Government is set to meet the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) tomorrow to present its decision not to extend the programme.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta in his mid-year budget review indicated that government’s economic team will meet the board in August.
Already, President Akufo-Addo has stated that government will not extend the programme when it ends in December 2018.
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund in September 2016 approved the third tranche of $116.2 million under Ghana’s three-year programme with the fund.
The third approval brought the amount disbursed so far under the programme to $464.6 million.
Ghana entered the three-year arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for about US$918 million on April 3, 2015.
Speaking to Citi Business News, the Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei stated that the government economic team is ready to put its decisions before the board.
“As far as I know, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, tomorrow is the day that was scheduled for the board meeting. Unless something has changed but I am not aware that anything has changed”.
Dr. Akoto stressed that government will complete the programme by end of the 2018 even though the programme was scheduled to end in April.
He explained that it is important for the programme to end with the financial budget of 2018.
“The programme is supposed to be completed by a certain time. It is not possible to finish it in April, so we have to go through our budget cycle of 2018 to finish it. That is the statement government put out. It is not possible to finish it in April of next year. We will do our budget through to the next end of next year to be able to complete the programme,” he said.
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By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana