By: Benjamin Nii Nai Anyetei
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff mission will arrive in Accra on September 29, 2025, to begin Ghana’s 5th programme review under the Extended Credit Facility arrangement. The assessment will examine the country’s performance since the 4th review was completed earlier this year, and it comes as the penultimate step before the programme concludes in May 2026. The final review is scheduled for April next year.
This 5th review is considered particularly critical because of growing concerns among market analysts that Ghana may struggle to maintain fiscal discipline once the programme ends.
Development partners are urging government to put in place safeguards that will serve as shock absorbers and prevent the economy from slipping into instability after the exit.
Government has dismissed these fears, insisting that it has already implemented measures to assure both local and international markets of prudent spending beyond the IMF arrangement.
If the review is successful, Ghana is expected to receive about 360 million dollars in October, bringing the total disbursement so far to approximately 2.3 billion dollars since the country entered into the programme in May 2023.
The mission will focus on Ghana’s economic data ending June 2025, with close attention paid to inflation trends, the sustainability of the build-up in foreign reserves, the management of arrears, the fiscal policy stance, and the health of the banking sector, where both private and state-owned banks continue to face recapitalisation challenges.
The mission will also examine shortfalls in statutory fund payments and social spending commitments.
The Extended Credit Facility was approved in May 2023 with a total package of 3 billion dollars spread over 36 months. The arrangement was designed to restore public finances to a sustainable path through revenue mobilisation and improved spending efficiency, while protecting the vulnerable through programmes such as the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) cash transfers and the school feeding initiative.
It also aimed to control inflation by tightening monetary policy, rebuild foreign reserves through a flexible exchange rate regime, and preserve financial stability while creating conditions for private investment, job creation and long-term growth.
As the IMF team prepares to begin its work in Accra, attention will turn to whether Ghana can demonstrate sufficient progress to unlock the next tranche of funding and, more importantly, reassure both Ghanaians and investors of economic stability in the final stretch of the programme.
