Gov’t has no option but to go to IMF – Mahama

Former President John Dramani Mahama has said that the Akufo-Addo administration has no option but to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to resolve the economic challenges.

Mr Mahama said IMF programmes come with fiscal consolidation and insistence on fiscal discipline which can lead to some recovery and improvements on the macro-economic front.

“In the last few days, there has been talk from some regime actors about a potential or impending IMF programme. Due to the nature and depth of our economic problems, this government virtually has no other sustainable option. “IMF programs come with fiscal consolidation and insistence on fiscal discipline which can lead to some recovery and improvements on the macro-economic front.

“This government has however so mismanaged our economy and left it in such a terrible state that fiscal consolidation alone will not do the trick,” the 2020 presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) said at a forum in Accra on Thursday June 30.

On Monday June 27, leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Otchere Darko said that in principle, he was not against the IMF programme.

Gabby explained that he is not for an IMF programme that gives the country peanuts but imposes conditions that will end up hurting the poor, jobs and businesses more.

In series of tweets he said “Am I against an IMF program in principle? No”

“I am not for an IMF program that throws peanuts at us but imposes conditions that will end up hurting the poor, jobs and businesses more. Covid-19 and War in Ukraine are not of Africa’s doing but more to our doom. A program that pretends it is all our doing is doomed to fail.”