IMF programme takes off in January 2015 - Prez Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama is optimistic that the three-year International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme to take off in January 2015, will open up investment opportunities for the country.

It will lead to infrastructural development and create social intervention programmes for the poor and vulnerable in the society.

Ghana and the IMF are currently engaged in preliminary discussions over an economic resurgence programme, which the President said, was expected to end next Thursday, September 25, after which the way would be cleared for the actual programme to begin in January.

Speaking at the 2014 'Africa Investor' (Ai) CEO Institutional Investment Summit held at the offices of the New York Stock Exchange in the United States of America last Monday, Mr Mahama said the engagement with the IMF was a good move by the government to restore normalcy in the economy.

The Ai summit, which was aimed at boosting foreign direct investment in Africa was attended by the business community in the USA and other parts of the world.

President Mahama, who is in New York to attend the 69th meeting of the UN General Assembly, was the guest speaker for the Ai Summit.

  Bright future
President Mahama said the future of Ghana looked very bright in spite of the current short-term economic challenges.

He was highly optimistic that the engagement with the Breton Woods institution would boost investor confidence in the country.

The President said the coming on board of the IMF did not mean the government was throwing out the home-grown economic policies and added that every effort would be made to pursue measures adopted to increase investment.

Touching on the enormous investment potentials of Ghana, the President said, any genuine investor who decided to do business in the country would not regret.

He mentioned the agriculture, transport and energy sectors as some of the few areas where Ghana reigned supreme and for which the investor community should explore.

The President further told the gathering that the third Eurobond had been a huge success, and added a lot of the money would go into capital investment via the Ghana Infrastructure Fund.

  West Africa
President Mahama touched on sub regional growth, and said some significant strides had been made while the future looked even brighter.

However, he mentioned some risk factors that could threaten investor confidence.

These include the general election that would be taking place next year in some of the countries, the Ebola outbreak and the Boko Haram menace, expressing the hope that the threats would be overcome.

In a welcome speech, Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz, the special adviser to the UN Secretary General on Africa, welcomed efforts of African leaders to come out with business innovative policies to create wealth for their people.

He stressed the importance of the private sector to play a more meaningful role in bridging the infrastructure gap in Africa.