The former president John Mahama on Saturday commended President Nana Akufo-Addo for agreeing to engage the International Monetary Fund for an economic bailout.
On Friday (1 July 2022), Ghana announced officially that it was seeking support from the IMF to help address the economic crisis.
The Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, issued a statement saying that the president had “authorised Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to commence formal engagements” with the IMF.
He said the announcement followed a phone conversation between Akufo-Addo and managing director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva.
Reacting to the news on Facebook, Mahama said: “Though belated, it should mark an important step towards addressing the dire economic situation, which has left Ghanaians wallowing under intense suffering and hardships.”
Below is the full post by John Dramani Mahama from Facebook:
I welcome President Akufo-Addo’s decision to formally engage the IMF with the view to entering into a programme under the Fund.
Though belated, it should mark an important step towards addressing the dire economic situation, which has left Ghanaians wallowing under intense suffering and hardships.
Beyond the announcement of engagement with the IMF, a comprehensive home-grown programme should be fashioned out and presented to the Fund for support. It is imperative that a team of skilled and competent negotiators is put together to obtain the best set of measures with the Fund.
The Finance Minister who has supervised the disastrous collapse of the economy cannot and should not be part of the team of negotiators. He has lost credibility and the trust and confidence of stakeholders in our economy.
President Akufo-Addo must take a bold decision to replace his finance minister immediately with a more assured and competent person who is willing and able to work tirelessly to turn our almost hopeless situation around.
In addition, given his obvious failures, the Vice President must be relieved of his responsibility as Chair of the Economic Management Team to enable the President to reconstitute the team.
We must draw useful lessons from this episode and avoid cheap politicking with the economy; that can only yield the disastrous outcomes that have brought us here.
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