Ken Ofori-Atta: Removal of Finance chief won’t affect negotiations with IMF – Fitch
Removal of Ken Ofori-Atta as Finance Minister, will not adversely affect Ghana’s ongoing negotiations with the IMF, research agency, Fitch Solutions has said.
According to Fitch Solutions, this is because a change of a finance minister would happen quickly and hence would not result in delays in talks with the IMF.
“Should the finance minster be replaced, negotiations with the IMF would likely remain largely unaffected. A change of finance minister would most likely not impact the timeline of IMF negations, we believe that in this scenario, a change of finance minister would happen quickly and would not result in significant delays in talks with the IMF,” it said.
“Moreover, local media have identified current NPP MP Mark Assibey-Yeboah as the party’s favourite to replace Ofori-Atta. Given that Assibey-Yeboah had already called on the government to resort to the IMF in H122 – while Ofori-Atta remained opposed to an IMF bailout – we believe that he would take a more accommodative approach towards negotiations with the Fund,” it added.
According to Fitch Solutions, there is growing pressure on President Akufo-Addo to address corruption and economic mismanagement allegations that could eventually lead to his dismissal of Ken Ofori-Atta as Finance Minister.
Failure on the part of the President to dismiss the Finance Minister, Fitch says, will result in the MPs voting against or abstaining from government legislation/policies brought to Parliament as already threatened by the NPP MPs, paralysing the already slow policy making process and delay necessary fiscal reforms as well as President Akufo-Addo’s wider political agenda.
Meanwhile, Fitch Solutions has averred that Ghana will reach a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by the first quarter of 2023.
This will mean that the country could secure a programme from the Fund by the end of quarter 1, 2023 or the second quarter of 2023.
Some economists and experts were anticipating that the country could reach a staff-level agreement with the Fund before the end of 2022 to pave way for a programme by the first quarter of 2023.
