World Bank agrees to support Ghana Stability Fund

The Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta has announced that the World Bank has agreed to commit $250 million to support the Ghana Stability Fund.

This, he said, is part of the donor funding expected to come in to support the $1.5 billion dollar fund aimed at assisting banks and other players in the financial sector, affected by the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.

Mr. Ofori-Atta disclosed this at a News Conference in Washington DC to wrap up Ghana’s engagement at the just ended Annual IMF/World Bank spring meetings.

“We need about $750 million immediately. The rest of the funding will be provided by government” he said.

The finance minister noted that Ghana is expecting the African Development Bank to also come on board with some financial support for the fund.

“We are still in discussion with our development partners to come on board to support this initiative.”

It can be recalled that the Finance Minister of Ghana announced the establishment of the Ghana Stability Fund to support players in the financial sector hit by the shocks of the Debt Exchange Programme.

The Fund, he mentioned, will deal with issues of solvency, as well as providing the needed liquidity support to financial institutions that needs some support to stay in business.

Financing Assurance

More so, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta has revealed that the Paris Club of Bilateral Creditors have given the indication of their willingness to extend the required financing assurance to Ghana in the coming weeks.

He announced that government will soon commence a series of meetings with the two groups in the coming weeks.

“The IMF has already indicated that it will move for its Executive Board to approve Ghana’s programme once it secures the required financing assurance from the external creditors.”

He clarified that once the assurance is given by the creditors, the IMF will sign a deal with Ghana.

“What the IMF needs now is the financing assurance from the Paris Club of Bilateral Creditors so it can move to approve Ghana’s programme.”

The finance minister in his speech also expressed optimism that the Chinese government will also agree on debt restructuring programme with Ghana.

He averred that the Chinese government has already shown positive signals of entering into an agreement with government.

Mr. Ken Ofori Atta also took the opportunity to engage private businesses in the U.S to consider expanding their operations to Ghana.

Some of the private businesses included Newmont, Citi Bank, HP, John Deer, KOSMOS, and Google

“Based on this engagement we firmly believe that the country is poised to improve Foreign Direct Investment to Ghana.”

He concluded by noting that some the companies at the meeting promised to increase their investments into Ghana, while others pledged to come to the country to undertake various business operations and investments.