Ex-President John Dramani Mahama has called for this to be the last time Ghana ever resorts to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial assistance.
Ghana has infamously sought IMF assistance 18 times since independence, with the last two initiated by the Presidencies of John Dramani Mahama and Nana Akufo-Addo.
“This should be the last time we go to the IMF because going and coming, it creates a certain instability in the whole system and it also reduces the faith that people have in our democracy,” Mahama said during an interview with Straight Talk Africa on the Voice of America (VOA).
According to the former President, the NPP has two problems which have precipitated the current economic crisis – extravagant expenditure and rampant borrowing.
“This government has twin problems. One is macroeconomic instability because expenditures far exceed revenues. Revenues are not performing properly. The second thing is also that they went on a borrowing spree and they have pushed our debts to levels that are unsustainable.
“Just recently the World Bank came and said we had almost 104 of debt to GDP and so we have twin problems. One to achieve fiscal consolidation and two, to bring debts back to sustainable levels. So that is what they are faced with,” he submitted.
He continued: “The economy is situated in an environment. It does not exist in isolation and so there are some things that need to be done to create an environment for the economy to thrive. Some of them are governance issues, strengthening state-owned institutions, the fight against corruption and so many other things that create the environment for the economy to thrive.
“I think that when we go into this programme and we bring debts back to sustainable levels and we are able to get the bridging facility in other to achieve policy credibility so that investors again feel confident that they can bring back their money into Ghana, then we must start from there and maintain that prudence,”
Mahama added that this should be the last time Ghana ever has to resort to the IMF for assistance.
Source: theGhanaianVoice.Com