Minority Dares Finance Minister: IMF Program Not Breached

The Minority in Parliament has challenged Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson to tell how he arrived at a conclusion that Ghana has breached the conditions spelt out in the IMF Programme the country is currently signed on to.

Dr. Ato Forson told Parliament about the alleged breach when he presented the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government for the 2025 Financial Year.

Addressing journalists in Accra as a response to the Budget Statement, the Minority said the Finance Minister could most likely have relied on fictitious calculations to have arrived at such a conclusion

“What is even more concerning is the Minister proudly declaring to the World based on the voodoo computations he has done; that his country has breached the IMF program when the evidence is to the contrary and when the IMF itself is yet to conduct a review of program implementation in April, 2025.

“How can the Minister of Finance publicly wish his country derailing an IMF program even before the IMF conducts a review? Yet the same Minister in this very budget projected to foreign financing for this budget for the year to include $720 million from IMF and $600 million from World Bank”,  Ranking Member on the Finance Committee, Dr. Mohammed Anim Adam who addressed the media on behalf of the Minority noted.

Dr. Anim Adam, the immediate past former Minister for Finance continued:

“How come the government doesn’t know that when Ghana fails a review because of his manipulated numbers, they will not receive the $1.3 billion from the IMF and the World Bank? Do they know that all the reliefs we got from our debt restructuring – almost $4 billion of outright debt cancellation and another $7.5 billion in debt service relief – will all revert to the status quo before the debt restructuring exercise? Do they even know that when all these happen, Ghana will be brought back to unsustainable debt levels and occasion an economic crisis? How will they fund the programs outlined in the budget? How about investor credibility?

“On the 2025 fiscal framework, another baseless revelation in the budget is the projection of a sudden reduction in the commitment primary deficit from 3.9% of GDP in 2024 to a sudden primary surplus of 1.5% of GDP in 2025. I wish it were that simple to adjust by 5.4 percentage points between one year. This renders the 2025 Budget as not credible and requiring serious scrutiny by the IMF and the Ghanaian people”, Dr. Amin Adam added.

Dr. Amin Adam concluded: “We, the Mighty Minority would like to call on the IMF to speak to this in the spirit of transparency which is one of the cardinal values of the Fund. This should be done as a matter of urgency before much damage is done to our country’s economy.”

MP for Ofoase Ayirebi and Ranking Member on the Economy and Development Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, also questioned the government’s economic projections, particularly its forecasted growth rate for 2025.

“How can a government that claims to be resetting the economy project only 4.4% growth in 2025 after we achieved 5.7% growth in 2024? This budget lacks ambition, and Ghanaians should be worried,” he stated.

He also noted that the government’s much-publicized 24-Hour Economy initiative lacked proper budgetary allocations, raising doubts about its implementation.

“Despite all the talk about the 24-Hour Economy, the budget fails to provide details on how it will be funded. There is no money allocated to it, meaning it is unlikely to take off in 2025,” he observed.

MP for Tano North, Dr. Gideon Boako pointed out that the international markets had already reacted negatively to the 2025 budget, signaling a loss of confidence in Ghana’s economic policy direction.

“Just by presenting such erroneous data, Ghana’s sovereign bond spreads are widening again, nearing 700 basis points. Three months ago, this had declined to the 500s and was heading downward,” he revealed.

He also cited a Bloomberg report from March 11, 2025, which showed that Ghana’s dollar sovereign bonds were among the worst performers in emerging markets after the Finance Minister announced that the country had missed its 2024 primary budget balance target.

“If you remove the fabricated GHS49.2 billion, the actual fiscal deficit would be 3.4%, not 7.6%. The primary balance would be a surplus of 0.6%, not a deficit of 3.1%. This budget is not credible, and the IMF must scrutinize it thoroughly,” he stressed.