Political Scientist, Dr. Richard Amoako Baah, posits the government of Ghana is in no position to negotiate terms and conditions for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout.
According to him, the IMF will dictate terms and conditions if it is to bailout Ghana from its economic woes.
“What we are hearing about gov’t having the power to negotiate with the IMF is not true. There is only a small bit of negotiation but the gov’t has no upper hand here. The IMF will only give us the money and dictate to us what to do as we have not managed our economy properly,” he told Don Kwabena Prah on Happy98.9FM’s ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ political talk show.
Dr. Amoako Baah revealed Sri Lanka had its talks with the IMF suspended because they tried to negotiate with the monetary body. “Sri Lanka wanted to negotiate with the IMF but nothing happened. They spoke for 10 days but have suspended talks because they (IMF) wanted one thing and Sri Lanka also wanted another.”
He explained that Ghana has crashed its economic vehicle and if the IMF is here to bail the country out, then it (IMF) “is definitely going to tell us how to drive the car.”
Although the IMF may not ask the Ghanaian government to scratch the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy “they will tell us to reduce the education bill as it is high. The IMF is not coming to make things easier for us, they are here to make sure we pay our external debt.”
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team, led by Carlo Sdralevich, mission chief for Ghana, will visit Accra from July 6 – 13 to begin initial discussions with the Ghanaian authorities about a possible IMF-supported program.
Mr. Sdralevich issued the following statement at the start of the visit:
“On the basis of a request from the Ghanaian authorities, an IMF staff team will in the coming days kick-start discussions on a possible program to support Ghana’s homegrown economic policies. We are at an early stage in the process, given that detailed discussions are yet to take place.”
“The IMF stands ready to assist Ghana to restore macroeconomic stability, safeguard debt sustainability, and promote inclusive and sustainable growth, and address the impact of the war in Ukraine and the lingering pandemic.”
“We are looking forward to our engagement with the authorities in Accra.”
The government, on July 1, 2022, announced that it had decided to engage the IMF to provide balance of payment support to Ghana as part of a broader effort to quicken the country’s build back, in the face of challenges induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and, recently, the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
The Information Minister said the US$2 billion would help increase the country’s foreign reserves, and make available to the government liquidity to deal with the external debt servicing obligations as well as balance of payment support.
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