Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has urged managers of Ghana’s economy to as a matter of urgency begin talks with the World Bank and friendly nations for economic support even as it looks to get a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the shortest possible time.
Mr Bentil contends that the balance of payment support expected from the IMF will not be enough to deal with Ghana’s current economic crisis.
“We need more than the IMF. We need to be speaking to the world bank and friendly nations for concessionary loans to shore up the economy and then get IMF to tide us over to health. We should be speaking to them by now, IMF alone can’t help us,” he argued.
Government has had to seek an IMF bailout after months of dithering and seeking desperate to tax its way out of its inability to meet debt repayment obligations.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta who had ruled out seeking an IMF bailout is currently leading negotiations to secure some three billion dollars for the country to heal resolve balance of payment challenges.
But Mr Bentil is of the opinion that the expected there billion dollars will be insufficient given the dire straits of the country.
Ghanaians are reeling under a harsh economy that has left vulnerable households unable to meet basic daily expenditure as inflation skyrockets and the currency continues a free fall against the dollar.