By: Edward Nyarko
Ghana is on the cusp of securing financing assurances after the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta met with the Managing Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva in Washington D.C.
With this breakthrough, the board of the IMF will in the next couple of weeks take action on Ghana’s request for a 3-bilion-dollar bailout.
The 2023 IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington DC was a race against time to get Ghana’s balance of payment back on track by securing 3 billion-dollar support from the IMF.
And the securing of the financing assurance was the last hurdle to be cleared, which according to the finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta is now ready after engaging with the Paris Club members, Chinese officials and external bondholders in Washington.
To him this was made possible through tremendous show of support by the IMF and the World Bank.
Crucially, the meetings emphasized the need to maintain Ghana’s financial stability and the World Bank is stepping up to the plate with 250 million dollars.
The 250 million dollars from the World Bank will be used to support the Financial Stability Fund and will receive additional 100 million dollars from the African Development Bank.
Also the Ghanaian delegation to the 2023 IMF/World Bank met with giant players in the US corporate ecosystem such as Boeing, Google, HP, among others and the aim is to get the private sector to continue to drive the Ghana’s economic recovery.
The adverse effects of climate change on Africa and the need to ensure that advocacy for financing for adaptation is guaranteed was high on the agenda of the Ghana.
Mr Ofori-Atta assured the creditors that government will continue to reduce its expenditure to ensure that the debt levels are reduced to the barest minimum.
