
Govt to invest $2bn annually for five years to tackle unemployment
2 mins read
5th October 2022 8:11:35 AM
2 mins readBy: Chris Kodo
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is prepared to rescue Ghana at any time the government requests it for policy credibility, according to Prince Kofi Amoabeng, the former CEO of the bank that is no longer in existence.
He claims that the fact that Ghana has requested a bailout from the IMF approximately 18 times plainly demonstrates that the nation's officials are unable to effectively manage the nation's resources because of which they continually turn to the international organization for assistance.
He claimed that everytime Ghana approaches the IMF, they are able to argue that even if the nation has abundant resources, the international lender will ultimately stand to gain significantly.
Amoabeng who was speaking to TV3 programme ‘Business Focus’ explained:
“Go back to other IMF programmes; divestiture, cut down on salaries, freeze employment and what do you do? They know that you are going to mismanage the monies. If Ghana has visited IMF for the 18th time, don’t you believe they will come again? But it is a serious matter, the point is that if we had to go to the IMF, and this time that they’ve come, we should sign a contract with them for them to stay because when they go, we will mismanage again and then we will go to them and they will come back.
“And this is not free [because] they are a bank giving Ghana money. We pay for their travel expenses, hotel expenses and when they come because they know the potential of Ghana in terms of resources and others, IMF will always bail Ghana out. IMF will never say that the situation of Ghana is that bad and therefore they can’t handle it; they will always bail us out.
“Now, what is happening is that as we call them and they come for us to start negotiations, Moody’s said these people their situation is worse; somebody who is trying to negotiate, now you are throwing debt at him…these foreign institutions are in a form of some kind of caput…”
Ghana is before the IMF for US$3 billion to help the country navigate through the hostile economic crisis it finds itself in as a result of the adverse effects of the deadly coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
President Akufo-Addo has stated, on occasion, that “we have decided to seek the collaboration of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to repair, in the short run, our public finances, which have taken a severe hit in very recent times as a result, whilst we continue to work on the medium to long-term structural changes that are at the heart of our goal of creating a Ghana Beyond Aid, that is building a resilient, robust Ghanaian economy.”
2 mins read
1 min read
3 mins read
1 min read
2 mins read
4 mins read
2 mins read
2 mins read
2 mins read