In order to quickly achieve an agreement with the Washington-based lender, senior lecturer at the University of Ghana's Business School, Prof. Lord Mensah, has advised the government to be open with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about Ghana's debt problem.

His remarks follow the World Bank's Africa Pulse Report, which places Ghana's debt at a horrifying percentage level.

According to the World Bank's estimate for October 2022, Ghana's debt will increase from 76.6 to 104.6 percent of GDP by the end of this year 2022.

The government's debt deficit, growing debt costs, and the ongoing depreciation of the cedi were also discussed.

Commenting on the report on Morning Starr with Francis Abban, Prof. Mensah said unless the government has a restructuring investment plan with the IMF they will not get any deal with the Washington lender.

According to him, for a typical African country like Ghana to have its debt exceeding 100 percent is a problem.

“The government seems to be wobbling on its decision to either call for debt restructuring and they are waiting to come and tell us that it’s the IMF that is calling for debt restructuring. But I am telling you that the IMF will not call for debt restructuring.

“But for us to get a program with them we have to do that because they will not lend to any country that is in debt distress. So we may have to negotiate on our debt and I am expecting the government to be bold enough to come out,” the senior lecturer advised.

He continued: “Now they are playing politics with it. So effectively they don’t have that confidence in coming to the investor and telling the investor look this is the situation we find ourselves in and as a result of that we may have to restructure your investment.”

Prof. Mensah, however, advised the government to improve its internal revenue generation and export ratio, adding that the government must be quick in telling Ghanaians about the economic situation before going into any deal with the IMF.