BoG to finance government’s budget at 5%

The Bank of Ghana will now be able to finance government’s budget at five percent following the passage of the BoG Amendment Act which is now awaiting Presidential Assent.

“I cannot really speak on that particular issue, that is, in terms of what actually informed the parliamentarians to keep the financing bit at 5% of previous year’s revenue,” the newly appointed Head of Communications at the Bank of Ghana, Bernard Otabil, said when he paid a working visit to Starr FM.

He added: “Well, that has been the speculation all along that some are talking about the fact that the IMF is only going to release money based on what happens with this particular bill. Yes, of course! There are elements in the bill which are part of the IMF negotiations, for instance, the zero financial issues and so on and so forth.

“But one thing we should bear in mind is that in issues of this nature, it’s all about negotiations and I will stick to what the Finance Minister has already made known to the general public that he doesn’t believe that the agreement reached in parliament yesterday would have any impact on the IMF negotiations that were done something back. And therefore he doesn’t believe in that part of renegotiation going forward.”

The Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Finance Committee in Parliament had earlier kicked against the zero financing policy as part of the International Monetary Fund’s three-year programme.