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.”