BoG Governor urges IMF to reshape support to Africa
The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama, has issued a strong call for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to fundamentally reshape its approach to supporting African countries, as the continent grapples with unprecedented and overlapping economic shocks.
Speaking at the African Consultative Group Meeting on the sidelines of the 2026 Spring Meetings in Washington D.C. last Tuesday, the Governor urged the fund to move beyond conventional responses and adopt a "step-change" in its engagement with the region.
The closed-door meeting, held in the IMF's Executive Board Room at its headquarters, brought together African governors and the IMF Managing Director (MD), Kristalina Georgieva.
While commending the MD for her "strong leadership and sustained commitment to Africa", Dr Asiama painted a stark picture of the challenges facing the continent, including tight global financial conditions, high debt vulnerabilities, recurrent climate shocks, and structural constraints that limited adjustment capacity.
These difficulties, he said, had been worsened by spillovers from the Middle East conflict, which were driving up inflation and reducing external balances across many economies.
The Governor tabled two pressing issues for the fund's consideration.
First, Dr Asiama called for urgent fixes to the global sovereign debt resolution system, urging the IMF to use its convening power more decisively to ensure time-bound restructurings under the G20 Common Framework.
"Programme design should better distinguish delays stemming from creditor coordination failures from those due to policy slippages, to ensure that strong adjustment efforts are not unduly penalised," he said.
He reiterated the need for a fit-for-purpose Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) and the mainstreaming of the Integrated Policy Framework in programme design, along with faster implementation of the Three-Pillar Approach to support crisis-hit members.
Second, the Governor demanded that the IMF adapted its policy advice and lending toolkit through a "bolder use of its balance sheet".
This includes scaling up concessional access, institutionalising Special Drawing Rights (SDR) rechanneling, and making the Resilience and Sustainability Trust faster and more flexible to address combined liquidity and climate vulnerabilities.
Dr Asiama stressed that recent shocks, including the Middle East conflict, underscored the need for well-resourced and readily accessible emergency financing for members facing acute balance-of-payment pressures.
The Governor further emphasised that sustained and targeted fund capacity development remained essential to help African countries to strengthen revenues, debt management, public financial management, financial oversight, and cyber resilience.
The African Consultative Group Meeting serves as a key platform for African governors to engage directly with IMF management on issues affecting the continent ahead of the full Spring Meetings deliberations.
