Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, the Minister of Finance, says a staff team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be in Ghana in February, to help align the government’s 2025 budget with the ongoing US$3 billion loan-supported programme.
The weeklong visit from Monday, 10th to Friday, 14th February 2025, forms part of periodic discussions on the implementation of the country’s three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) with the Fund.
“The IMF will be in town on the 10th to the 14th of February for us to look at the budget preparation,” the Finance Minister said.
He said this during a working visit to the offices of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Controller and Accountant-Generals Department (CAGD) on Thursday, January 23, 2025.
“As part of the IMF agreement, this year, we may have to do additional tax revenue of 0.6 per cent of GDP [Gross Domestic Product],” he said, and asked GRA to look at better ways to ensure additional revenue was mobilised.
Dr Ato Forson also directed the country’s revenue mobilisation body develop projections for 2025, which would serve as a guide for the government to identify areas that required adjustments for revenue targets to be met.
At the CAGD, the Minister challenged Management and staff to ensure a thorough scrutiny of expenditure in tandem with the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921).
This comes as the country’s debt reaches GHS742 billion in June 2024, comprising 51.7 per cent of external debt and 43.3 per cent of domestic debt, with reforms under the IMF programme aimed at debt sustainability.
“Your work is to ensure that whatever we ask you to pay, you review it and if it meets your law, you pay…we’ll choose the quality of expenditure at the Ministry of Finance [and] going forward, we will consider expenditure that will go a long way to transform our country and to ensure inclusive growth,” he said.
Mr Fiifi Fiavi Kwetey, General Secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), who accompanied the minister, called for a synergy between GRA and CADG to reduce the country’s debt situation.
“As you are aware, we already have massive issues in debt and that’s always coming up because of the dislocation between how much we are earning and how much we are spending” he stated.
“There is an urgency… to help to bring back the economy and grow it,” Mr Fiifi Kwetey, who is a former Deputy of Finance, said.
Mr Kwasi Adjei, the Director-General of CAGD, pledged their resolve to work to transform the country’s financial systems to increase public confidence and subject expenditure to critical control.
“So, we will play our part as a department and make sure that transaction releases can be made, and subject them to our analysis and do that part with payment,” Mr Adjei, said.
Source: GNA
