The International Monetary Fund (IMF) group is expected to arrive in Accra on Tuesday, July 5, according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry announced that it has started working with the Fund to support Ghana’s economic agenda in response to the President of the Republic of Ghana’s direction.
“In light of this, a delegation from the Fund is planned to arrive in Accra on July 5, 2022, and will begin in-person meetings with the Ghanaian government on July 6, 2022.
“The Ministry further takes this opportunity to assure Ghanaians of the Government’s commitment to successfully negotiate a program with the IMF in the coming months, in support of Ghana’s economic recovery,” a statement issued by the Ministry said on Monday July 4.
Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a pillar of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), claims that the government was forced to ask the IMF for a bailout (IMF).
He said that the government was left with little choice since the policies it presented, such as the E-Levy, which may have provided real solutions to the nation’s current debt difficulties, were opposed by the people or by a minority of lawmakers.
On Saturday, June 2, 2022, during an appearance on Joynews’ Newsfile show, Gabby stated that although he is not particularly in favor of the idea of an IMF bailout, he thinks it is the government’s final resort.
“Yes, there were challenges, yes government came with its policies to see how to address those challenges and those policies were frustrated by the very parliament that we have.
“I am not too optimistic about why we are in the IMF, it is unfortunate that we were forced there because the policies that were brought did not get the support that it required so it had actually no option,” he added.
Mr. Otchere-Darko claims that the administration decided to seek assistance from the IMF as a necessary step in order to, among other things, prevent any further strain on the nation’s reserves.
“..We are in a difficulty but if you are in government and even if we don’t decide to go to the IMF, but you are put in a situation where your avenues of raising revenue are being closed, whether through parliamentary action or public rejection, then you will have to tackle it,” he said.
Adding, “The IMF may not necessarily bring us money but it could stop a run on our reserves, stops a run on your bonds, and I think if we have that stability over the next 15 months, I believe that the country will see a turnaround.
The President recently instructed the Finance Minister to begin official discussions with the International Monetary Fund, which prompted Gabby’s remarks (IMF).
According to a statement made by the minister of information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, on Friday, July 1, 2022, the president had given the finance minister instructions to ask the IMF to endorse an economic plan that the government of Ghana had developed.
The list appears to have been carefully crafted, taking into account the backgrounds of each appointment and the particular projects or media outlets they have been given responsibility for.
And without a doubt, the news of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo administration’s significant U-turn, which led it to ultimately turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after engaging in a number of political pranks on the populace, has raised more doubts than it has clarified.
Numerous people criticized the government’s action as unsatisfactory, especially after it battled through parliament to pass the contentious Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy).
Instead of turning to the IMF, the E-levy was promoted as the country’s safety net.
This is because, through their media appearances, certain ministers have already provided some compelling justifications for why approaching the IMF is a prudent course of action.
However, it now appears that this is all part of a well-coordinated scheme to get these appointees—the majority of whom are cabinet ministers—to flood media outlets with their synchronized defenses for why Ghana should approach the IMF right now.
26 media appearances between July 4, 2022, and July 6, 2022 are listed on the ostensibly incomplete list, "GOG Engagement with IMF," as seen by countryghana.com/.
The schedule includes the days, the appointed government ministers, and the media channels.
Beginning on July 1, 2022, Victoria Kwakwa will serve as the World Bank’s new vice president for Eastern and Southern Africa.
Prior to her appointment, Mrs. Kwakwa served as the vice president for corporate strategic initiatives at the World Bank.
She will oversee an active regional program with more than 30 years of expertise, a financing portfolio of more than 300 projects worth more than $50 billion, and considerable policy research and advising.
Under her direction, the World Bank will keep assisting nations that are struggling economically as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects, food and energy-fueled inflation, and mounting debt levels.
Victoria Kwakwa, who has previously worked in countries in Africa and East Asia, is hailed as someone who brings growth and expertise to the job.
From April 2016 until September 2021, Mrs. Kwakwa also held the position of Vice President for East Asia Pacific, where she oversaw the Bank’s interactions with 23 different customers on a variety of development-related topics.
She is committed to implementing creative and innovative ideas to help the regions attain a stable and vibrant economy. She has a history of accomplishments.
