(Bloomberg) -- Ghana’s government will begin talks with international bondholders on the restructuring of about $13 billion of defaulted debt in the coming week, Finance Minister Mohammed Amin Adam said.

The authorities received counter-proposals on debt-treatment scenarios from two bondholder groups, the minister told reporters on Tuesday in Accra, the capital. The government and its advisers now plan to start “extensive discussions with bondholder representatives to advance restructuring talks,” he said.

Ghana’s eurobonds advanced, with securities due in April 2029 gaining 1 cent on the dollar to 50.68 cents by 1:57 p.m. in London.

The discussions will come days after Zambia agreed to restructure $3 billion of eurobonds, marking a much-needed success for the Group of 20’s Common Framework, which was unveiled in 2020 to help poor countries overhaul borrowings from creditors including sovereigns, bondholders and commercial banks. The mechanism has faced criticism for causing long delays in negotiations. 

Read More: Zambia Deal With Bondholders Secures Key Win in Years-Long Saga

Ghana began working to revamp its debt a little over a year ago as part of a deal with the International Monetary Fund. It reached an agreement in principle with bilateral creditors in January to rework $5.4 billion of obligations under the Common Framework.

The focus now is on finalizing a pact with eurobond investors, using the “comparability of treatment” — the guiding principle of the framework.

Investors previously proposed a restructuring in which Ghana would link interest payments on some of the debt to future economic growth in the West African nation, Bloomberg reported this month. 

Power Firms 

The government also expects to sign a deal on an overhaul of unpaid bills to independent power producers in the coming weeks, Amin said. While the arrears are “huge,” the government has made progress on preventing them from accumulating, he said, without providing further details on the size of the debt.

“We are almost through with our negotiations with the IPPs to restructure the arrears of several years,” he said. “I believe in the next two to three weeks we will be signing those agreements with the IPPs we have concluded negotiations with.” 

--With assistance from Ana Monteiro and Robert Brand.

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