IMF bailout cannot turn economy around before 2024 elections, Dr Amakye
Ghana requests IMF bailout
Political Scientist, Dr Akwasi Amakye Boateng, has said that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government cannot turn Ghana’s economy around before the 2024 general elections.
According to him, the country’s economy is too devastated for the government to revive it and make any appreciable gains within the two years left to the elections, citinewsroom.com reports.
He added that he believes that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout that the government has decided to go for will not have any significate impact before the election, adding that NPP is certain to lose the 2024 presidential elections.
“We are in 2022 July, essentially, we have just one year, and then we will be holding election 2024. I don’t think government has time on its hands to be able to turn the fortunes of the economy around. To me, the main deciding factor of elections, especially presidential elections in Ghana, has been the economy. It has always been the condition of life of Ghanaians; the moment you hear people chanting, times are getting tougher."
“Things are getting out of hand, the economy is not supporting majority of the people. And currently, everybody is almost out there in the street. Many graduates are not employed. The NABCO is a terrible policy... these are the factors that are going to determine the outcome of the elections,” he said.
Dr Amakye Boateng, who is a Political Science Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), however, indicated that the NPP will have a huge advantage in the next elections should it be able to improve the economy before the next election significantly.
“If in spite of those earlier statements about not wanting to go to the IMF, they turn round, they are able to turn the economy around, to significantly affect people’s life, definitely it will enhance their chances in the elections of 2024, but I don’t think they have time and because they don’t have time, I don’t think they have the opportunity. They don’t have a chance going into 2024. Ghanaians want a change and I think there’s the need for a change for us to try some other people,” he reiterated in an interview with Citi News.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Friday, July 1, 2022, ordered the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, to commence official engagements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In a statement signed by the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the finance minister was instructed by the president to seek IMF’s support for an economic programme put together by the government of Ghana.
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President Akufo-Addo, NPP flag