Those were the words of Mr. Stéphane Roudet, IMF Mission Chief for Ghana, in a roundtable discussion with some Ghanaian journalists at the just ended spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group, in Washington, DC, USA.
“Once we go to the Board, we publish the staff report, [and] you will see that the macroeconomic framework that we have in there assumes that those payables are going to be repaid at some point,” Mr. Roudet said.
He was quick to add: “the pace at which the government will be able to pay down those payables will very much depend on their ability to raise the necessary financing.”
He stated for example that the government in the 2025 budget had made provisions for repayment of arrears below the line of GHS13 billion as part of efforts to meet the country’s debt obligations.
Mr. Roudet was responding to a question posed by the Ghana News Agency on the capability of the government to meet its payables on the back of a large accumulation in 2024.
“The magnitude of the problem is quite large. Our assessment is that the primary balance last year on a commitment basis was a deficit of about three and a quarter per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” he said.
That compared to a surplus of half a per cent of GDP under the ongoing IMF programme target, he said, noting that the staff mission discussed with the Ghanaian authorities, short-term interventions to put the country’s fiscals back on track.
“What we have seen from that standpoint is a strong budget that continues to stick to the programme objectives and in particular for this year it’s a primary surplus of one and a half percent of GDP. It’s underpinned by strong efforts on the spending side but also on the revenue side,” he stated.
He said the Fund had observed the implementation of some fiscal reforms already, including an amendment to the Procurement Act.
The changes to the Act made it necessary for the Ministry of Finance to issue commencement authorisation before a public procurement agency could grant a permit for procurement, irrespective of the mode.
“That puts the Ministry of Finance and the institution that holds the purse of the country very much at the centre of the project implementation process,” the IMF Mission Chief for Ghana said.
He said the mission staff and the Ghanaian authorities also discussed some important measures to tackle the structural challenges of the country, such as the Fiscal Framework and Fiscal Council.
Those reforms, when implemented effectively, he said would bolster the country’s fiscals, positioning it better to meet its debt obligations.
Ghana has been implementing a three-year -US$3bn Extended Credit Facility (ECF) programme with the IMF since 2023 – the country’s 17th loan-supported package with the Bretton Woods institution.
The programme was aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability for economic resilience and lay the foundation for stronger and more inclusive growth.
It started with the erstwhile President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufu-Addo administration and had since been taken over by the new government led by President John Dramani Mahama, and expected to end in 2026.
GNA
