Atik Mohammed accuses us of becoming "loan addicts." IMF bailout for Akufo-Addo.
Former General Secretary of the People's National Convention (PNC), Atik Mohammed, has raised concerns over President Nana Akufo-Addo taking Ghana back to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the government is going to the IMF for financial support for its economic program.
In an interview on Peace FM's morning show on Monday, the Minister said; "when the country was handed over to former President Mahama, there was no external global crisis. It was his own domestic management but at the end, he said to us that they have chewed the meat to the bone, so they are going to the Fund for bailout. This is his words, not mine. What tended up happening is that when they went for the bailout and we came into power, from 2017 to 2019, we saw how the Ghanaian economy performed.
"Today, our economic state has called for us to also go for bailout but it's a different scenario. It's not our internal domestic management that is the cause but the external issues and external pressures that have necessitated our decision to go for this facility."
Also, in a statement issued by Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the President has directed the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to formally engage with the International Monetary Fund 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".
Addressing the issue during 'Kokrokoo' Wednesday morning, Atik Mohammed, who is well-versed in Economics, believed Ghana's economy hasn't been well-managed under the Akufo-Addo regime.
He noted that the government has been taking decisions that are rather making Ghana more indebted instead of salvaging the economy.
"We have always been borrowing. Just in 2021, we went to float sovereign bonds, Eurobonds and other bonds combined to raise 3.025 billion dollars. I'm not sure we are likely to get such amount of money with this IMF bailout...It doesn't matter whichever program we go for, I don't believe we will get money more than 3 billion," he said.
"We have overborrowed than we ordinarily should," he added.
Atik Mohammed shared some judicious economic insight on how the government is making all the wrong decisions and how it could turn the situation around for the better, but stressed, "we have become loan addicts and the IMF is the rehab center for loan addicts...We have a problem with the leadership of our economic management".
He also referenced the President and his officials assuring Ghanaians during the COVID-19 pandemic that they had recovery plans, so asked them "what are the results of your recovery plans?"
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