IMF approves Ghana $3 billion loan facility - sources

ACCRA (Reuters) -The International Monetary Fund's executive board has approved a $3 billion, three-year extended credit facility for Ghana, three senior Ghanaian officials said on Wednesday, as the West African country tries to overcome its worst economic crisis in a generation.

Two other sources familiar with the process said the IMF agreement marked an important step forward for Ghana, but cautioned that authorities in the West African country still faced a long road of negotiations and work with its creditors.

The IMF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ghana's official sector creditors formed a committee co-chaired by China and France and agreed to debt restructuring talks, the Paris Club said last week. This paved the way for a sign-off on the IMF loan, which was agreed at staff level in December.

Ghana faces a debt overhaul after its already strained finances buckled under the economic fallout from COVID-19 and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

It is negotiating its international debt rework under the Group of 20's Common Framework platform and completed a domestic debt exchange earlier this year.

Some $5.4 billion of debt to official creditors has been earmarked for restructuring, according to government data, as well as $14.6 billion of debt to private overseas creditors.

(Reporting by Maxwell Akalaare Adombila, Christian Arkolie, Andrea Shalal and Rachel Savage; Writing by Nellie Peyton and Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by James Macharia Chege)