Côte d’Ivoire held SDR 4,143,977,044 (roughly $5.6 billion) in outstanding IMF credit as of 15 September 2026, ranking it second on the continent behind Egypt, according to a ranking compiled by YEN.com.gh from IMF data. Ghana, in third position with SDR 2.99 billion, recorded the largest single repayment made by any African country in the first half of September.
What the figures show
Africa’s total outstanding IMF credit stood at SDR 39.9 billion (about $54.7 billion) as of 15 September, a marginal decline from SDR 39.92 billion at the end of August. The decrease was driven by repayments from Ghana, Mali, Mauritania and São Tomé and Príncipe. Egypt’s balance, the continent’s largest at SDR 7.86 billion, was unchanged over the period, with no new disbursements or repayments recorded. Kenya (SDR 2.85 billion) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (SDR 2.43 billion) rounded out the top five.
Ghana’s repayment during the period, SDR 6.64 million, is described in the ranking as the largest single repayment recorded across the continent in the first half of September.
The mechanism: why Côte d’Ivoire’s balance is where it is
Côte d’Ivoire’s outstanding credit reflects cumulative disbursements under a combined Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement worth SDR 2,601.6 million (about $3.5 billion, 400% of quota), approved by the IMF Executive Board in May 2023, plus a separate Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) arrangement worth roughly $1.3 billion. The IMF completed the sixth and final reviews of the EFF/ECF and the fifth review of the RSF in June 2026, releasing a final disbursement of about $832.8 million and noting that the reviews found Côte d’Ivoire’s debt-distress risk assessment had improved from moderate to low, according to the IMF’s own press release. This is outstanding credit, not new borrowing: the balance falls as Côte d’Ivoire makes scheduled repayments over time, and rises only when a new disbursement is made under a review.
Ghana’s position is the product of a different trajectory. Its $3 billion, 39-month ECF arrangement, approved in May 2023 after a 2022 debt crisis, comprehensive domestic debt exchange and Eurobond restructuring, reached its sixth and final review in July 2026, with the IMF Executive Board noting debt had fallen from about 70% of GDP to 49% and that Ghana’s risk of debt distress had been upgraded to moderate two years ahead of the original programme schedule, per the IMF’s press release. Ghana’s programme has since concluded, and the authorities and IMF staff separately agreed on a 36-month, non-financing Policy Coordination Instrument to anchor continued reform without further disbursements, which is consistent with a country now in repayment mode rather than drawdown mode.
The actors
The IMF Executive Board approves and reviews each country’s arrangement; national finance ministries and central banks manage the disbursement and repayment schedule against IMF-set conditionality. Neither Côte d’Ivoire’s nor Ghana’s position in this snapshot was the subject of a new announcement in September; both reflect the accumulated results of programmes negotiated and reviewed over the preceding three years.
The implication
A ranking of gross outstanding IMF credit does not, by itself, measure fiscal distress. Côte d’Ivoire’s position reflects a large, fully-disbursed programme tied to an improved debt-distress rating, not a fresh liquidity call, while Ghana’s record repayment marks the tail end of a programme that began in outright crisis. Read together, the two cases illustrate that IMF exposure size says more about a country’s stage in its programme cycle than about the underlying health of its public finances at a given moment.
What remains uncertain
The ranking is a point-in-time snapshot of outstanding IMF credit and does not capture each country’s total public debt stock, which includes Eurobonds, bilateral loans and domestic issuance well beyond Fund exposure. It also does not explain what specifically drove Mali, Mauritania or São Tomé and Príncipe’s repayments in the same window, nor whether Côte d’Ivoire, now without an active IMF programme following June’s final review, will seek a successor arrangement. Whether Abidjan requests new IMF-supported financing, and how its total (not just IMF) debt stock evolves following the programme’s conclusion, are the next points to watch.