President Akufo-Addo’s explanation for the collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a way to repair in the short run, Ghana’s public finance, which has been severely hit by the effects of COVID-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has explained that his government decided to seek collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a way to repair in the short run, Ghana’s public finance, which has been severely hit by the effects of COVID-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“I am confident that with determination, hard work, unity and the proverbial Ghanaian sense of enterprise. We will succeed, we will make it and indeed this too shall pass” he added.
It was President Akufo-Addo’s first public comment since the government decided to engage the IMF.
He was speaking at a swearing in ceremony of 10 Ghanaian envoys at the Jubilee House Thursday evening (July 7, 2022).
He explained that all the countries of world were working to return themselves to a state of normalcy following the devastating impact of the pandemic whose effects have been exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Economies have been plunged into recession, businesses have collapsed, lives and livelihoods have been disrupted, food and fuel prices have escalated dramatically as global and domestic inflation mount,” he noted.
President Akufo-Addo was hopeful that the world will bounce back on the road of growth and prosperity.
The newspaper says that the ongoing discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) entered day two Thursday with the country’s debt and revenue situations taking center stage.
While discussions on the debt centered on its high levels and how to reduce it, those around the revenue revolved around the issues limiting optimal collections and how the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) could be supported to enhance mobilisation.
Graphic Online sources said the technical meetings featured presentations featuring experts from the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the GRA on the status of the debt and the general resource mobilisation and allocation strategies of the government in recent times, reports Maxwell Akalaare Adombilla.
The meetings came after an earlier one with the Vice President and Head of the Economic Management Team (EMT), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, during which Dr Bawumia and his team updated the visiting IMF Mission with data on the economy, government policies and programmes and the nature of challenges facing the economy and the support sought.
Thursday’s meetings followed the opening of formal discussions between the IMF, led by its Mission Chief, Carlo Sdralevich, and the government on Tuesday in Accra towards securing an economic support programme to revitalise the economy and address the debt challenges.
The government is seeking the support of the fund to prosecute a three-year programme that it dubbed the Enhanced Domestic Programme (EDP).
The Ghanaian Times reports that Ghana is likely to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for as much as $1.5 billion in a quest to strengthen its finances and regain access to international capital markets.
This was disclosed by the country’s Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, in a phone interview with Bloomberg, hours before talks begin with the IMF in Accra.
Until now, Ghana, the continent’s second-biggest gold producer, had refused to seek IMF support to rescue an economy crippled by the pandemic, rampant inflation, and a depreciating currency, despite analysts warning it is close to a debt crisis.
Mr Ofori-Atta stated that it was a hard decision, but the right one “because the global outlook was really grim and its negative effects on the Ghanaian economy was glaring.”
After Moody’s Investors Service cut Ghana’s rating, the nation lost access to overseas capital markets and “hence our inability to get the needed dollars, which created balance of payment problems and a possible rundown of our reserves.”
Mr Ofori-Atta said on Tuesday in an emailed statement that the government’s plan, which would last at least three years, aims to restore debt sustainability and macroeconomic stability, improve the monetary policy of the central bank, and provide buffers against economic shocks.
“This programme allows for a catalytic engagement, including regaining access to the capital market,” Mr Ofori-Atta said in the interview, adding that Egypt’s talks with IMF earlier this year encouraged the North African nation to sell Samurai bonds.
Furthermore, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is expected to have a substantial impact on Ghana’s exchange rate, particularly in the construction, agriculture, and international trade sectors.
Russia and Ukraine accounted for around 2.5 per cent of Ghana’s total, non-oil imports and 0.4 per cent of Ghana’s total exports in the recent past.
Ghana has been working to reduce its debt, which at the end of March 2022 was 78 per cent of its GDP, up from 62.5 per cent five years earlier.
The newspaper says that the Ministry of Information has said it is working closely with the National Media Commission (NMC) and other key actors in the media space on a number of interventions, aimed at safeguarding media freedom and safety of journalists in the country.
The sector minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, announced that one of such measures was the establishment of the Coordinated Mechanism, which was directed to achieve results of interventions.
He said these included regular training for state and non-state actors on the safety of journalists and the need to ensure that journalists and media practitioners were not harmed when carrying out their duties or mandate.
The minister explained that the coordinated mechanism was also meant to provide annual accountability platforms for reported infringement concerning the safety of journalists and validate such infringements.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah, who appeared before Parliament, was responding to a question asked by Francis -Xavier Sosu, Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina, who wanted to know measures being taken to safeguard media freedom guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution.
The minister said pursuant to provision in the 1992 Constitution, which established the NMC to ensure the freedom and independence of the media, the commission in collaboration with the Ministry of Information inaugurated the Office of the Coordinated Mechanism on the Safety of Journalists in May 2021, with the mandate to protect journalists.
He said the NMC working with other stakeholders has developed a framework for implementation of the Coordinated Mechanism with the aim of providing guidelines to the National Coordinating Committee on the Safety of Journalists.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah said the framework also proposed a multi-stakeholder platform groups from amongst journalists’ associations, representatives of the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, the three arms of government, media development partners, civil society organisations and journalism training institutions.
He said institutions of state with focus on peace building, arbitration and civic education such as National Peace Council and National Commission for Civic Education formed part of the framework.
GIK/APA