APA – Accra (Ghana)
The report that Ghana has reached a Staff-Level Agreement (SLA) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after going through successfully the first review of its 36-month Extended Credit Facility (ECF) with the Fund for $3 billion balance of payment support is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that Ghana has reached a Staff-Level Agreement (SLA) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after going through successfully the first review of its 36-month Extended Credit Facility (ECF) with the Fund for $3 billion balance of payment support.
Thus the country is expected to receive $600 million from the Fund before the end of November, this year, to bring the total funding under the ECF so far to $1.2 billion, if the review is approved by the IMF management and formally completed by the Fund Executive Board.
Ghana last year approached the IMF for a three-year $3-billion ECF support to implement its homegrown programme Post-COVID Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG) to restore macroeconomic stability and reduce growing public debt partly influenced by the coronavirus pandemic.
Addressing a joint press conference by the IMF, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) in Accra on Friday, the IMF Mission Chief for Ghana, Stephanie Roudet, said the review formed part of the review which would be done every six months as part of the IMF three-year ECF deal with Ghana.
He said for the Executive Board to approve the SLA to enable Ghana to receive the second tranche of funding, the country would have to complete its negotiation with external creditors as part of Ghana’s debt exchange programme.
Mr Roudet said he was impressed about the progress made since the IMF Board approved the ECF with Ghana.
Mr Roudet indicated that Ghana had met its non-oil revenue mobilisation target, adding that ambitious structural fiscal reforms were bolstering domestic revenues, improving spending efficiency, strengthening public financial and debt management, and enhancing transparency.
The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, said the progress the country sought to achieve as part of the IMF supported PC-PEG programme was on course, indicating that the stability that the Ghanaian economy was very much in need of had been achieved.
“We said we have ‘Turned the Corner’ and the major economic indicators such as inflation and exchange rate continues to drop and stabilise, and there is confidence returning in the economy,” he stated.
The newspaper says that the government has begun preparations towards building vaccine sufficiency as it weans itself off the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunisation (GAVI) support over the next four years, the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, has said.
GAVI, is an independent public-private partnership and multilateral finance structure that aims at increasing worldwide access to the use of vaccines, particularly among vulnerable children.
Following the attainment of lower middle-income status, Ghana will from 2027 be removed from the list of beneficiary countries receiving free vaccines under GAVI support.
It is expected that during the transition phase the government would bear 100 per cent cost of vaccine production and its timely distribution to sustain immunisation services in the country.
Per the Vaccine Alliance transition policy that aims at moving countries from development assistance to domestic financing of immunisation programmes, Ghana would stay in accelerated transition until 2029 and fully transit by January, 2030.
Speaking at a high level meeting to discuss the draft transition plan in Accra on Friday Mr Agyeman-Manu indicated that Ghana’s transition from GAVI called for coordinated efforts to become fully self-financing and ensure a sustainable vaccine regime.
He said, health expenditure over the years had been poorly distributed with a huge chunk going into workforce compensation, a situation that often undermined quality service delivery.
Additionally, external assistance for health continues to dwindle representing only 11 per cent of total health spending.
The Graphic reports that the Ministry of Information has condemned an attack on United Television (U TV), a private television station in Accra.
In a statement released today, the Ministry said it had made a report to the Ghana Police Service to intervene in the incident, which involved a group of persons entering UTV’s studios without authorization to express displeasure at the content of a live TV programme.
The police subsequently arrested 16 persons at the premises of UTV, and investigations are currently ongoing.
The Ministry condemned in no uncertain terms any unauthorized entry into media organizations, in protest at media content, or interference with media work.
“The right to free expression and the freedom of the media are key pillars of our democracy and must be fiercely protected,” the statement said. “The Ministry stands with the police and the courts in the conduct of their duties.”
The Ministry also encouraged the media, especially broadcast media show hosts and panellists, to do their utmost to help promote national cohesion even as they exercise their fundamental freedoms.
The attacks on UTV have been condemned by the National Media Commission and other media organizations in the country who have called on the police to investigate the attacks and bring the perpetrators to justice.
The newspaper says the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has said it has identified a number of businesses that are violating the tax law through its ongoing VAT enforcement exercise in the Greater Accra Region.
Through the VAT enforcement exercise, the taskforce found out that many businesses had not registered with the authority, while those that had registered were either not issuing VAT invoices or were engaged in selective issuance of VAT invoices.
Consequently, the GRA has indicated that it will intensify its enforcement exercises to compel non tax compliant businesses to honour their tax obligations in line with the law.
Head of the Accra Central Enforcement Unit of the GRA, Assistant Commissioner, Joseph Annan, speaking to journalists in Accra after one of the enforcement exercises, said: “What it means is that, we have to do a lot more compliance checks. “Businesses operating in the country that have failed to register with the authority or comply with tax laws will be compelled to do the right thing,” he said.
The GRA has since June, this year, stepped up its tax compliance and enforcement efforts in a bid to meet its target of collecting GH¢106 billion for 2023, representing a year-on-year growth of 40 per cent.
To meet this target, the authority had indicated some of the measures it would employ to include the full automation of its operations and deployment of technology in revenue collection.
The latest exercise is the VAT enforcement exercise, which saw the team visiting 10 companies within the La Nkwantanang and Adentan municipalities.
GIK/APA
Ghana: Press zooms in on second tranche of IMF’s $600m, others
