Ghana is anticipated to receive the first payment of $600 million from the $3 billion credit facility of the International Monetary Fund on Friday, May 19, 2023, barring any last-minute hiccups.
On May 18, the IMF team and Ghana’s Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, held a press conference together.
“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,’’ Mr. Ofori-Atta said.
Ernest Addison, the governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), also expressed his opinion that, “just for your information, we have had swift advice, today to receive the money. Value date tomorrow [May 19] $604 million’’.
On May 17, 2023, Ghana received the IMF’s final approval. To stabilize its economy, the West African nation is requesting a $3 billion Balance of Payments support.
More information about the agreement was provided in IMF press release 126.
The IMF stated in a statement that the government of Ghana has implemented a plan to tighten expenditure controls and prevent the accumulation of arrears, which led to this approval of the deal.
In order to ensure that only projects that profit from approved budgets and quarterly allotments can obtain procurement approvals to award contracts, the Fund states that public procurement will be fully integrated with the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).
The Public Financial Management Act’s sanctions will be more strictly enforced, according to a statement from the Fund, including fines for covered entities that go over their budgetary allotments and allocations.
As reported earlier, IMF was expected to deliver the first tranche of cash to Ghana this week, according to Mohammed Amin Adam, Ghana’s State Minister for Finance.
He stated that the first loan tranche of $600 million is anticipated to be disbursed to Reuters on Sunday, May 14, 2023.
