In all, 2,934 people took part in the poll, which ran on the GhanaWeb website in the first week of July 2022, following the directive by President Nana Addo Danka Akufo-Addo for the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to commence engagements with the fund.
Out of the total number of participants, 1,275 people, representing a 43 per cent majority said they support the decision of the government to go for the IMF bailout.
Most of the respondents said that the government had to go for the bailout because the E-Levy had failed to deliver its expected revenue.
Some also said that they support the government's decision because the IMF will serve as a watchdog and prevent the government from over spending.
“E-levy will not solve our numerous problems that are facing this country. If going to IMF will at least help the country, why not! The government knows it can’t resurrect the economy if it relies on E-levy. I also don’t know who projected that the country will rack about Ghc6 billion a year,” one respondent said.
“That was long and overdue,” another respondent said.
“I know there are people who are happy with the decision to go to the IMF because of their political leanings and also because they get to say "I told you so". But think about this for a minute, the government tried to avoid a situation like this and introduced different policies (E-Levy being the biggest) to help a situation like this. What we have seen is opposing political parties thrashing on these policies and unwitting Ghanaians falling for their propaganda,” another supporter of the government’s IMF move said.
On the other hand, 1,175 people, representing about 40 per cent of the participants said they were against the government’s decision.
Most of them assert that going to the fund will not solve Ghana’s problems, which they say include corruption and misappropriation of the country’s resources.
“No, I don't support Government going to the IMF for a bailout, why because I think if Ghana should leave the winner takes all politics and collaborate in solving real national issues with seriousness and trust, Ghana would've been far from IMF. The so-called "politically motivated programmes" and mismanagement is what is sending Ghana to the IMF,” one respondent against the move said.
“My problem with IMF has to do with conditionalities it imposes on the facility,” another respondent said.
Also, 484 respondents, representing 16.5 per cent of the participants, said that they were indifferent.
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IB/BOG
Majority of respondents support government decision to go for an IMF bailout