IMF mission chief pays courtesy call on President Ramkalawan   |22 March 2023

President Ramkalawan in discussion with the IMF delegation (left) in the presence of Minister Hassan and Governor Abel (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

Seychelles to benefit from new IMF fund

International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission chief Calixte Ahokpossi and IMF resident representative Aissatou Diallo paid a courtesy call on President Wavel Ramkalawan yesterday at State House.

The IMF team arrived in the country last week following a request from the Seychelles authorities to negotiate a new economic programme with Seychelles.

“There are two programmes actually – the regular macro-economic stability programme and there is a new facility that is called resilience and sustainability fund (RSF). The latter goes to support climate related efforts done by the government. This is a new facility and was launched last October and Seychelles was picked as one of the pilot countries,” explained Mr Ahokpossi.

Based on the track record of the country, added the IMF mission chief, Seychelles is really at the forefront of climate actions around the world.

“We will be here till the middle of next week and we will try to reach certain agreements. After that the Minister for Finance and the Governor of the Central Bank will update the population through a press conference. Once agreed on the way forward, we will present the report to the board of IMF. After they look at the report, it can be approved late May or beginning of June,” shared Mr Ahokpossi.

The RSF is a loan fund to help countries tackle longer-term challenges such as climate change and pandemics. It aims to provide affordable, longer-term finance and to support government policy reforms.

The IMF delegation was accompanied by the Minister for Finance, National Planning & Trade, Naadir Hassan, and the Governor of the Central Bank, Caroline Abel.

Vidya Gappy