A former Political Science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr. Richard Amoako Baah, has stated that there is no reason to trust Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta’s words going forward.
The academic is worried about the way and manner in which the economy is being run and is also concerned about the government’s untruthfulness about certain economic decisions.
A major case in point is the printing of GHC22 million new currency notes as alleged by Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, Cassiel Ato-Forson, immediately after the presentation of the mid-year budget review by Ofori-Atta on July 25.
Amoako Baah insists that the government and Bank of Ghana are merely trying to cover up the newly printed money but that it is just a matter of time before it will blow up. He added in an interview on Neat FM, last week, that even the International Monetary Fund, IMF, had admitted that new money has been injected into the economy.
“You have printed money, inflation is skyrocketing, your currency is fast depreciating, if you had sought a loan from the IMF, it would have been far better (than printing money). But it takes trust to be given the loan in the first place.
“But they keep peddling lies always, as it stands now, there is nothing the Finance Minister says that should be trusted, it is not true,” he stressed.
He lamented how the Minister was badly censured by NDC lawmaker, Isaac Adongo after the budget presentation. “It was not good at all but they keep putting out discordant positions.
“You let’s wait patiently, with this money that they have printed, let’s all wait for the impact. It will surely rare its head sooner rather than later,” he added.
Ghana on July 1 announced it was approaching the Washington-based outfit for a rescue programme.
An IMF team has since had initial contact with major stakeholders during a one-week visit to Accra between July 6 – 13, 2022.
