Government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will announce a staff-level agreement today, Tuesday, December 13.

The Ministry of Finance announced this in a post on Monday. 

According to the post, a joint press conference will be held at 10am.

pic.twitter.com/YbKVx54nmK

— Ministry of Finance, Ghana (@MoF_Ghana) December 12, 2022

After this, the IMF board will subsequently negotiate and probably approve a programme for the country.

In recent days, the cedi has been improving in value against the US dollar, sending a signal that a deal between Ghana and the Fund could be reached soon.

The government also began restructuring the country’s debt from Monday, December 5, a major step in reaching a deal with the IMF to start a programme. The Debt Exchange Programme started with domestic debt.

A visiting IMF team led by Stéphane Roudet, Mission Chief for Ghana, has been in the country since December 1, to continue discussions with Ghanaian authorities on the country’s post-COVID-19 programme for economic growth and associated policies and reforms that could be supported by a new IMF lending arrangement.

Ghana retuned to the IMF for support in July 2022 to enable the country meet its payments to the rest of the world and restore the health of government finances.

It is the second time in the past three years, and 17th since independence in 1957 that Ghana has turned to the IMF for help.