IMF Approval Not Rushed- Ofori Atta

The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori Atta has shot down claims that the International Monetary Fund’s approval of Ghana’s Extended Credit Facility (ECF) agreement was done in haste.

The loan facility was approved yesterday even before the finalisation of negotiations with external creditors.

Speaking at a joint press conference with the Fund in Washington on Thursday, May 18, Ofori Atta said the approval must rather be seen as an achievement.

“It should be considered an achievement instead of saying it has been rushed. Programme is rich and solid.”

The IMF Mission Chief for Ghana, Mr Stéphane Roudet, couldn’t agree more.

“We have a lot of reasons to be happy and celebrate with the programme approval. I will remind you that it took a few months to agree on a Staff Level Agreement. This was already a very very good news but I think today having the programme approval in just a few month after the Staff Level Agreement is extremely positive.”

According to Mr Roudet, there is a “very strong” commitment from the government of Ghana.

“I have no reason to believe that the programme will not be implemented…we have mechanisms to monitor the programme over the next few years,” he said concerning the government’s Post COVID-19 Program for Economic Growth (PC-PEG) which the IMF says contains “large and frontloaded” fiscal consolidation.

Currently, the Minister for Finance confirms that discussions with the external creditors are at the initial stage with some uncertainty to its outcome.

“As to the issues of negotiations and agreements with external creditors, we really are at the beginning of that discussion and therefore cannot be specifics of what haircut or how-to that will end but so far discussions have been very cordial and we hopeful with the signals given by the Fund,” he said when asked about the negotiations with foreign creditors.