Policy analyst and a Vice President of policy think-tank, IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has suggested that the decision by the Akufo-Addo government to leave the International Monetary Fund programme started by ex-President John Dramani Mahama was a hasty mistake that has boomeranged into another resort to the IMF.
Speaking in an interview with the BBC’s Peter Okwoche, Mr. Simons said the 2018 exit had happened without reforms that the IMF had required of Ghana.
“By the end of that period, those reforms had not been completed but Ghana (under Akufo-Addo’s government) was adamant that it had to leave the IMF programme,” the IMANI vice president explained.
This position by Mr. Simons dismisses the government’s claim that COVID-19 and the Russia/Ukraine war are responsible for the mess that has Ghana’s economy.
Critics think the Akufo Addo administration was eager to leave the IMF programme in 2018 because it gave the government an escape route for the rampant corruption that will characterize the administration.
The Akufo Addo government is regarded by a cross-section of experts as the most corrupt in the history of Ghana.