Ghana will be provided a credit facility by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in February this year, President Akufo-Addo has revealed.

While interacting with some students from Harvard University in the United States at the Jubilee House on Wednesday, the president said “as we speak and hopefully by the end of this month or latest by the middle of February, a full-blown IMF agreement will be put in place.”

President Akufo-Addo believes that the economic assistance will help “rebuild the confidence of outsiders in our economy and our own self-confidence in the manner in which the economy can proceed.”

The government has reached a Staff-Level Agreement with the IMF team, however, it is yet to be presented to the Fund’s Management and Executive Board for approval.

IMF’s Mission for Ghana, Stéphane Roudet, has revealed that government must first prove that “the programme is fully financed” and the “fiscal consolidation path, comprehensive debt restructuring that the authorities have launched will be sufficient to reestablish debt sustainability” before the Staff-Level Agreement can be presented.

Until then, Ghana would be unable to access the $3billion in its new three-year arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) with the Fund.

The President is however optimistic that “we will succeed in implementing the various considerations of the staff level agreement that will enable us to have a full IMF agreement.”

He remains optimistic at a time when his government is yet to implement one of its debt restructuring measures, Debt Domestic Exchange. Debt restructuring is one of the conditions Ghana is supposed to meet before it receives support from the IMF.

There has been serious pushback from bondholders, who insist they will not sign on to the Debt Domestic Exchange programme.

Convener of the individual bondholder’s forum, Senyo Hosi has described the programme as suppressive and has urged individual bondholders to reject the offer.

“Anybody who’s been contacted by your bank, write back to your bank saying you will not accept it. Anybody who has his money in any of the funds, whether it is the data bank, M fund, or a balance fund, etc do not accept it. It does not augur well for your good or that sort of economy, you are under no compulsion to accept it,” he said.

The deadline for the invitation to the programme is Monday, January 16, 2023.

Source: The Independent Ghana| Andy Ogbarmey-Tettey