Ken Ofori-Atta

Ghana postponed this week’s mid-term budget review until initial meetings with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for an economic program have been completed, according to people familiar with the plan. 

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta was scheduled to give an update on the West African nation’s first-half revenue and expenditure targets on Wednesday.

The mid-year budget is likely to be tabled later this month, said the people who declined to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak to the media.

Finance Ministry spokeswoman Cecilia Akwetey said she wasn’t immediately able to comment when contacted by phone.

Ghana, Africa’s second-biggest cocoa and gold producer, this month abandoned a policy decision not to seek assistance from the IMF and said it would ask the multilateral lender for as much as $1.5 billion to shore up its finances. An IMF delegation arrived in the country on July 6.