IMF Program Will Fail Just Like 16 Previous Ones …Socialist Movement of Ghana

The Socialist Movement of Ghana (SFG), an association of activists for socialism says it is joining other groups, to reject the bailout that the Akufo-Addo government is seeking from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In a statement, the Movement predicted that the bailout will fail to address the problems of Ghana’s economy, citing some 16 previous IMF programs that it says have all failed.

It pointed out that in the past 30 years, the IMF has implemented programs including the Economic Recovery and Structural Adjustment programmes which have failed to address the crippling conditions imposed on the working people.

“The SMG joins the trade Unions and mass public organizations in Ghana in rejecting the so-called engagement with the International Monetary Fund as a solution to pain and suffering the working people are enduring under the neo-liberal order,” the SMG stated.

“The SMG’s expectation from the engagement with the IMF is not optimistic. This is in view of the fact that Ghana has had at least 16 such engagements with the fund and none of them led to a revamping of the national economy. Indeed, all these engagements have contributed significantly to a worsening of the plight of the working people. There is also no evidence which suggests that any country anywhere in the world has managed to improve its economic fortunes as a result of the implementation of measures under the marching orders of the Bretton Woods Institutions,” the statement signed by General Secretary, Kwesi Pratt Jr. said.

Following the Akufo-Addo government’s decision to seek an IMF bailout, many have been dreading the likely consequences as expectations for a bitter prescription that will inflict austerity are high.

From statements made by government spokespersons, it appears that the Akufo Addo government is seeking to obtain a bailout facility of up to US$2.5billion.

It said the IMF from which the government is seeking the bailout is itself part of a neo liberal structure whose inefficiency and collapse continue to plunge Ghana into crisis.

“In our view, the crisis the Ghanaian economy has been plunged into is only a symptom of the collapse of the neo-liberal order which has been diligently enforced by the IMF, the World Bank, the centers of power in the colonial metropolis and neo- colonial regimes spread across Africa, Asia, South America and elsewhere,” the group stated.

The SMG also dismissed the government’s claims that the cause of the current economic crisis are COVID-19 and the Russia/Ukraine war, pointing out that COVID-19 has actually brought in more money to Ghana.