Leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Otchere-Darko, has said Ghana will not be going back to an IMF-supported programme on the back of the recently-approved $1 billion loan facility made available to Ghana.
Mr Otchere Darko’s assertion follows claims that the incumbent government has taken the country back to IMF-supported programmes despite condemning the previous NDC administration for taking a similar decision.
Otchere-Darko, through a twitter post on Tuesday, argued that Ghana’s $1 billion loan facility was just the result of a strong case made by the nation for IMF to double the amount it had initially planned to give to Ghana in its fight against COVID-19.
Ghana pushed for $1 billion IMF support to fight COVID-19. Yes, IMF has approved $1 billion for Ghana. No, this does not mean we are back in an IMF programme. The Fund says it has a $1 trillion war chest to fight COVID-19. Ghana made a strong case for double what IMF had on the table for us, he tweeted.
IMF under its Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) has disbursed $ 1 billion to Ghana to address the fiscal and balance of payments needs that the country is facing in its fight against COVID-19 and improve confidence in the economy.
Ghana’s Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta earlier indicated to Parliament that following the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be a significant hit on the country’s non-oil revenue, which will lead to a revenue shortfall of up to GHC2.2 billion (approximately $377 million) justifying the need for the loan.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is already impacting Ghana severely. Growth is slowing down, financial conditions have tightened, and the exchange rate is under pressure. This has resulted in large government and external financing needs. The authorities have timely and proactively responded to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in Ghana and support affected households and firms, IMF remarked on the approval of the loan facility.
The Fund says it is still monitoring Ghana’s situation and is ready to provide policy advice and further support as needed.
Read Gabby Otchere’s post below:
