Ghana to Seek More IMF Funding, Finance Minister Designate Says
Ghana’s new leader’s pick to be finance minister, Cassiel Ato Forson, said the West African nation hopes to secure more support from the International Monetary Fund and other multilaterals.
“We are committed to working with the IMF and are working hard to get more funding from the IMF, World Bank and international development partners,” Forson told reporters in the capital Accra on Thursday. “We know what investors have gone through, we can’t have a second wave of economic crisis, we will work for the good of all.”
The yield on Ghana’s dollar bonds due in July 2035 fell four basis points to 10% as at 4:56 p.m. local time.
Ghana, once an investor darling, is just starting to recover from one of its worst economic and debt crises. In 2022, the country reluctantly sought a $3 billion bailout from the Washington-based lender because it couldn’t keep up with debt payments that were consuming more than half of government revenues.
Implementation of reforms under the facility helped it rework its debt and exit default in October. Its program with the IMF is due to end in May 2026.
Domestic Bond Market Return
Forson, 46, a former deputy finance minister, who was nominated to his new role earlier in the day by freshly-inaugurated President John Mahama, said the nation wants to target multilaterals for additional funding because an over-reliance on treasury bills, which it has resorted to since its default, is very harmful.
“We are yet to engage the fund but if you look at the gross financing needs of the government, there is the need to get cheaper sources of financing,” he said.
Forson, who is critical to Mahama meeting his election promise to steady an economy beset by crippling debt and high living costs, also said fiscal consolidation will be key to curb inflation — which averaged 23% last year — to single digits.
It will also improve “our credit ratings,” and allow the nation to return to the domestic bond market, he said. “We hope to be able to achieve that by the mid-year,” he said.
Forson’s appointment as finance minister still has to be confirmed by the parliament where Mahama’s National Democratic Congress controls nearly two-thirds of seats.
