The Member of Parliament for Effutu Alexander Afenyo-Markin says that there is a difference between the current government seeking help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and that of the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.
He said these after the Minority taunted the government with IMF while the Minister of Food and Agriculture Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto was answering questions in the House.
“This candid decision by government through a statement by the Minister of Information, it is as though they don’t know about IMF, you have been to IMF when you were not confronted by an international crisis, you went to IMF because of mismanagement. Why are you now telling us that we are going to IMF? “he said.
“Mr Speaker, when they were in government there were no international crisis yet they went to IMF.”
Earlier today, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo instructed the Finance Minister to engage the IMF for a financial bailout.
In a statement signed by Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, President Akufo-Addo had a telephone conversation with the IMF Managing Director, Miss Kristalina Georgieva, conveying Ghana’s decision to engage with the Fund.
Ghana runs to IMF seeking for monetary assistance to provide balance of payment support as part of a broader effort to quicken Ghana’s build back in the face of challenges induced by the Covid-19 pandemic and, recently, the Russia-Ukraine crises, according to the statement from the presidency.
This is the second time Ghana is seeking support from the Bretton Wood institution in seven years after the country engaged them in 2015 under the erstwhile John Dramani Mahama’s government.
In February 2022, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, said Ghana will not return to the IMF for a bailout despite the mounting economic challenges.
According to him, Ghana is a nation of pride and will seek solutions to the current financial challenges it is facing within.
“I can say we are not going to the IMF. Whatever we do, we are not. Consequences are dire, we are a proud nation, we have the resources, we have the capacity. We are not people of short sight, but we have to move on.
“So let’s think of who we are as a strong proud people, the shining star of Africa, and we have the capacity to do whatever we want to do if we speak one language and ensure that we share the burden in the issues ahead,” Mr Ofori-Atta told a gathering at the E-Levy town hall meeting in the Northern Regional Capital of Tamale.
