IMF programme ends in December 2018 – Finance Minister clarifies

• Posted on July 19, 2017July 19, 2017
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta says the three-year extended credit facility (ECF) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Ghana will end in December 2018 as scheduled, just that Ghana will not enter into another deal after that.

Mr Ofori-Atta’s latest remarks come in the wake of media reports that government is ending the programme forthwith. At the maiden media encounter at the Flagstaff House on Tuesday, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo mentioned that the 2018 budget statement will be the last under the ECF, which began in April 2015. The programme was contracted by the John Mahama-led government.

While in opposition, President Akufo-Addo had hinted that the deal would be reviewed if he won the elections. At the media encounter, President Akufo-Addo pledged his government’s commitment to see through to the end of the programme but “that is going to be the last budget of the Ghana government under the current IMF programme”. “The programme is going to be completed.” But subsequent media reports suggested the deal will be abrogated, a perception Finance Minister Ofori-Atta sought to clarify in a statement issued on Tuesday.

“After the completion of the programme at the end of the budget cycle in December 2018, government will not extend it,” he stated. “The President’s remarks should, therefore, not be interpreted to mean that the government is pulling out of the IMF programme. “On the contrary, government will continue with and complete the IMF programme through the budget cycle of January 2018through December 2018.”

By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh