Deputy Finance Minister, John Kumah has assured of government's commitment to protecting public sector jobs and social intervention programmes as it engages the International Monetary Fund for a financial bailout.
According to him, the Bretton Woods institution is well informed of the ongoing economic challenges on the globe which has severely impacted Ghana's economy.
Speaking during an engagement with the Parliamentary press corps and members of the Institute for Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ), John Kumah said he is optimistic that Fund will not recommend conditionalities that will impose more hardships on citizens, job creation efforts and social investments.
“The IMF is aware that they don’t have a good name in Africa and other parts of the world when it comes to their programmes and they are determined to now reverse such negative tags on them” the deputy minister explained.
“They are very receptive to proposals from government on how best to alleviate the difficulties rather than just instantly creating hardships into the system. So, I believe we are going to preserve certain important programmes like job creation and some public investments” he added.
Background
To address the unfavorable economic conditions in the country, President Akufo-Addo on July 1, 2022 authorized the Finance Minister [Ken Ofori-Atta] to commence formal engagements with the IMF for an economic programme.
It is the hope of government that through this approach, confidence from lenders will bounce back.
Consequently, the IMF arrived in Ghana from July 6-13 to begin initial discussions on the programme government intends to subscribe to.
Dr. John Kumah, Deputy Finance Minister