Ghana is on track to receive the second tranche of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout money by the end of the year, according to Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta. The minister shared this announcement on Thursday, at the 3rd Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Breakfast meeting in Accra.
An IMF staff team is scheduled to visit Ghana from September 25 through the first week of October to assess the implementation of Ghana's Economic Recovery Programme. This marks the second visit by the IMF following its board's approval of Ghana's bailout on May 17. The government remains hopeful of receiving the second tranche of the IMF bailout cash in December to support the government's balance of payments (BOP) for 2023 and 2024.
Ofori-Atta stated that Ghana was working diligently to meet all the quantitative indicators under the IMF Extended Credit Facility Programme. "We are ready for the mission that comes at the end of September so that we can try and get the staff level agreement, while the mission is here, and then we go to the board in November for the release of the 2nd tranche which will be $600 million," he said.
In addition to securing funds from IMF, Ghana is also aiming to secure about $300 million from the World Bank. The minister expressed optimism that a total of $1 billion could be raised before year-end to support government’s BOP operations.
Ghana embarked on an Extended Credit Facility of $3 billion with the IMF last year for BOP support and to ensure macroeconomic stability. The credit support is aimed at aiding government’s Post COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG), which seeks to restore macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability while promoting inclusive growth.
The first tranche of $600 million was released last year after the Executive Board of the IMF approved Ghana’s programme. Ofori-Atta also noted that Ghana had successfully completed its Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, a process he described as difficult but necessary.
As per Bank of Ghana's June 2023 summary of the Economic and Financial Stability Report, it was revealed that bank's BOP at end-June 2023 recorded a deficit of $107.8 million, approximately 0.1% of GDP, significantly lower than the deficit recorded during the same period in 2022.
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