By: Godfred Amoaful
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Amin Adam in a media briefing in Accra about the state of the country’s economy said there is enough foreign exchange supply in the market as a result of a collaborative effort of the Finance Ministry and the Bank of Ghana, hence Ghanaians should exercise constraints in rushing to buy forex.
He said his Ministry and the Bank of Ghana will continue to work together to address the cedi depreciation.
Dr. Adam however noted that existing measures put in place by the Finance Ministry and the BoG have began yielding results.
Based on that, the sector minister said “there is a continuous fast-tracking of the fiscal consolidation process through rationalizing spending and enhancing revenue mobilization and intensification of the Gold for Oil program and appropriate Foreign Exchange interventions by the Bank of Ghana”.
He also added that the Ministry is intensifying the Gold for Reserve ( Gold purchases program) through the Bank of Ghana.
The Ministry is expecting the third tranche under the International Monetary Fund, IMF, program by June”, which he said will support the building of the country’s Foreign Exchange rate reserve.
Dr. Amin added that “ the disbursement from other ongoing projects including USD 150 Million World Bank facility which Parliament approved last Friday, will come in to support the reserve”, he started.
The Minister again revealed that the Ministry is expecting the disbursement of USD 300M under the World Bank Development Operation II, possible in the third quarter of this year, and the disbursement of USD 200M to Ghana Exim Bank, and Ghana Commercial Bank, GCB, by ECOWAS Bank for investment and development later in the year”.
He stated that “the expected 2024/2025 cocoa syndication proceeds in the fourth quarter of this year will come in to crystalize and come together to support the build-up of the reserve in the strengthening of the Cedi as well as support the budget”.
In all, the Minister said “we are expecting a total disbursement of about USD 2.32 billion before the end of the year to add to the significant foreign exchange reserve already built up by the Bank of Ghana”, he noted.