Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has expressed optimism that the actions and works of government in these trying economic times would ensure that Ghana comes out with a more robust economy.
Speaking with the media during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring meeting, Ken Ofori-Atta acknowledged that, the positive assurances from relevant stakeholders in Ghana’s bid to secure a $3 billion IMF loan bailout come with great pressure for the government to perform.
However, the minister is confident that all the measures taken by the government to raise revenue and manage the country’s debt levels were on the right path.
He said, “The pressure is to do your best, understand that there will be bit of difficulties but you’ll have to take the community across the Jordan and that’s what we intend to do irrespective of the difficulties.”
Meanwhile, the finance minister has revealed that Ghana may not be able to return to the International Capital Market until the next three or more years. Ken Ofori-Atta believes that this is the opportunity Ghana needs to work on and achieve its self-sufficiency agenda.
“In terms of returning to the international capital market, I suspect it will take some two-three years or so if not more for us to get back to it. I think in the interim we should be able to generate local resources to do that. But I think what is also significant about the programme if you look at the Ghana Cares programme it is our policy to be self-sufficient in poultry, rice, tomatoes etc. which we’ve begun to do so that will reduce your foreign exchange demands and actually hopefully begin to export those products,” Ken Ofori-Atta explained.
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Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister