IMF country rep Koliadina ends duty tour on September 18

IMF country representative Dr Natalia Koliadina is expected to end her mission to Ghana on Septebmer 18.

The Economist is bringing her work to an end after representing of the Fund in Ghana since 2015.

Before coming to Ghana Madam Koliadina was the immediate IMF mission Chief to Lesotho. She took over from Dr Samir Jahjah who also brought his three-year service to an end in 2015.

Madam Natalia Koliadina, a Russian, is a senior economist in the African Department of the IMF.

She holds a PhD in Economics from the George Washington University and another PhD in Political Economy from the Institute of Economics, Russian Academy of Sciences and an M.A from Moscow Academy of Finance.

Within the IMF, she has worked in the European, Policy Development and Review and African Departments and was once the IMF Resident Representative to Belarus

Some key moments of supervision

Dr Natalia supervised over some crucial decisions the fund had to understand on Ghana. One cannot forget about IMF program extension and granting Ghana some waivers to meet some benchmarks under the program.

Dr Natalia’s advice for the government as she exits and key moments

Dr Natalia cited the 2016 elections as one of the most key moments as country representative, adding that, “the most difficult part was probably 2016 and the run-up for the elections and we all know that. The creation was whether the programme will perform or it will not perform so this were difficult times obviously along the line during that period and I hope that we all learn from the past experiences and that it will not really happen again.”

The representative added that she would really miss Ghana. “I don’t hope to say bye bye to Ghana,” she said.

On advice to the government, this is what she had to say: “I think what’s important is really to balance infrastructure development needs with the resources that Ghana has. Ghana has enormous resources in terms of natural resources, people, and young population. This all needs to be put to use, the same time it does not only require government finance.”