The government and the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, are negotiating for an economic rescue scheme, but conversations are not going well, according to renowned economist and elder statesman Kwame Pianim.
In an interview with Accra-based TV3, he claimed that President Akufo-Addo and his troubled Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, were primarily to blame for the current state of affairs.
He claimed that the IMF was waiting for Akufo-Addo to provide a clear statement on the problem.
should accept responsibility for it and take decisive action to address the problems before they arise.
He noted that Ofori-continuing Atta’s tenure in office in the face of calls for his ouster was not resolving matters.
“The IMF negotiations are not going well. I know this for a fact. What the IMF is waiting for is a bold credible pronouncement from the president as he did over [the] COVID.
“The president said I take full responsibility, I am in charge and I am going to make sure that Ghanaians are protected from [the] COVID,” he submitted.
“We need the president to own the crisis. To come out and say, there is nothing that I will not do to stabilize the economy of Ghana, to stop this pressure and the economic crisis that is looming and that there are no sacred cows,” he stressed stating the need to review any and every government programme if need be.
Pushed about how he knew the negotiations were not going well, he insisted: “It is not going well, the negotiations. I know that. That is my business, to keep my ears open, I am a Ghanaian, and I am interested in the economy moving in the right direction.
“We have friends in Washington so what I am saying is that it is not going well,” he reiterated.
Government months back approached the IMF for a support programme amid an economic crisis. Whiles it has partly blamed the aftershock of COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war, the opposition insists the crisis has been brought on by economic mismanagement brought on by reckless borrowing and unnecessary spending.