EU to resume budgetary support to Ghana

The European Union (EU) is set to resume budgetary support to Ghana.

The Union withheld a £135-million budget support to the West African country due to an alleged payroll scandal that hit the nation recently.

The UK-based Sunday Times newspaper recently reported that the EU’s anti-fraud agency is probing a mammoth corruption scandal running into several million pounds in Ghana, being aid package from the EU to support the country's budget among others.

The money is said to have found its way into the pockets of 'ghost workers' in government.

Speaking to the media in Accra Monday, Head of the EU delegation in Ghana William Hanna said the Union has resolved to resume its assistance to the country following the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) approval of Ghana’s bailout request.

He said the EU is confident the IMF deal will help stabilise Ghana’s economy and also address the imbalances in the wage bill.

Ghana will receive the second tranche of the financial package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in July this year.

This was announced in a report by the IMF.

Ghana’s Central Bank received the first tranche of the $918 million bailout package from the (IMF) on Tuesday April 14.

The amount is expected to shore up the ailing Cedi, which has already depreciated by close to 15 per cent this year after a marginal stability in the last quarter of last year following the infusion of $2.7 billion into the economy through an oversubscribed $1-billion Eurobond instrument and a $1.7-billion syndicated loan from the Ghana Cocoa Board.