The International Monetary Fund (IMF) team dispatched to “save” Ghana from the economic mess the Akufo Addo administration has driven it into has reportedly started negotiations today, Wednesday, July 7, 2022.
Details of the reported negotiations are still sketchy as a desperate Akufo Addo administration which vowed vehemently not to opt for an IMF programme was left with no choice after decimating the Ghanaian economy.
After widespread denials, the Akufo Addo administration, on July 1, 2022, directed the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to engage the IMF after months of delaying the inevitable.
According to the statement, the President’s directive to the Finance Minister followed a telephone conservation between President Akufo-Addo, and the IMF managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, conveying Ghana’s decision to engage with the Fund.
“The engagement with the IMF will seek to provide balance of payment support as part of a broader effort to quicken Ghana’s build back in the face of challenges induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and, recently, the Russia-Ukraine crises,” the statement read.
Thence, the Ghana country office of the IMF has confirmed the engagement. Resident representative, Albert Touna-Mama, said in a tweet last week Friday, “We can confirm that the authorities have been in touch to request [the] Fund’s support to Ghana’s own economic programme.
“The IMF stands ready to assist Ghana to restore macroeconomics stability; safeguard debt sustainability; promote inclusive and sustainable growth; and face the impact of the war in Ukraine and the lingering pandemic”.
The decision to go to the IMF has been greeted with widespread anger at the earlier deception by the government of its ability to independently navigate the economic mess that the administration had driven the country into.
While public anger hit a crescendo, the Akufo Addo administration has responded by ramping up a propaganda plan involving several spokespersons to justify the move that it had vowed vehemently not to make.
Part of the face-saving propaganda machinery includes the printing of an unsolicited Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), a script of scripted answers to selected questions that appears to put the administration in a good light, despite the mess.
The FAQ maintains the oft-peddled misinformation by the Akufo Addo administration on why Ghana had been driven into an unsustainable public debt level, claiming COVID-19 is the leading reason.
Yet, experts, including the World Bank office in Ghana had corrected the fallacy by saying Ghana’s debt problem under the Akufo Addo administration started long before COVID-19.