Accra, June 22, GNA - Ten African countries are in the Spanish capital, Madrid, for a meeting with the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the decision of the Fund to reduce their quota.

The countries are Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa, Gabon, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Algeria, Lesotho, Burkina Faso and Senegal.

In a pre-departure interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu said the two-day meeting would see Ghana and the other nine countries put forward a strong case against the reduction of quotas.

A country's quota determines its voting power and determines its access to IMF financing. Economic factors considered in determining a country's quota are Gross Domestic Product (GDP); current account (transaction of export and import of goods and services) and her official reserves.

The amount of financing a member could obtain from the IMF is based on its quota.

Mr Baah-Wiredu explained that Ghana's quota would go down by 3.2 per cent to 2.3 per cent if the proposal went through. It is currently at 5.5 per cent.

He said the decision would also affect Ghana's constituency in the Fund dropping to 0.04 per cent from the current 0.173 per cent.

The Finance and Economic Planning Minister said a country's quota determined its voting power in the IMF decision-making process.

"Each country has 250 basic votes and each country gets one additional vote for each 100,000 Special Drawing Rights of quota," the Minister said.

Ghana's quota in the Fund dropped significantly to 0.173 in the 1970s when the country reneged on its debt obligations to the Fund.

The quota of advanced economies is now 61.6 per cent while that of developing countries is 30.9 per cent and Africa 5.5 per cent.

If the proposals are approved, the developed countries' quota would rise to 67.6 per cent, that of developing countries would drop to 27.7 per cent and that of Africa would slump to 2.3 per cent.

Tunisia's quota is now 0.076 and Morocco 0.484 per cent.