The International Monetary Fund has approved $500 million on Monday to cancel six months of debt payments for 25 of the world’s most impoverished countries so they can help tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ghana is missing from this list apparently because the country on Monday, April 13, 2020, secured a juicy US$1 billion credit facility from the IMF to tackle Covid-19.
IMF Executive Director Kristalina Georgieva issued a statement saying the IMF executive board approved the immediate debt service relief for countries such as Afghanistan, Haiti, Nepal, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan and Yemen.
Nineteen African countries are also beneficiaries of this debt relief. The countries include Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone and Togo.
“This provides grants to our poorest and most vulnerable members to cover their IMF debt obligations for an initial phase over the next six months and will help them channel more of their scarce financial resources towards vital emergency medical and other relief efforts,” Georgieva said.
She said the money will come from the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust, which will use recent pledges of $185 million from the United Kingdom and $100 million from Japan. She urged other donors to help replenish the trust’s resources.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and a group of 165 former global leaders and prominent international figures have urged the suspension of debt repayments for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries so they can use their scant resources for the coronavirus crisis.