Ghana: IMF to name new Country Representative this month
A new IMF Country Representative for Ghana, is expected to be named later this month.
Dr Albert Touna Mama is expected to bring to an end his two-year term of service as the Fund’s representative to Ghana after being appointed to office in October 2018.
Until this appointment, Dr Touna Mama worked at the African Department of the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC.
Before joining the IMF, Dr Touna Mama also worked with the International Department Bank of Canada in Ottawa.
He was also a senior lecturer at the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town since 2009.
He holds a PhD from the University of Montreal. He also holds a Diploma and a Master in Economics from the University of Bordeaux-Montesquieu, France.
Meanwhile, speaking on Ghana’s economy in an interview at a farewell dinner, Dr Mama averred he is optimistic Ghana’s economy will bounce back from its present challenges including rising inflation and the exchange rate depreciation.
According to him, the country’s economy will return to the path of growth and stable macroeconomic environment, and therefore Ghanaians and investors should have confident in the government.
He said Ghana has a proud history of coming out of challenges in ways that had built strong buffers and adequate resilience for the future.
“I am confident about the country’s resilience, this country has known a lot of shocks and we have navigated those together. There is no reason it cannot navigate the current ones,” he stressed.
Ghana’s economic predicament has led to the country being downgraded by all the three top global rating agencies – Fitch, Moody’s and S&P. This has denied it access to funds on the international capital market.
Again, prices of some goods and services have gone up significantly, whilst the rapid depreciation of the cedi have impacted on the cost of living and doing business in the country.
