Kofi Asamoah, TUC Secretary General
Kofi Asamoah, Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), says the IMF’s economic prescription to Ghana has not produced any results, as Ghanaians are getting poorer with each passing day.
Addressing the 10th quadrennial delegates’ congress of the TUC, held under the theme “Building workers power for decent work and national development,” in Kumasi, he asked government to abandon the IMF programme and revert to the home-grown Senchi consensus policies.
“IMF programmes have never worked anywhere and they will not work here.”
According to Mr Asamoah, the cost of living in the country had increased dramatically as a result of the increases in taxes, levies, utility tariffs and fuel prices.
“High levels of inflation and interest rates, unstable currency, unstable power supply, mass joblessness among young people and declining real earnings are quickly eroding the gains we have achieved so far,” he emphasized.
In spite of the afore-mentioned concerns, government has continued to sing its own praises in public, indicating that it had performed creditably in growing the economy and creating a lot of jobs in addition to creating a conducive atmosphere for businesses to flourish.
President John Mahama, who also addressed the gathering, said the government was determined to use home-grown solutions to address the fiscal challenges and grow the economy.
He said Ghana would wean itself of the Fund’s support at the end the current three-year programme signed with the Bretton Woods institution.
However, the country is yet to receive an assessment of a third review carried out by a recent IMF mission that was in Ghana between the latter part of April and the early part of May, this year.
President Mahama acknowledged the partnership of the TUC in resolving labour disputes and pointed out that dialogue and consensus-building had always been vital to amicable settlement of disputes.
He urged Organized Labour to maintain the collaboration to make Ghana a competitive destination for investment and job creation.
–GNA