Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is hopeful that discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about a potential financial bailout package will be successful.
President Akufo-Addo claims that even though the government’s debt swap programme had a number of difficulties after being announced, the general public has generally accepted it.
When German Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner paid him a visit at the Jubilee House on Friday, he let him know about it.
“We have already taken one important step forward in concluding a staff-level agreement with the IMF. One of the steps was the domestic debt exchange programme which encountered a lot of difficulties, but it has now been virtually concluded…We are now looking towards going the full hog and concluding the agreement. We’re hoping that will be done by the middle of March,” President Akufo-Addo said.
He also urged Germany to persuade China, a temporary member of the Paris Club, to assist Ghana in its efforts to restructure its debt.
This, according to him, will allow Ghana to get its economy growing again.
Recall that on December 13, 2022, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Ghana reached a staff-level agreement on Ghana’s economic policies and reforms, which will be supported by a new, three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement worth around US$3 billion.
The IMF claims that the government’s aggressive reform agenda aims to bring back Ghana’s economy’s macroeconomic stability.
According to a team from the IMF led by Stéphane Roudet, Mission Chief for Ghana, Ghanaian authorities have started a comprehensive debt operation to restore the sustainability of the nation’s public debt.
Ghana has been in an unstable situation for the past five months after turning to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a financial rescue after the local economy took a plunge.
On the other side, the local currency, the Cedi, declined against the major trading currencies, which caused enterprises to struggle or, to a significant extent, to fail as they tried to stay in business.
The government took various steps to fortify the Cedi so that it could compete with other important trading currencies, particularly the US dollar.
