Accra, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says Ghana’s new programme with International Monetary Fund (IMF) will not immediately eliminate the present economic difficulties in the country.
However, the three-year arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) of $3 billion, would restore the confidence of Ghana’s trading partners, creditors and investors in the country’s economy.
‘Fellow Ghanaians, access to the IMF facility will not spell the immediate end of the difficulties we are in presently, but the fact that we have been able to negotiate such a deal sends a positive message to our trading partners, creditors and investors.’
Addressing the nation on Sunday night, the President said the bailout deal would lead to the restoration of confidence in Ghana’s economy, which has been ravished in the last year and a half by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian war in Ukraine.
The programme would also lead to the resumption of many of the stalled infrastructural projects across the country.
‘It should lead to the restoration of confidence and the reopening of avenues that had been closed to us this past year and a half. It should also lead to the resumption of many of the infrastructural projects that have stalled.’
The IMF on May 17, 2023, approved the $3 billion bailout package for Ghana.
The Fund has since credited Ghana’s national account with $600 million out of the $3 billion extended credit facility last week. The country will get the rest of the negotiated amount within a period of 36 months.
President Akufo-Addo said it was a painful decision he had to take going to the IMF, ‘especially as my government had gone the extra mile to bring to a successful end the IMF programme we inherited from the previous government.’
He said going to the IMF ‘was not part of the economic transformation agenda I had been pursuing,’ but he had to accept the challenge that the economy required assistance.
‘Who would have imagined President Akufo-Addo would order the closure of airports, offices, factories or schools?
‘We were in extraordinary times, and we took extraordinary measures, and when faced with the realities of the economic crisis last year, I accepted the challenge that the economy required a similar attitude, including the sacrifices many of us have made in recent times.’
The President urged all and sundry to support the government to implement the reforms required to make the IMF programme to work.
‘We must all work together to ensure that this programme is a success…We must all work together to build a better future for Ghana.
‘Fellow Ghanaians, we got ourselves out of a pandemic in which there were no precedents on which to rely, and where even the experts admitted they had no clear-cut solutions. We did it by being resolute, focused, working very hard, and accepting that we had to stick together.
‘With a similar frame of mind and attitude, we shall overcome the economic difficulties as well, sooner rather than later. I have no doubts at all in my mind that we are on the right path, and we would soon start to see significant improvements in the economy and in the living standards of Ghanaians,’ he said.
Source: Ghana News Agency
