CEO of the defunct UT Bank Prince Kofi Amoabeng the former, has noted that the International Monetary Fund, IMF, is ready to bail Ghana out anytime the country seeks its help for policy credibility.
According to him, Ghana seeking an IMF bailout almost 18 times clearly shows that the leaders of the country are not capable of managing the resources of the country, therefore, they will always run to the international body for help.
He said, whenever Ghana approaches the IMF, they are in a position to say because this country is well endowed with resources but that the international lender stands on a great advantage to benefit in the long term.
Amoabeng who was speaking to TV3 programme ‘Business Focus’ explained:
“Go back to other IMF programmes; divestiture, cut down on salaries, freeze employment and what do you do? They know that you are going to mismanage the monies. If Ghana has visited IMF for the 18th time, don’t you believe they will come again? But it is a serious matter, the point is that if we had to go to the IMF, and this time that they’ve come, we should sign a contract with them for them to stay because when they go, we will mismanage again and then we will go to them and they will come back.
“And this is not free [because] they are a bank giving Ghana money. We pay for their travel expenses, hotel expenses and when they come because they know the potential of Ghana in terms of resources and others, IMF will always bail Ghana out. IMF will never say that the situation of Ghana is that bad and therefore they can’t handle it; they will always bail us out.
“Now, what is happening is that as we call them and they come for us to start negotiations, Moody’s said these people their situation is worse; somebody who is trying to negotiate, now you are throwing debt at him…these foreign institutions are in a form of some kind of caput…”
Ghana is before the IMF for US$3 billion to help the country navigate through the hostile economic crisis it finds itself in as a result of the adverse effects of the deadly coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
President Akufo-Addo has stated, on occasion, that “we have decided to seek the collaboration of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to repair, in the short run, our public finances, which have taken a severe hit in very recent times as a result, whilst we continue to work on the medium to long-term structural changes that are at the heart of our goal of creating a Ghana Beyond Aid, that is building a resilient, robust Ghanaian economy.”