President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and former President John Dramani Mahama in a photo collage
The deep memory of the internet is bringing back soundbites, articles, and opinions of incumbent New Patriotic Party officials about the 2015 International Monetary Fund bailout sought by the then John Mahama administration.
Leading the voices is then-candidate Akufo-Addo who said the 2015 IMF bailout is because Mr. Mahama has absolutely mismanaged the economy and supervised a corrupt government.
Fast forward to 2022, the government led by President Akufo-Addo has now applied to the IMF for a bailout after all its measures failed including a 1.5% Electronic Transaction Levy.
Speaking to the AfricaReport in his Nima Residence, then-candidate Akufo-Addo said Ghana is going to IMF in a sordid state.
“It’s a very sorry tale: mismanagement and widespread corruption have brought us to where we are now. So, if really we’re serious about going forward, we’ve got to be able to convince our population that we have the policies to do so. And I’m very keen that we should have the wherewithal, the political will, and the technical capability to deal with corruption and mismanagement in our country.” He said.
“No serious effort has been made to tackle the structural problems confronting our nation, whether in governance or the management of our economy. No one seems to have a clear idea of what’s happened to all of this money. The economy, four or five years ago, was considered the rising star of Africa. Ghana – everybody’s favorite African country – was on the verge of take-off but is now bankrupt and back in the hands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), begging for a billion dollars to sustain it over the next two or three years.” He added.
The government of Ghana is yet to begin negotiations with the IMF for the terms and conditions of their bailout. Opposition elements claim the process will be long because Ghana’s debt level is at an unsustainable level.