- "…This tax will not solve the problems of Ghana. Let them go to the IMF and get some discipline when it comes to the management of the economy. So that there are some checks and they will be bonded by those checks. And at least, when they’re given any money by the IMF they know, that the conditionalities will ensure that they don’t spend the way they like."
A private legal practitioner, Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo, has advised the government to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to seek an economic bailout programme.
He said the government needs economic credibility to properly enable it to manage the country’s economy.
Speaking on Asaase Radio’s Saturday morning news analysis and current affairs show – The Forum – on 29 January, Addo bemoaned the excessive borrowing by the government through the Eurobond market.
According to him, an IMF bailout programme will ensure that some conditionalities are instituted to reduce the government’s expenditure and place a cap on the high rate of borrowing. This, he said, will lead to the country’s economic revolution and positive turnaround.
“What we’re saying is that go to the IMF. Go to the IMF for credibility because as you (the government) are now, even if we were to support any measure in respect of this tax, number one, our constituents will not forgive us. The NDC supporters are Ghanaians. The persons that the minority represents are telling the MPs that do not authorise this tax because we’re already burdened with taxes.
“…This tax will not solve the problems of Ghana. Let them go to the IMF and get some discipline when it comes to the management of the economy. So that there are some checks and they will be bonded by those checks. And at least, when they’re given any money by the IMF they know, that the conditionalities will ensure that they don’t spend the way they like,” Addo said.
“…He (Ken Ofori-Atta) doesn’t want to go to the IMF. And he has even indicated that if the E-Levy is not passed, the other resort will be for us to go back to the IMF. That’s one of the things this government does not want to do. Because going to the IMF, for them is literally an admission of failure,” he stated.
Push to seek IMF support
In a Facebook post on (22 January), Franklin Cudjoe, the president of IMANI Africa urged the government to return to the IMF for support in the face of the country’s current economic challenges.
He decried Ghana’s debt profile and called on the government to take a second look at its expenditure.
“We all fall on hard times and need some support from family and friends… but the government has driven the country into a debt iceberg and we are sinking with fewer lifeboats and passerby ships that should care are simply smiling and waving at us… We need to stop the debt clock by rationalising our expenditure plans and more… Meanwhile, the government should talk to the IMF to help. We shouldn’t be shy at all,” he wrote.
Returning to IMF disastrous
However, despite the pressures from all corners, Ken Ofori-Atta, the finance minister says returning to the International Money Fund would not augur well for Ghana.
Speaking at the government’s town-hall meeting to discuss the E-Levy on Thursday (27 January 2022), the minister said the passage of the E-Levy will save the country from falling back on the IMF for financial assistance, which, he said, would be disastrous.
“When we were in the IMF program, we couldn’t pay for nurses and teachers,” he said; “we couldn’t hire anymore because there were restrictions on that. I mean, it’s just really thinking you can go back to Egypt.
“In a way, we have forgotten how difficult and tenacious that master from Washington was.
“So, we can deal with them for them to give us advice but we need not ever get into an IMF program [again]. If we don’t do this E-Levy, we’re just pushing ourselves in a way that would potentially end up in such a disaster,” he said.
Nicholas Brown
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