Gabby claims IMF decision not to tie the hands of next government
Government IMF decision divides public opinion
A leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, has stated that any government that takes over from the Akufo-Addo-led administration will be elated to inherit a stabilized economy.
His comment comes on the back of formal engagements by the government of Ghana with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout programme as it seeks to restore the country onto a path of economic progress.
Speaking in an interview with Asaase Radio on July 1, Mr. Otchere-Darko emphasized that the government's decision to turn to the IMF was not to tie the hands of the next administration.
He said the programme was intended to set the economy on the right path in order for it to be better for the next administration.
“I won’t want to predict the length of the programme because it is a long negotiation that will go on but ordinarily you will expect maybe a 3 year programme. When NPP came into office, there was a programme that they inherited, an even more difficult for the NPP, that programme had gone off track so they had to bring it back on track.
“It had gone off track so much that when it was supposed to end, they couldn’t even end it, they had to bring it back on track.
“So I think really it is not an issue of tying the next government’s hands but you want a situation where you don’t put the next government in a situation which is worse than what you met.
“I think the next government whether it is an NPP or NDC government or whatever it is will be happier the economy is stabilized,” he said.
The government took the decision to begin formal engagements with IMF on July 1 contrary to its earlier position of not returning to the Fund.
The decision has since divided public opinion.
If the engagement is successful, it will be the seventeenth time the country has returned to the Bretton Woods Institution.
Some reasons the government has consistently cited for which it made a U-turn on its earlier position on the IMF is the twin crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
Meanwhile, GhanaWeb is accepting nominations for the prestigious GhanaWeb Excellence Awards – Youth Edition. Watch how you can nominate from the video below.
