A settlement between Ghana and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should be negotiated and finalized before the end of the year, according to Kristalina Georgieva, MD of the IMF.
The IMF chief assured the president of Ghana that “we understand the urgency” and that “we will move as swiftly as possible” during a private discussion on Monday, September 5, outside the Africa Adaptation Summit in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
She praised Ghana as a “superb country” and reaffirmed the Fund’s commitment to working with the administration and the Ministry of Finance to secure a deal before the year’s end.
President Akufo-Addo, for his part, told the IMF director that his cabinet and the Ministry of Finance had put a lot of work into the paper that would be provided by Ghana, and that it was “ready for the examination of the IMF.”
External factors
Georgieva, meanwhile, asserted that external shocks rather than domestic factors are to blame for Ghana’s current economic difficulties.
She claimed that external influences are at play.
“We have started very constructive discussions already and to the people of Ghana, like everybody on this planet, you have been hurt by exogenous shocks,” she said.
She discussed the unrelated factors that have exacerbated Ghana’s economic problems and caused the West African nation to request an IMF program.
“First the pandemic, then Russia’s war in Ukraine. We need to realize that it is not because of bad policies in the country but because of this combination of shocks, and, therefore, we have to support Ghana,” she said.
She added that because Ghana is a member of the IMF and is “a powerful country with great people,” the Fund is obligated to provide aid to the nation.
To help the country get through the harsh economic dilemma it is in as a result of the negative impacts of the fatal coronavirus outbreak and the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Ghana is asking the IMF for US$3 billion.
President Akufo-Addo has stated, on occasion, that “we have decided to seek the collaboration of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to repair, in the short run, our public finances, which have taken a severe hit in very recent times as a result, whilst we continue to work on the medium to long-term structural changes that are at the heart of our goal of creating a Ghana Beyond Aid, that is building a resilient, robust Ghanaian economy.”
