APA – Accra (Ghana)
The report that Ghana is set to secure final approval for the $3 billion bailout programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May after tapping the goodwill of the fund and key bilateral creditors to fast track the debt restructuring process is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Graphic reports that Ghana is set to secure final approval for the $3 billion bailout programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May after tapping the goodwill of the fund and key bilateral creditors to fast track the debt restructuring process, Graphic Online has gathered.
Financial assurance from the bilateral creditors, which is the last hurdle for Ghana, is due later this month, to pave the way for the request to be submitted to the IMF Executive Board for consideration and approval in May.
Two people with deep insights on the talks have told Graphic Online’s Maxwell Akalaare Adombila who is in Washington D.C., USA, covering the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings.
“Once the request goes before the board, I am pretty sure it will not encounter any challenges and so a deal in early or mid-May is possible,” one source said in Washington D.C., where global leaders on the economy have converged for the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings.
Already, the Managing Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, has said that she was optimistic about the fund’s Executive Board granting final approval to Ghana’s request soon.
The newspaper says that this year’s fishing closed season will be observed between July and August, the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development has said.
While canoe and inshore fishers would observe the closed season between July 1 and 31, industrial trawlers would observe it from July 1 to August 31, it added.
At a stakeholders’ meeting to discuss the 2022 closed season report in Accra Thursday (April 13, 2023), the sector Minister, Mavis Hawa Koomson, said the ministry was engaging neighbouring countries in the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC) to implement the fishing closed season at the same period.
She said fishery resources had been the economic backbone of the many fishing communities in the country for centuries; however, the fisheries sector was being threatened following the depletion of fish stock, as shown by low catches confirmed by fishers.
The decline in catches, she said, could be attributed to climate change, illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing, excessive fishing capacity, overfishing, among other factors.
The implementation of the closed season, she said, was part of a series of strategies to recover fish stock and ensure sustainable management of fisheries resources.
She stressed that the closed season gains would not be realised “if we all do not collectively combat IUU fishing activities”.
The Graphic also reports that the United States Department of State has published its annual Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2022, in which Ghana has been cited for numerous human rights violations.
The report, released in April 2023, highlighted a range of abuses including arbitrary or unlawful killings, extrajudicial killings, and torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment carried out by the government or on its behalf.
The report noted that police impunity was due to corruption, brutality, inadequate training, lack of oversight, and an overloaded judicial system.
It said the police often failed to respond to crime reports and demanded payment for transport and other operational expenses from the public before taking action.
Additionally, the report detailed the arrest of Oliver Barker-Vormawor, an activist critical of the government, by police on February 11, 20222.
Barker-Vormawor was initially charged with misdemeanours for making false statements on Facebook, but the charges were later upgraded to felony treason. He spent 35 days in jail before being granted bail by a judge.
According to the report, there are severe limitations on free expression and media, including violence and threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly, and government corruption.
The Ghanaian Times says that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is projecting that Ghana’s Debt to GDP Ratio will increase further to 98.7 per cent by the end of 2023.
This was captured in its Fiscal Outlook Report released at the Annual IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington DC, USA.
Ghana recently undertook a Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) to reduce the country’s debt stock.
According to myjoyonline.com, the IMF in the report also forecast the Debt-to-GDP Ratio would reduce marginally to 92.8 per cent in 2024.
Launching the report, the Director of Fiscal Affairs at the IMF, Vitor Gaspar, advised the government of Ghana to ensure that fiscal policy is consistent with monetary policy to restore price and financial stability while supporting the most vulnerable.
“Abrupt changes in financial conditions also call for fiscal restraint to tackle fiscal vulnerabilities. To that end, governments will need to give greater priority to rebuilding fiscal buffers by developing credible risk-based fiscal frameworks,” Mr Gasper said.
GIK/APA
The March 2023 Bank of Ghana’s Economic and Financial Data report showed that Ghana’s Total Debt Stock ending November 2022 stood at ¢575 billion, representing 93.5 per cent of GDP.
However, based on the Gross Debt Levels projection, that could be going up by about 5 per cent for 2023.
Some analysts have stated that the current debt restructuring by the government may impact the debt numbers by the end of 2023.
GIK/APA
Press zooms in on report of IMF’s $3bn bailout programme for Ghana in May, others
