-After Running Ghana Aground With Loans Benefiting His Private Company.
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has reportedly said that the Akufo-Addo government will not go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout because among other things, Ghana is a proud nation.
Yet, the same Finance Minister had run to the Bretton Woods institutions of the World Bank and IMF when the finances of the country was cornered by COVID-19.
Explaining the government’s refusal of advice from experts, including its own former MP for New Juabeng South, Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah, to go to the IMF for a bailout, Ofori-Atta explained in language that gives the impression that government would rather tax Ghanaians dead than risk its image.
“I can tell you, as my colleague deputy said, we are not going back to the IMF, whatever we do we are not [going back]. The consequences are dire, we are a proud nation, we have the resources, we have that capacity, don’t let anybody tell you … we are not people of short-sighted, we need to move on,” Mr. Ofori-Atta said.
It is suchlike confusion from the Akufo-Addo government that has pushed it to source badly-needed financial reprieve from the thievish e-levy which is purposed to tax savings of Ghanaians.
Insisting that the money will be raised through e-levy, Ofori-Atta also told journalists that Ghanaians ought to be able to accommodate the overwhelmingly rejected e-levy because the government is simply taking just a little bit off their savings.
“The challenge is, for example, assuming you earn a million cedis a year and you transfer all of that through MoMo. What am I asking of you? ¢15,000. Is that what you have been fighting against? Or if you are a student and assuming your earn 100,000 cedis, which is unlikely, that means what, a 1500 cedis,” Ofori-Atta said.
Speaking about adding more taxes on fuel, Ofori-Atta said, it was a viable alternative if the e-levy does not fly.
“There are always many alternatives but really, you are looking at the future and you are looking at ways we can solve the issue of the increased revenue and everybody participating.”
However, critics think the real reason why Ofori-Atta and the Akufo Addo administration is wary of seeking an IMF bailout is that it is afraid it may worsen the financial standing of the country because the government had already driven the finances of the country into a ditch with its extremely high borrowing.
The Akufo Addo administration had borrowed more money in five years than all the previous governments combined since independence, having borrowed almost GHC 200 billion of Ghana’s total public debt hovering above GHC 300 billion.
Incidentally, a substantial part of the debt, including those raised through bonds on the international money market was transacted through Databank Financial Services, the private company of the Finance Minister.
In a rather dubious opportunity, Databank for made transaction advisor to all of the Eurobonds that Ghana raises. Consequently, the Finance Minister’s company earns commission on every such bond raised. This provides a logical motivation for the man controlling the finances of the country to keep racking up more debt.