General Secretary of General Agricultural Workers' Union (GAWU), Edward Kareweh, has accused the Bretton Woods institution - the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - of being part of Ghana's economic woes.
According to him, many Ghanaians lost their jobs between 1980 and 1990 after the IMF implemented economic recovery and structural adjustment programmes as part of measures to save the ailing economy.
He added that, unlike Europe and America where unemployed people are given allowances to help them survive in the economy, the case of Ghana is different
Edward Kareweh asserted that IMF advised government to place a ban on employment in the government sector. This, he said, IMF does not abide by what they preach.
"In developing countries like Ghana, when you talk about cutting down the size of government, what we have known IMF in our country to have done, that is the past 16 years is to ensure that government cuts down employment. When you are unemployed in Europe or America, you are given unemployment subsidy. But when you are unemployed in developing countries like Ghana, then you go to die because you have no other source of living so why will they come and give an advice to us that they don’t implement at their place themselves?" he said.
"Apart from that, IMF has been part of Ghana’s problems because, since the 1980s to 90s based on the IMF conditionalities and then policy directions, they implemented the economic recovery programme and the structural adjustment programme and a lot of workers lost their jobs and those workers have never gotten their jobs back. They put a ban of employment in the government sector and that is not the way to go but it is the fault of our government because you failed to do the right thing and when you fail to do the right thing, you will always run to IMF," he stated in an exclusive interview with GhanaWeb.
Government of Ghana on July 1, 2022, made a U-turn on its strong position of not seeking support from IMF amid an economic downturn.
A team from the IMF, led by Carlo Sdralevich arrived in the country on July 5 to engage government officials for a possible bailout.
The IMF programme is aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability and safeguarding debt sustainability among many others.
Meanwhile, inflation for July this year has hit 31.7% and the policy rate is now 22%.
The increase in the policy rate means that the cost of credit will go up.
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