The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has cautioned that Ghana may be forced to return to the International Monetary Fund for an 18th bailout if policymakers fail to address the deep-seated structural weaknesses undermining the economy.

Board Chairman of the IEA, Dr. Charles Mensa, stressed that unless bold and pragmatic measures are rolled out, the country’s fiscal vulnerabilities will persist, leaving it dependent on repeated external interventions.

Speaking on the sidelines of a Roundtable Discussion on “The Mining Regime in Ghana,” Dr. Mensa urged the government to leverage natural resource wealth, strengthen domestic revenue mobilization, and build resilience to avoid yet another IMF programme.

“For the record, we have been to the IMF for the seventeenth time, asking for a bailout, meaning we have gone bankrupt seventeen times. Ghana is one of the largest gold-producing countries in the world, yet with all these resources, we keep going bankrupt. Why is that? It is because we have no control over our natural resources,” he opined.

“If we don’t own our resources, we will continue to operate under this same model and very soon we will go to the IMF again for the 18th time,” he stressed.

Ghana first turned to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1966, following the overthrow of President Kwame Nkrumah by the National Liberation Council (NLC). The new administration sought assistance from the IMF and World Bank to stabilize the economy, with measures that included supervising the privatization of state-owned enterprises and restructuring them into commercially viable entities.

Ghana is expected to wrap up its current $3 billion, three-year IMF Extended Credit Facility in the first quarter of 2026. The programme, launched in 2023, was designed to tackle macroeconomic instability and mounting debt pressures.

While implementation remains on track, analysts warn that the real test will come after the program ends — when Ghana must demonstrate fiscal discipline, sustain debt management efforts, and avoid slipping back into the cycle of imbalances that triggered repeated IMF interventions.