Former President John Dramani Mahama appears to have gotten his voice back few years after abysmally mismanaging the country’s economy during his administration.
The former leader of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) who is finding his feet to lead the party once again is taking advantage of the global economic situation of COVID 19 and Russia-Ukraine war which have affected most developed and developing nations to give tips to castigate government on the current state of the economy.
The 2020 presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress speaking at a forum in Accra on Thursday June 30 believes that the Akufo-Addo administration has no option but to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to resolve the economic challenges.
According to him, the IMF programmes come with fiscal consolidation and insistence on fiscal discipline which can lead to some recovery and improvements on the macro-economic front.
He said that “In the last few days, there has been talk from some regime actors about a potential or impending IMF programme. Due to the nature and depth of our economic problems, this government virtually has no other sustainable option.
“IMF programs come with fiscal consolidation and insistence on fiscal discipline which can lead to some recovery and improvements on the macro-economic front.
“This government has however so mismanaged our economy and left it in such a terrible state that fiscal consolidation alone will not do the trick.”
His comment comes on the back of statement made on Monday June 27 by a leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Otchere Darko who mentioned that in principle, he was not against the IMF programme.
Mr. Otchere-Darko explained that he is not for an IMF programme that gives the country peanuts but imposes conditions that will end up hurting the poor, jobs and businesses more.
In series of tweets he said “Am I against an IMF program in principle? No”
“I am not for an IMF program that throws peanuts at us but imposes conditions that will end up hurting the poor, jobs and businesses more. Covid-19 and War in Ukraine are not of Africa’s doing but more to our doom. A program that pretends it is all our doing is doomed to fail.”
“We do something that will inject confidence in our capacity to ride this heavy storm and that something should happen pretty quickly. Are you against an IMF program?”
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has maintained that Ghana would not go back to the IMF for support.
According to him, the government has put in place measures including salary cuts and others, and also programmes to deal with the fundamental issues affecting the economy.
By Vincent Kubi