The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has signalled three key challenges confronting Ghana’s US$3 billion loan-supported programme implementation, despite observing a “broadly satisfactory” performance.
They are, operationalisation of the Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS), which was rephased into three stages due to implementation challenges, and reforms to earmarked funds, where authorities opted for an alternative reform approach.
“Additional delays stemmed from validating and updating the beneficiary registry for the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme and reforming the asset declaration regime,” an IMF Spokesperson noted.
This was stated in an email correspondence with the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday evening, following the IMF Executive Board’s approval of the country’s fifth review under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement.
The three-year programme, approved by the IMF Executive Board in May 2023, is to help restore macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability, including reforms to build resilience and lay the foundation for stronger and more inclusive growth.
So far, there have been five reviews on the programme implementation, with the latest review completion on Wednesday, December 17, allowing an immediate disbursement of about US$385 million, bringing Ghana’s total disbursements to about US$2.8 billion.
Responding to GNA’s questions on the challenges, the IMF Spokesperson indicated that, “of the eleven structural benchmarks for the current ECF review, four were met, two were implemented with delays, one was implemented as a prior action, and four were missed.”
Nonetheless, the country met all end-June 2025 performance criteria, implementing key reforms such as the audit of 2024 payables, taxpayer data cleaning, and submitting the 2026 budget in line with programme objectives in the fifth review.
The Fund cited complexity of legal, technical, and institutional constraints as the challenges for the implementation of the three key complex structural reforms, calling for continued reforms to maintain macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability, while addressing longstanding structural vulnerabilities.
Mr. Bo Li, Deputy Managing Director, in a press release issued by the IMF after the completion of the fifth review, reiterated that Ghanaian authorities showed strong programme ownership by decisively implementing ambitious corrective actions after the 2024 policy slippages.
“These efforts, coupled with structural reforms, have driven a stronger-than-anticipated recovery in growth, brought inflation within the Bank of Ghana’s target range, and supported robust reserve accumulation,” Mr. Bo Li stated.
He noted that sustaining fiscal discipline required stronger revenue administration, improved public financial management, and better oversight of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), which posed significant fiscal risks.
He added that efforts to improve transparency and oversight need to continue, particularly related to public disclosure requirements and management of SOEs in the gold, cocoa, and energy sectors.
“Ambitious structural reforms to help create an environment more conducive to private sector investment, and to enhance governance and transparency remain key to boosting the economy’s potential and underpinning sustainable job creation,” said, Mr. Bo Li.
Ghana’s ECF-arrangement was built on the government’s Post COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG), at a time that large external shocks exacerbated the country’s pre-existing fiscal and debt vulnerabilities.
The economic challenge resulted in a loss of international market access, increasingly constrained domestic financing, and reliance on monetary financing of the government, with the loan supported programme, expected to end in 2026 being a panacea.
“Ghana’s IMF-supported reforms are yielding results after last year’s policy slippages. Growth through September 2025 exceeded expectations, driven by strong services and agriculture,” the Fund stated in the fifth review report.