Hafez Ghanem, who left the World Bank on June 30, 2022, is succeeded by Mrs. Kwakwa.
It’s an honor & privilege to serve the people of #Africa. The @WorldBank will continue to increase its steadfast support to Eastern and Southern Africa in the face of ongoing challenges ranging from #foodsecurity, #COVID, #climatechange, fragility & economic uncertainty. (1/3)
In response to former president John Dramani Mahama’s demands that finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta be fired, prominent NPP member Gabby Otchere-Darko has responded.
According to Gabby, even when requests were made to Mr. Mahama while he was in power to fire his Finance Minister Seth Terkper for visiting the IMF in 2014–15 when there wasn’t a significant crisis, he stood by him.
“Sir, we still clearly recall the NDC’s calls for you to fire Seth Terkper as your finance minister.
You stuck by him, though Ghanaians were perplexed why IMF in 2014/15, with all the new additional revenues from oil, and no global crisis like now,” Gabby tweeted on Saturday July 2.
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President, must be replaced as the leader of the Economic Management Team (EMT), according to Mr. Mahama, because he has failed.
Additionally, he claimed that Mr. Ofori-Atta had overseen the calamitous collapse of the economy and was therefore ineligible to be on the team of negotiators for negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to Financial Analyst Mr. Joe Jackson, it indicates how terrible the economic situation is for a government that previously claimed it would not approach the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
President Akufo-Addo instructed Mr. Ofori-Atta to begin negotiations with the IMF on Friday, July 1, after speaking by phone with Miss Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, to inform her of Ghana’s determination to work with the Fund.
This was revealed in a statement from the ministry of information.
The administration was not going to the IMF, as Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta had consistently stated prior to this revelation.
He believed that the government had implemented policies, such as pay reductions and others, as well as programs to address the core problems impacting the economy, thus there was no need to go back to the IMF.
At a press conference in Accra on May 12, he made these comments in response to a question on whether Ghana would think about returning to the IMF from an international journalist.
“All the white people are only interested in us joining the IMF program,” he claimed. I often ponder this.
“We are fund members, and the fund has provided us with two main areas of action. The first is the advice we receive as a result of the extraordinary knowledge the fund possesses, and the second is these program interventions that provide us with resources.
He had already mentioned during the Townhall meetings on the e-levy that he was not going to the IMF.
He said that a return to the IMF will have terrible repercussions at the third Townhall gathering on Thursday, February 10, at the Radache Hotel in Tamale in the Northern Region.
“I can assure you, as my colleague deputy indicated, that no matter what we do, we are not returning to the IMF. Don’t let anyone persuade you otherwise because the implications are serious and we are a proud country with the means and capability to handle them. We are not a short-sighted people, and we must advance, stated Mr. Ofori-Atta.
We all anticipate the IMF to tell you that you need to cut expenses drastically, Mr. Joe Jackson stated in an interview with TV3’s Martin Asiedu-Darteh on the News @10 on Friday, July 1. Where will the spending be reduced when such ideas are made? There might be a place to start, and I’m willing to cut expenses here rather than there.
Politically speaking, some of the solutions might be more appealing than others. Whatever it is, it will cause a great deal of suffering. There is agony involved with escaping the situation we are in right now.
“In reality, if you think about it clearly, this government knew exactly what the political repercussions of going to the IMF will be, and they had repeatedly stated absolutely that we will not go to the IMF,” he continued. They had pretended that they didn’t even need to visit the IMF because of the e-levy.
Of course, none of this has ever occurred, so what it should teach each of us is that the situation must be awful, difficult, and unbearably difficult for us to have no choice but to accept the political repercussions.
“Today is not a day of victory for those of us who have long advocated for the government to approach the IMF; rather, today is a day of mourning as it signifies the truth that the situation is extremely difficult.”
Gabby Otchere-Darko, a prominent New Patriotic Party (NPP) member, laments the fact that the government was compelled to seek financial assistance from the IMF (IMF).
He claimed that no government in this scenario could have avoided asking the Fund for assistance, particularly when its efforts to raise money are met with vehement hostility from both Parliament and the general public.
