The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said it is ready to support Ghana to save an economy battered by inflation, a slump triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
On Friday (1 July 2022), Ghana officially announced that it was seeking support from the IMF to help address the economic crisis.
Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said the president had “authorised Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to commence formal engagements” with the IMF.
The announcement followed a phone conversation between Akufo-Addo and the managing director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, he said.
In response, the resident representative of the Fund, Albert Touna-Mama, confirmed the government’s position, adding the IMF is ready to support Ghana.
“We can confirm that the authorities have been in touch to request [the] Fund’s support to #Ghana’s own economic programme,” he wrote on Friday, in a tweet that included the Information Minister’s statement.
“The #IMF stands ready to assist #Ghana to restore macroeconomics stability; safeguard debt sustainability; promote inclusive and sustainable growth; and face the impact of the war in #Ukraine and the lingering pandemic. We are looking forward to meeting with the authorities in the coming weeks to start the initial discussions,” he added.
We can confirm that the authorities have been in touch to request Fund’s support to #Ghana’s own economic program. The #IMF stands ready to assist #Ghana to restore macroeconomics stability; safeguard debt sustainability; promote inclusive and sustainable growth; 1/2 https://t.co/fNQoQ4KbY9
— Albert Touna-Mama (@ATounaMama) July 1, 2022
With domestic revenue mobilisation not performing to budgetary expectations, coupled with Ghana’s inability to raise money from the international capital market due to the downgrade of its economy by credit rating agencies, some experts had been suggesting that the government seek IMF support.
IMF Photo/Cory Hancock
In a recent post on Twitter, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a political strategist and prominent member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), said: “I am not for an IMF program that throws peanuts at us but imposes conditions that will end up hurting the poor, jobs and businesses more.
“COVID-19 and war in Ukraine are not of Africa’s doing but more to our doom. A program that pretends it is all our doing is doomed to fail.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this post wrongly identified a picture of Abebe Aemro, director of the Africa Department of the International Monetary Fund, as Albert Touna Mama, IMF resident representative in Ghana. Amended 3 July 2022.
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