You won't get board approval for bailout without assurances from debtors – IMF tells Ghana

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the government of Ghana to get financing assurance from countries and entities it owes for the board of the fund to consider the $3 billion bailout it is seeking.

Responding to a question at a news conference in Washington DC, on the status of Ghana’s IMF bailout, the communications director of the IMF, Julie Kozack, said that Ghana must prove that its debts are sustainable by getting financing assurance from its creditors.

She added that even though the Fund is engaging the government of Ghana, the key change now is the country getting the financing assurance it needs from its partners.

“Financing assurances from partners and creditors are necessary for presenting the programme request to the IMF’s Executive Board for approval,” he said.

Julie Kozack, therefore, urged the debtors of Ghana to give the country the needed assistance.

“We’re calling on bilateral creditors to support Ghana’s effort to restore debt sustainability, form an official creditor committee, and deliver the necessary financing assurances as soon as possible”, she said.

Meanwhile, the Government of Ghana is set to miss out on its target of meeting the Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the $3 billion bailout it is seeking.

This comes as Ghana missed out on the schedule of meetings for the Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the rest of March 2023.

It can be recalled that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo stated during the 2023 State of the Nation’s Address in Parliament on March 8, 2023, that the government was on course "to present to the IMF executive board Ghana’s programme request for a $3 billion extended credit facility by the end of this month”.

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, in February, also warned of the consequences of Ghana not making significant progress in the $3 billion bailout it is seeking from the IMF by the end of March 2023.

According to him, if the government does not go to the fund with something concrete by March, the economic meltdown seen in 2022 might be seen again, citinewsroom.com reported.

“We need to be mindful that we really need to be successful in going to the fund by this March to avoid what we all experienced last year, which we all don’t want to experience again,” the minister is quoted as having told pensioner bondholders, who resisted their inclusion in a domestic debt exchange programme on Monday, February 6, 2023.

The schedule of the IMF Executive Board meeting for the next seven days, which was shared by the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, showed that the board would be meeting nine countries, excluding Ghana, before the end of March.

The fund, however, indicated that the schedule was tentative and could be changed.

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