Economic crisis: God always pulls the country through - Finance Minister 'comforts' Ghanaians

Amidst the high inflation, high cost of food and services on the market among others in recent times, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has once again entreated Ghanaians to have faith in the Akufo-Addo-led government whiles they try to fix the broken economy.

He said gradually, things are getting in shape and government is managing its investors and bondholders well.

Touching on the US$ 3 billion financial bailout programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Ken Ofori-Atta said government expects a successful review of the performance of the first tranche that was released in May this year.

He expressed optimism that government will receive the second tranche of the IMF loan in November this year 2023.

Speaking to journalists at the Ghana Trade Fair Redevelopment Project Investor Conference in Accra, Ken Ofori-Atta said, “Between cabinet and parliament, so far we’ve gone through the qualitative performance criteria. So we expect that the review will go well in September [2023] to get a Staff-Level Agreement. We’ll go to the Board in November [2023] and we’re sure we can get it.”

“God always pull the country through and with the help of all, speaking the same language, managing our investors and bondholders well, we will get there,” the finance minister assured.

The first tranche of $600million was received by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) on Friday, May 19, 2023.

It would be recalled that the government on July 1, 2022, announced its decision to engage the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $3 billion financial bailout programme.

Subsequently, a team from the IMF arrived in the country from July 6 to July 13, 2022, to engage Ghanaian authorities for a possible economic support programme.

A staff-level agreement between the Government of Ghana and the IMF was reached in December 2022.

On May 17, 2023, IMF's executive board approved Ghana's $3 billion loan facility.

The IMF programme, according to the government is aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability and safeguarding debt sustainability among many others.

ESA/NOQ

Watch the latest edition of BizTech below: