Dr. Abudu Abdul-Ganiyu, Technical Advisor to the Minister of Finance, has advised the public to be measured in their expectations regarding the resumption of stalled infrastructure projects, despite Ghana’s successful completion of its debt restructuring programme.
This caution follows the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Board approval for the second review of the IMF-supported post-COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG).
The IMF noted in its statement that Ghana’s performance under the programme has been generally strong.
“All quantitative performance criteria for the second review and almost all indicative targets were met. Good progress is being made on the debt restructuring, and key structural reforms are advancing,” the IMF statement read.
President Akufo-Addo had earlier attributed the delay in completing infrastructure projects to the debt restructuring programme, suggesting that their revival would follow the programme’s success.
However, Dr. Abdul-Ganiyu, speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show with Bernard Avle, said that despite the success of the restructuring with the available funds, it is not automatic that stalled projects resume. He noted that there will be a need for prioritisation among the stalled projects.
“I think there should be a need for us to be measured when it comes to that particular expectation. If you look at the fund programme year on year, we have a feeling of about $250 million. This is after we have successfully restructured these debts in terms of what can be released by the bilateral fund projects that have been stalled.
“We are talking about $250 million, but all of the projects that have been stalled and require some funding to be executed, even if it is year on year, will exceed the $250 million.
“What that means is that the cabinet and the Ministry of Finance should prioritise what are supposed to be the key projects that should be able to come under this particular financing. So, that conversation would go on, my boss would lead that, and at the end of the year, we should be able to prioritise the key projects that, if you want, execution of these projects would have to resume in the course of this year, and going into next year, some more projects would have to resume as far as execution is concerned, all coming within the frame of $250 million.
“So, that is what we expect going forward, and as soon as that priority list has been completed, we should be able to identify the specific projects that execution would have to resume for the year. “
