Ghana is committed to managing its debt without assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said, expressing his confidence that government measures were moving the country in the right direction.

Ghana’s total public debt, which stood at about 77% of its gross domestic product at the end of 2021, according to government data, has pushed one of West Africa’s largest economies to the brink of crisis.

The government in March announced a raft of spending cuts to tackle inflation, reduce the public deficit, restore a depreciating local currency and reassure spooked investors.

But it has consistently refused to ask the IMF for help.

“We have committed to not going back to the fund because… the fund knows we are [moving] in the right direction,” Ofori-Atta said at a media conference in the capital Accra.

“It’s about validating the program we have in place and finding other ways of handling our debt.”

The gold, oil and cocoa producer saw consumer inflation rise to an 18-year record of almost 24% in April despite efforts to contain price hikes and spur recovery.

Ofori-Atta said the priority would be to solve the country’s domestic debt, which has interest rates that are three to four times higher than foreign debt.

“We need to decide ourselves what structure would be useful to us,” he added.

The central bank in March raised its main lending rate by a record 250 basis points and is expected to review this at a next Monetary Policy Committee meeting on May 23.

Ofori-Atta said another interest rate hike would be a “knee jerk reaction” to “imported inflation”, noting that prices had continued to increase since the March increase.

“We need to figure out an approach that in a way gives us fiscal space,” he said.

Ghana’s credit ratings have been downgraded over concerns about the government’s ability to pass legislation to raise revenues.

There has been fierce opposition to a tax on electronic payments approved in April and presented as a panacea to financial woes, with critics saying it will unfairly impact lower-income people and small business owners.

A Congolese military court has sentenced a high-ranking policeman to death for his role in the 2010 murder of ‘human rights activist’ Floribet Chebeya, which caused national outrage.

The Commissioner of police Christian Ngoy Kenga Kenga was ‘found guilty’ of murder, desertion and misappropriation of weapons and ammunition.

Mr. Chebeya’s body was found bound and gagged in his car in Kinshasa.

There is a moratorium on capital punishments in DR Congo.

However, the death penalty has not been abolished and military courts continue to hand down such sentences.

Another policeman, Jacques Migabo, was also sentenced to 12 years during the trial.

He admitted to having ‘strangled’ Mr. Chebeya and his driver, Fidèle Bazana.

Police commissioner Paul Mwilambwe, who had been a key witness in the trial, was acquitted, reports say.

Mr. Mwilambwe, who had been a fugitive since the murder and was only repatriated last year, named ex-President Joseph Kabila and the former head of police General John Numbi, as having ordered the killing.

“Neither Mr. Kabila nor Gen Numbi have commented publicly, but a military court has charged the general with the murder of Mr. Chebeya and his driver.”

General John Numbi has fled the country and his current whereabouts are not known. Kenga, Migabo and Mr Mwilambwe were initially sentenced to death in 2011, with Kenga arrested in 2020 in the southern city of Lubumbashi before the case was re-opened last September.

Mr. Chebeya led the Congolese charity Voice of the Voiceless, and as a prominent critic of the government, he received a regular death threats during his career of more than 20 years.

“He went to the police headquarters to meet the head of the national police force, Gen Numbi, on the day he was killed. His driver Mr. Bazana also went missing that day with authorities later pronouncing him dead.”

The killing of Mr. Chebeya prompted widespread international condemnation.

Guinea’s legislative body on Wednesday announced there would be a three-year transition period before the civilian rule is restored, defying regional partners who have called for a swifter timetable following a coup.

The 36-month transition, decided at a legislative plenary meeting on Wednesday, is slightly shorter than the 39 months which military junta leader Colonel Mamady Doumbouya had announced.

The timetable presented by the National Rallying Committee for Development (CNRD), set up by the junta and headed by Doumbouya, was “debated, approved and adopted” by the National Transition Council (CNT) legislative body.

Last September, army officers led by Colonel Doumbouya ousted elected president Alpha Conde in the impoverished former French colony.

Conde, 84, had drawn fierce opposition after he pushed through a new constitution in 2020 that allowed him to run for a third presidential term.

Following the coup, the West African bloc ECOWAS suspended Guinea from its ranks, imposed sanctions and called for a return to civilian rule within six months.

Although many Guineans initially welcomed the coup, there is growing discontent against the junta in the nation of 13 million people.

CNT spokesperson Paul Kotembedouno told newsmen that a 36-month transition period would be “sufficient” in order to prepare the country for a return to constitutional order.

Out of the 81 CNT members, 73 voted for the text on Wednesday.

One CNT member was absent, three abstained and four left the chamber in protest.

The RPG party of Guinea’s ousted leader Conde met Wednesday with opposition groups and said the CNT did not have the authority to set the transition timetable.

The transition charter “provides that the duration of the transition is determined by mutual agreement between the CNRD and the country’s active players. The CNT is in no way mentioned as the body to validate this agreement,” the coalition of parties said in a statement issued before the announcement of the 36-month period.

They called for “the establishment of a real framework for dialogue,” including with ECOWAS “to decide on a consensual basis on the conditions for a return to constitutional order”.

It is the first time in years that Conde’s party and his opposition during his rule have come together to speak with one voice.

UN chief Antonio Guterres this month called for the military juntas in Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali to hand power back to civilians as soon as possible.

Mali and Burkina Faso are two other countries in the region which have seen the military take power. They too have been suspended by ECOWAS.