Ghana has been granted approval for the second tranche of US$600 million by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

On Friday, January 19, 2024, the IMF made this announcement in a statement.

“The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed today the First review of the $3 billion, 36-month Extended Credit Facility (ECF) Arrangement, which was approved by the Board on May, 17, 2023 , as well as the 2023 Article IV Consultation with Ghana. The completion of the first ECF review allows for an immediate disbursement of SDR 451.4 million (about US$600 million), bringing Ghana’s total disbursements under the arrangement to about US$1.2 billion.”

The second disbursement was made possible after Ghana reached an agreement late last week with its bilateral lenders, which included China and France.

With this decision, Ghana—which received the first tranche of funding in May of last year—has effectively completed its first review under the Fund programme.

According to the administration, the 2024 budget’s operations will be supported by these additional funds.

After negotiating a moratorium with its official creditors, Ghana was able to push back debt payments until May 2026.

By the end of March, the nation reportedly hopes to have finalised a deal with investors in Eurobonds to restructure a $13 billion debt.

Ken Ofori-Atta, the minister of finance, declared that payments for bilateral debt of $5.4 billion would be made over the course of 16 and 17 years in two installments.

Prior to this, he had shown tremendous hope about receiving funds from the IMF on the basis of the G20 Common Framework’s financial guarantee.

In a similar event, the World Bank has said that it is prepared to offer Ghana $300 million in budgetary support in order to aid in the nation’s economic recovery.