President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stated that Ghana’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme which took 10 months to be completed is one of the quickest to have happened to the country.
“Usually, the negotiations with the IMF take time, in fact, the 10 months which have been involved in the Ghanaian programme is one of the fastest on record because there is a whole lot of stuff we had to go through in terms of change of data, negotiations, and making sure the macro indices you are looking for are in the right direction,” he indicated.
President Akufo-Addo explained that all of these may take time, nevertheless, it was over and the IMF support programme would reposition the economy to regain macro stability adding that “economic indicators has started improving such as inflation and exchange rate.”
The Executive Board of IMF approved $3 billion Extended Credit Facility for Ghana, which will end in 2027 and this was as result of assurances from the country’s Creditors Committee under G20 Common Framework which includes China.
Speaking at the Third Qatar Economic Forum, the President pointed out that the country had to ensure data provided were accurate, whilst the macro indices were heading in the right direction.
According to him, now the IMF programme would provide the foundation for redirecting the economy, repositioning the economy to regain macro stability that had been lost.
President Akufo-Addo noted that to be able to have better control over important details like interest rate, inflation and then position the nation to be able to be back to international capital market which had been source of funding for the first three or four years of the government.
“The government is undertaking rigorous expenditure rationalisation, prudent spending to meet conditions set by IMF in order to access second tranche of the $3 billion bailout in six months resulting in the release of first $600 million to the Bank of Ghana.
“However, subsequent releases will be hinged on meeting certain conditionality set by the Fund which includes improvement in domestic revenue mobilisation but global situation has not been kind to incumbent governments all over the world and we have enough time,” President Akufo-Addo underscored.
The president alluded that the government had 18 months and he would leave office in January 2025, and 19 months from now to be able with disciplined approach, implement the IMF programme to reposition the economy to be able to bring progress, growth, development back and relief back to the citizenry.
Touching on the benefits of the IMF bailout, President Akufo-Addo hinted that Ghana would soon return to the International Capital Market.
