‘Tis the season to be jolly’ beckons barely three months away, and with Christmas being arguably the perfect and most anticipated festivity of the year, there are some misgivings about whether Ghanaians will have the joy of celebrating such momentous days ahead.
It has indeed been a tough year for the country and individuals who have had to penny-pinch their way through surviving the days, weeks and months of the year.
However, a well-deserved respite lies in the bosom of an agreement between two external forces who are not part of the nuclear family people typically have in their homes during such joyous moments.
While some have mastered their finances to make it work pending certification, others have had to grapple and navigate through near bankruptcy scare to last a lifetime.
Such blues and gloomy picture casts a long shadow and ironic situation in days of festive moods not long from now.
Indeed, myriad of economic challenges have overwhelmed the Ghanaian economy amid the International Monetary Fund (IMF) demands for helping the country restore the economy to its feet.
Despite the fact that government and the IMF have reached a staff-level agreement on economic policies and reforms to conclude the first review of the country’s three-year programme under the Extended Credit Facility this year, the need for government to further negotiate with external creditors seems to hamper real enjoyment of life by Ghanaians on Christmas.
Sharing the sentiment, President of the Ghana Union Traders Association (GUTA) Dr Joseph Obeng, has expressed the need for government to move heaven and earth to ensure it reaches an agreement with external creditors to enable Ghanaians end the year on a lighter note, deeper pockets and gifts to go around the dining tables.
He revealed that the business community which essentially thrives on import are dependent on certain indicators before any goods can be imported.
“It’s very important that government does everything under its capacity to make sure the second tranche comes in time, especially when at this time we are going for the Christmas purchases. It means that imports are going to go up and it’s going to also make the exchange rate if it is not well managed by Bank of Ghana – you know we have this perennial where December, January and early February we have the exchange rate going up.”
Dr Joseph Obeng
Meaningful negotiation with external creditors
Rating agency, Fitch, has emphasized that the Official Creditor Committee (OCC) including the Paris Club and the Ghanaian government will agree on the debt treatment parameters by the end of 2023.
However, it expects the government to conclude an agreement with the private creditors on comparable terms by the middle of 2024.
In its comprehensive analysis of Frontier Markets, Fitch said the agreements with the two external creditors will pave the way for Ghana to move out of its default position. Does Christmas look blissful yet?
Meanwhile, Dr Obeng stated that this time round, government has to take the lessons of last year and manage the foreign exchange situation well.
He explained that due to speculations made on the dollar, it led to the skyrocketing of the green buck, further leading to hoarding.
“There are low turnovers, the depreciation of our capital and all that, I do not foresee we do any excessive importation this time round. Then, things like speculations should also be managed. Most times, when there’s slight increase in the forex, we talk too much to the extent that it gets out of hand.
“These things do not work when there’s too much noise surrounding it. So, we should be able to manage speculation when there’s slight increase in the dollar so that we do not experience what happened during the previous year.”
Dr Joseph Obeng
Maybe all is not lost for Ghanaians to have that true bliss of having some money to go round during the festive season.
But beyond that, they desire a more stable, consistent and ever-progressive way of life, and such buoyancy is tied to the strength and health of the economy.
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, earlier this month disclosed that government is optimistic that the bilateral creditors will “come through and sign up to an MoU to the Bilateral Debt Restructuring in the coming days”.
Zambia on the other hand, has announced that it has secured a Memorandum of Understanding from China and other development partners under the G20 Framework.
However, responding to this development, the finance minister noted, “this should give us some confidence that, Ghana is indeed on track to secure similar assurance under the framework”.
As Ghanaians wait with bated breath for government to move from mere assurances to actual deliverables, more work needs to be done and it’s high time government and appointees roll up their sleeves and start working to return the country to economic normalcy.
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