Economist Dr Theo Acheampong says the details of Ghana’s IMF deal will likely be made public next week.
This comes on the back of government’s assurance that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will approve a first loan tranche of $600 million as soon as Wednesday, paving the way for disbursement within a week.
According to Dr Acheampong, “soon as the programme and the first release of tranche is released, the IMF will release the latest Article 4 report on Ghana and all the programme conditionalities within that. So I expect that to be done probably sometime next week.
“But subsequently, I also do expect the Ministry of Finance and the government to issue some sort of statement summarizing what they’ve committed the good people of Ghana to and what they’ll be doing about that in terms of reforms going forward.”
Ghana is seeking $3 billion from the Fund to shore up its battered economy. On Friday, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Ghana’s official creditors had provided the necessary financing assurances for the IMF Executive Board to look at signing off on the loan.
Minister of State in the Finance Ministry, Mohammed Amin Adam, told Reuters on Sunday that the first tranche is also expected to come in next week.
“We expect a deal on Wednesday. With the disbursement, there is going to be $600 million as a first tranche just immediately after the approval.”
He said a second tranche of $600 million is expected to be approved after a successful first review of the programme, sometime in November or December, with the rest disbursed in equal tranches of $360 million after semi-annual reviews.
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