Go to IMF and save the economy – Mahama to Government

Former President John Mahama says the Akufo-Addo led-administration can only salvage the nation from the current economic hardship with help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Speaking at a forum on the Economy in Accra on Thursday June 30 2022, Mr. Mahama indicated that the IMF and its technocrats will come with solid policies such as fiscal discipline among others to improve the nations macro-economic front.

“In the last few days, there has been talk from some regime actors about a potential or impending IMF programme. Due to the nature and depth of our economic problems, this government virtually has no other sustainable option.

“IMF programs come with fiscal consolidation and insistence on fiscal discipline which can lead to some recovery and improvements on the macro-economic front,” the NDC 2020 Presidential Candidate disclosed.

He continued: “This government has however so mismanaged our economy and left it in such a terrible state that fiscal consolidation alone will not do the trick.”

“Any IMF programme should be preceded or done jointly with discussions with our creditors to achieve debt restructuring.”

Background

A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Gabby Asare Otchere Darko has dropped hints of Ghana possibly going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for an economic bailout.

In a series of tweets Monday morning, President Akufo-Addo’s cousin revealed that the much-touted Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) that was expected to inject some capital into the economy has delivered only 10 percent of the targeted revenue.

According to him, E-levy was expected to rake in some 600 million cedis by now after its implementation but has so far delivered only 60 million cedis.

Ghana is reeling under a severe economic crisis as fuel and cost of other products have tripled since the beginning of the year. The situation has been compounded by the Russia-Ukraine war which has recently been highlighted by the NPP government as the single major contributory factor to the skyrocketing fuel prices in Ghana, like other African countries, which has consequently affected the price of general commodities including food.

Mr. Otchere Darko added that he is not against an IMF programme in principle but against a programme that will impose crippling sanctions that will hit the poor Ghanaian hard.

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