economic reputation of Ghana, which for years saw strong growth rates due to its exports of gold, cocoa and oil but faces a raft of macroeconomic problems.

The report further affirmed that the memorandum urged members of parliament to approve the finance plans and an order paper showed the plans were due to be discussed on Friday. One parliamentary source said the debate had been postponed.