[The Conversation Africa] By the year 2000, the government of Ghana had borrowed so much that the country was in debt distress. It then subscribed to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Consequently, much of the country's external debt of over US$4 billion was written off by creditors. By the time the initiative ended in 2006, Ghana's total public debt stock was US$780 million (25% of GDP). The debt stock has since risen by 7000% to $54 billion, which is 78% of GDP. The