By: The Fatu Network Editorial
Ghana continues to hold its position as the African country with the highest level of debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Based on data from the IMF’s Quarterly Finances report for July 2023, Ghana’s debt to the IMF has increased by 35.55% during the specified period. This amounts to 9.55% of the total loans, equivalent to 17.68 billion Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), still owed by African nations to the IMF.
Among the top five categories of outstanding loans as of July 31, 2023, Ghana’s Special Drawing Rights (SDR) balance was $1.689 billion, surpassing the previous figure of $1.246 billion recorded as of April 30, 2023. It is worth noting that Ghana had repaid SDR 8 million to the IMF, with SDR 1 equaling US$1.34294.
As of the same date in 2023, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo held the second and third positions in terms of the largest outstanding loans to the IMF among African nations. Kenya’s debt to the IMF stood at SDR 1.008, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo owed the IMF SDR 1.142 billion.
Sudan and Uganda maintained their fourth and fifth positions with projected exposures to the IMF of SDR 992 million and SDR 812 million, respectively.
The remaining 11.32 billion SDRs were owed to the IMF by the rest of the African countries.
