Ghana will not quit IMF deal but wants changes, says president-elect

Ghana’s president-elect John Dramani Mahama has said he will not abandon the country’s US$3 billion rescue package with the International Monetary Fund, but wants to review the deal to tackle wasteful state spending and upgrade the energy sector.

Mahama, a former president who won the December 7 election by a wide margin, said late on Friday he would also seek to tackle inflation and currency depreciation to mitigate a cost-of-living crisis in the West African nation.

Mahama had said previously that he would renegotiate the IMF programme secured by the government of outgoing President Nana Akufo in 2023.

“When I talk about renegotiation, I don’t mean we’re jettisoning the programme,” Mahama said.

“We’re bound by it but what we’re saying is within the programme, it should be possible to make some adjustments to suit reality.”

Ghana’s electoral commission declared Mahama, who was in office from 2012-16, winner of the presidential poll with 56.55 per cent of the vote.

The president-elect of the world’s number two cocoa producer inherits a nation emerging from its worst economic crisis in a generation, with turmoil in its vital cocoa and gold industries.