Tamale Central MP, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed has expressed delight over the government's Staff-Level Agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

According to him, the Minority in Parliament supports the government going to the IMF since they want the country to get out of its economic difficulties.

Speaking to JoyNews on Tuesday, he said “...if we never wanted us to get out of the woods, I don't think we would have been asking the government to go to the IMF.

“So yes! As to whether I am happy and the NDC is happy as there has been some progress. I will say yes.”

However, he stated that, despite this agreement, the government will struggle to get board approval due to the current opposition to government's debt restructuring.

His comments were in response to a question on whether the government can secure a board level agreement with the IMF soon.

“...the difference between the IMF deal during NDC time and this time is that the mess we have now wasn't the mess we had for which reason we had to go to the IMF. The economy was far better than it is now. The dollar was not changing to the cedi as much as 15 cedis. So if you ask me how soon? That cannot be told.

“The threat to how quickly we get the IMF programme is the decision taken by TUC yesterday because as part of the debt restructuring, the pension funds of pension contributors were factored into it.

“And I believe that IMF would have factored that into their calculations and here is the case TUC per the press conference and all their allied agencies have said, they are not going to participate in this debt restructuring,” he told Parliamentary Affairs Correspondent, Kwaku Asante.

The International Monetary Fund staff and government have reached a Staff-Level Agreement on economic policies and reforms to be supported by a new three-year arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) of about $3 billion.

According to a statement from the fund, the government’s strong reform programme aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability while protecting the vulnerable, preserving financial stability and laying the foundation for strong and inclusive recovery, was key in the decision.