According to his judgment, this includes the Minority’s fierce resistance to the contentious E-Levy. What transpires when it takes you six months to pass a taxation policy?Because this tax would have significantly impacted a large number of people, it is simple for the opposition to rail against it and then fuel public opposition. However, this is the only option.
“I believe that those are the things we need to concentrate on when you have an opposition party that thinks that nothing is more important than political capitalization of situations and can go out to the public and say that “yes, praise us because we stopped the government from getting its way in raising revenue to solve the situation and the problems facing the average Ghanaian.”
In an interview with Newfile, Mr. Otchere-Darko claimed that, given the delay in passing the e-levy law and other initiatives, the Akufo-Addo government had no other choice than to turn to the IMF.
“Government saw a problem and approached Parliament. We don’t have a Parliament where you could say that the majority would rule and the minority would have no say; our Parliament does not operate in this manner.
“If you remember, the Minority Leader was actually bragging [and] taking credit for frustrating government’s attempt to raise money, delaying that by six months. I am not too sure how any government in Ghana’s situation would have rescued that because you have a major way of raising revenue which has been frustrated for six months,” he lamented on Saturday, July 2.
He is not overly pessimistic about the government approaching the IMF, but he thinks more domestic policies could have been implemented to improve the economy’s fortunes.
The private attorney continued by blaming Parliament for the current state of the nation.
We can confirm that the authorities have been in touch to request Fund’s support to #Ghana’s own economic program. The #IMF stands ready to assist #Ghana to restore macroeconomics stability; safeguard debt sustainability; promote inclusive and sustainable growth; 1/2 https://t.co/fNQoQ4KbY9
There were challenges; yes, government came with its policies to see how to address those challenges and those policies were frustrated by the very Parliament that we have.
“Yes, we are in a difficulty but if you are government and don’t intend to go to the IMF but you are put in a situation where your avenues for raising revenue are being closed – whether through parliamentary action or by public rejection – then you have to tackle it,” Gabby Otchere-Darko stressed.
Sammy Gyamfi, the National Communication Officer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), called the government’s choice to work with the IMF a “shame.”
Mr. Gyamfi stated in a tweet on Friday that “posterity has a beautiful way of disgracing dishonest politicians.
The terms they used to describe @NAkufoAddo and @MBawumia have trapped them. Such a shame
In a previous interview on Friday’s AM Show with Benjamin Akakpo, Mr. Kwakye Ofosu accused the administration of egregiously mismanaging the economy and resulting in a difficult budgetary scenario for the nation.
In his submission, he lamented the rising levels of corruption and the government’s incapacity to rein in appointees who misappropriate public monies.
He discussed the contentious National Cathedral problem while also expressing his feelings over the Project’s lack of transparency.
Therefore, Mr. Kwakye Ofosu joined his voice to prior requests for the government to halt the project made by other prominent NDC members.
The General manager of EIB network has hailed the current government for bringing a strong relief to the poor with the introduction of free SHS.
According to her though she is against most of the decisions by the Nana-Bawumia Government ,She appreciate the introduction of Free SHS which has helped most marginalized people in the country and she wish that IMF shouldn’t touch it
Below is the tweet
Despite it all, free SHS has brought relief to majority of the poor.
I don’t agree with some of this administration’s decisions but free SHS dier 3y3 paa.
Kennedy Agyapong, a congressman from Assin Central, expressed unhappiness with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration’s choice to approach the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for assistance.
It will be challenging for the party to break its eight-year cycle, he claimed.
Because the NPP condemned the NDC government when they visited the Breton Woods institution, in his opinion, this amounts to giving over power to the NDC without a vote.
Mr. Agyapong, who previously stated that any party seeking assistance from the IMF will fail, after the NDC did so, said he is unsure of what to say now that his own party has made the same choice.
“It is just like handing over power to NDC without a contest, straight away because of the noise we made, and I chew my own words back when I said the NDC went to IMF because of mismanagement of the economy. So if NPP is going to IMF, what am I going to say? So breaking the eight is going to be tough.
“My message to you is simple, you cannot read my lips and I am not scared of anybody in the party, I will tell you the gospel truth, those who take you to IMF cannot break the eight,” he said at an on-going NPP National Constituency Officers Welfare workshop at Koforidua in the Eastern Region Friday.
