Ghana to seek an IMF programme to stabilise cedi

Ghanaian President John Mahama has ordered his government to open talks for an International Monetary Fund programme as part of efforts to stabilise the economy and halt a slide in the cedi currency, according to a statement on Saturday.

Mahama told a meeting of his economic advisors on Friday that urgent measures should be taken to prop up the cedi, the statement said.

Struggling to tame large budget and current account deficits, the West African country has seen its currency slide by more than 40 percent this year against the dollar, turning investor sentiment against Ghana, a onetime frontier market darling.

“The president has directed that we open negotiations with the IMF,” Finance Minister Seth Terkper told Reuters. “This programme is not going to be like any other programme that countries have with the IMF.”

“Ghana is currently in a transition as a lower-middle income country. It’s in that context that we will be negotiating with the IMF,” Terkper told Reuters by telephone, as he travelled to Washington for a U.S.-Africa summit next week that Mahama is attending.

The government statement said Mahama has also instructed his economic team to increase domestic gas supplies to the market to provide cheaper fuel for power generation and minimise the burden of oil imports on the currency.

Reuters