Christine Lagarde
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) would release about $236 million to Ghana under the agreement with the Fund by the first week of May, this year.
This will be the total of the fifth and sixth disbursements under the economic support programme.
These were the highlights at this year’s spring meetings of the IMF/World Bank in Washington, DC, among others.
The release of the money means the Fund is at least satisfied with Ghana’s performance so far under the agreement.
It also comes on the back of the IMF mission’s review of Ghana’s performance in March this year.
A Deputy Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, who joined the team to Washington, said the disbursements should help in financing essential government needs.
“The disbursement generally will go towards budgetary support broadly and at this stage that is how some of these things have been structured. It is rather some of the other items that we are looking at which will go into some of the specific development items that we mentioned before Parliament rose,” he explained.
Aside impressing the Fund with efforts to sustain or surpass the 8.5 percent growth recorded for the first year in office, the government is also pitching for an acceptance of its ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda.
Some government officials have embarked on non-deal road shows both in Asia and in the US.
The exercise is expected to culminate in the issuing of bonds as part of the restructuring of the country’s debts.
But Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said they should be in the good books of the Fund once the debts are at sustainable levels.
“If you have a prudent budget programme, which says that no matter what you do, your finances should not go beyond the 4.5 to 5 percent target, then the bond issues that do not exceed the target, nobody has a problem with you. So to the extent that we are staying within our prudent budget programme, nobody has a problem with us,” he argued.
Ghana entered into the IMF agreement in 2015 for a credit support of $918 million.
Originally, the IMF programme was scheduled to end in April 2018, but it was extended to April 2019 after the current administration agreed to its extension.
–Citifmonline