Coronavirus: Ghana can access $500m emergency fund – IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that Ghana can access up to $500 million in the form of concessionary emergency funding.

The IMF says the amount is to help Ghana mitigate the effect of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the economy.

The IMF Resident Representative in Ghana, Dr Albert Touna-Mama, made the disclosure.

“We don’t yet have a final figure on the request for Ghana; we are working with the authorities to evaluate this. However, in general, the guide announced by the IMF for emergency funding is 50 per cent of quota. For Ghana, this is SDR 369 million or about $500 million,” he told the Daily Graphic last Wednesday.

“The good thing is that the government has been proactive in laying out options to deal with the economic fallout. We are working hard to support with policy advice and emergency financing,” Dr Touna-Mama said.

The IMF last week received Ghana’s request for a disbursement under the Rapid Credit Facility to help the country address the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ghana is among 60-member countries that have already approached the fund to tap into the concessional emergency financing to help the country address the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The RCF was created under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) as part of a broader reform to make the fund’s financial support more flexible and better tailored to the diverse needs of lower-income countries, including times of crisis.

The RCF places emphasis on a country’s poverty reduction and growth objectives.