Ghana is set to receive the first tranche of US$3billion credit facility from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) tomorrow Friday, May 19 2025, minister for Finance Ken Ofori-Atta has disclosed.
The Executive Board of the Fund gave the approval following its meeting and Ghana will receive an immediate amount of $600 million as tranche one.
Speaking at a joint press conference between the Government of Ghana and officials of the IMF, Mr Ofori-Atta outlined a roadmap for continued financial support from the IMF over the next three years.
“There is a $600 million release, and we will be working with the IMF to see if we can get it by tomorrow, and then we will move on to the next 6 months which will be another $600 million, and then we move on to about 5 different tranches every 6 months in the periods ahead.”
The $3 billion bailout approved by the Board of the Fund at its Wednesday Metting is aimed at revitalizing the country’s struggling economy due to preexisting fiscal and debt vulnerabilities.
According to the minister, the receipt is expected to boost country’s coffers and help it work towards the target of foreign reserves amounting to the equivalent of three months of imports by 2026.
Mr Ofori-Atta assured that Ghana will not misuse the funds and promised that the funds will be applied judiciously to help the country meet its objectives.
On December 12, 2022, the IMF reached a staff-level agreement with Ghanaian authorities on a new arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility.
After several negotiations, the Fund finally release the first tranche of the facility to enable Ghana recover from its debt ridden state into sustainable levels.
The second tranche of $600 million is expected in November/December this year all things being equal.
Ghana has been struggling to recover from external shocks including the twin effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine war which impacted fuel prices premised on preexisting fiscal and debt vulnerabilities.
Even though Ghana is the world’s second largest producer of cocoa and the leading producer of gold in Africa, the country is import dependent and does not earn much through exports to balance its imports.
The IMF facility is therefore designed to partly help deal with this balance of payments deficit and to help slow inflation rate and stabilize the local currency in anticipation of cushioning citizens through stable prices of goods and services.
Analysts however believe the deal has come with its attendant insensitive conditions such as increase prizes in utility bills and a total freeze on public sector employment among others since government cannot could not discipline itself.
By Christian Kpesese
Email: kpesese81christian@gmail.com
