Ghana on track with IMF programme, seems to be returning to financial sustainability – Prof. Peprah
Ghana’s expected agreement with its external creditors in the coming weeks shows the country is on track with the International Monetary Fund programme, Associate Professor of Finance at Andrews University, Williams Peprah, has stated.
According to him, Ghana seems to be returning to financial sustainability.
UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit in its recent report indicated that Ghana had advanced with its negotiation for external debt restructuring.
Speaking in an interview, Professor Peprah said Ghana should convince China to restructure all of the about $5 billion plus of its loans.
“It will be glad to see China also accepting a deal [debt exchange] like this because they are also seen as our external creditors and it will really help us. This is because we owe about $5 billion plus to China which is very significant. It gives some confidence to the fact that probably the IMF strategy or guidelines are being complied with and Ghana seems to be coming back on track to return to financial sustainability”.
Professor Peprah who is with Andrews University in Michigan also said the IMF’s successful first review of the Economic Credit Facility (ECF) in September 2023 will pave the way for the country to meet all the needed requirements going forward.
“The first review will help ensure we’ve tied the knot on all the needed issues. Because if the first review ends well we may have to make sure that by November [2023] we have met all the needed requirements, especially with the creditors, both domestic and external and other economic conditions”.
“Probably those ones are easy for us to achieve – we are almost there, the difficult one is getting the external creditors to agree. From the news we are hearing this is going to be achieved”, he added.”
He continued that the economy will have recovered in 2024 if not for the 2024 elections, which he says will drive expenditure and may pose a risk.
“Fairly we are on track and we see a positive review coming up and it will bring some confidence. If not for the upcoming elections in 2024, we should see the economy being normal. We know that most times in Ghana we are not disciplined when it comes to elections period”, he added.