President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo has directed the finance minister, Ken Ofori Atta to commence formal engagement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), inviting the fund to support an economic program put together by the government of Ghana.
This follows a telephone conversation between the president and the IMF managing director, Miss Kristalina Georgieva.
The engagement with IMF is expected to give the country a bailout of Ghana’s economic situation which is characterized by public debt, rising inflation, and fuel prices among others.
In a statement issued on Friday, July 1, 2022, by the information minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said “the engagement with the IMF will provide a balance of payment support as part of a broader effort to quicken Ghana’s build back in the face of challenges included by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine crises.”
According to the information minister, the cabinet supported the decision at a meeting on June 30th, 2022.
As of March 2022, the Bank of Ghana pegged Ghana’s total public debt stock at S$ 55.1 billion.
At an event on the state of the Ghanaian economy in Accra on Thursday, June 30, 2022, Former President John Mahama said ‘the lack of a credible plan has led to the resort to even more borrowing as the public debt gets out of hand and wreaks havoc on our finances. The very limited options that we have, in view of the messed up state of our economy means that any further borrowing would be very expensive and detrimental to our interests.”
To this end, Mr. Mahama stated that in the future the NDC in parliament will not support any further non-concessionary borrowing or loans that are not project-specific with clear and unambiguous terms with the benefit to the nation.
Read also: Prices of petrol, LPG to fall 8%, 7% but diesel to go up
Source: ATLFMNEWS
