The IMF Mission team working on Ghana’s program are expected in town today to open what many are describing as the final round of talks before a program can be sealed.
For many, if this round of discussions does not make much progress, then government’s target of securing a program by April may not be realized. This is because for Ghana’s program to be considered by the Board of IMF in April, negotiations must be sealed around this time for the necessary scrutiny to be done by the staff before it forward’s it to the board.
For some, the team’s visit has been necessitated by concerns that government is not doing much in terms of fast tracking the process on issues raised about the economy, before a deal is closed.
Some of the issues, Joy Business gathers could come up in the talks, are progress made in cleaning up the pay roll, and measures instituted to check rising public debt and government expenditure.
However for some, this sudden pressure from the Fund with its visit could be coming from some investors in the US who want to invest in the power sector in Ghana, under the Millennium Challenge Account program. Some analysts say any delay in securing an IMF program , could result in the Ghana cedi depreciating again against the US dollar, mainly because , some investors are said to be holding on to their capital, until, negotiations on an IMF program is closed .
The IMF technical team is already in town since Monday, engaging other government officials, including Bank of Ghana on technical support programs, like revenue mobilization and monetary policy.
Source: Myjoyonline.com
