Pressure mounts for Ofori-Atta to resign
Government defends IMF U-turn despite critique
Journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has identified one good thing that can come out of a ministerial reshuffle whenever the President conducts one.
According to him, doing so will ensure that the country gets a new Gender and Social Protection Minister, in reference to the extended absence of the substantive minister, Sarah Adwoa Safo.
Manasseh commented on a post by Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko of the New Patriotic Party, NPP, who had earlier suggested in a post that the rising calls for a reshuffle was not going to solve Ghana's economic challenges.
In a social media post sighted by GhanaWeb, Gabby said, "It is as if a reshuffle will suddenly end the war in Ukraine, bring down inflation and make the cedi stronger than the dollar."
"It will, at least, get us a minister at the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection," Manasseh reacted.
Minister Sarah Adwoa Safo, who is the sector Minister and Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya has been in the United States since December 2021.
She has explained that her absence is to take care of pressing family engagements amid calls for the President to relieve her of her position. She put up a post recently that suggested that she was heading home.
Ghana’s economic headaches
In recent months, Ghana has been faced with rather difficult economic challenges which have left almost all economic indicators in distress.
The country, despite some gains made during the COVID-19 pandemic, is facing a huge debt burden, revenue generation constraints and other factors which have placed the economy in a dire situation.
Recent developments around the globe, coupled with supply chain disruptions, the fallout from the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have made the situation even direr.
Meanwhile, the government of Ghana is targeting about US$3 billion from the International Monetary Fund under an economic support programme.
This was contained in a document released by the Ministry of Finance spelling out some details of the government's engagement with officials from the Bretton Woods institution in July.
The ministry explained that it seeks to secure the fund under a recently introduced innovative blended programme from the IMF dubbed; High Combined Credit Exposure (HCCE) policy.
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SARA
Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko and Manasseh Azure Awuni