The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has confirmed receiving a formal request from the Government of Ghana for balance of payment support.
In a tweet, IMF Country Representative Dr. Albert Touna-Mama said the Fund was ready to assist the country to restore macroeconomic stability.
“We can confirm that the authorities have been in touch to request Fund’s support to Ghana’s own economic programme.
“The IMF stands ready to assist Ghana to restore macroeconomics stability, safeguard debt sustainability, promote inclusive and sustainable growth”, he added.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo last Friday directed the Minister for Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, to begin formal engagements with the IMF for economic support.
A statement signed by the Minister for Information, Mr. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah indicated that there had already been a conversation between the IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva and President Akufo-Addo, conveying the government’s decision to engage the Fund.
“At a meeting on June 30th, 2022, cabinet indicated its support for the decision.
“The engagement with the IMF will seek to provide balance of payment as part of a broader effort to quicken Ghana’s build back in the face of challenges induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and, recently, the Russian-Ukraine crises”, the statement concluded.
No fiscal indiscipline
Meanwhile, Mr. Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a political strategist and member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said government decision to opt for the IMF programme cannot be attributed to fiscal indiscipline.
“I do not think that this government is heading to the IMF because of a lack of discipline … We are in a very unusual circumstances, that has perhaps never hit the world before, which has necessitated these measures.
“I think going to the IMF is not an issue of tying the hands of the next government but you want a situation where you don’t put the next government in a situation that’s worse than what you met,” Mr. Otchere-Darko added.
Speaking with Kofi Abotsi on TownHall Talk on Asaase Radio, he added that, “It will be difficult for the NDC to say that they went to IMF in 2016 and we are now heading there and so we have managed the economy similarly.”
