Over the weekend, President Mahama announced government’s decision to opt for IMF’s intervention following months of dire economic challenges facing the country.
The IMF option is to support and help sustain and transform the country’s ailing economy.
A former Minister of Finance in the Kufuor administration has given his thought on the matter and backed government’s decision to run to the IMF for a bailout.
Mr. Osafo-Maafo in an interview with Peace FM noted that as at now, Ghana has no choice than to arrange for a programme with the IMF.
According to him, the nation stands to benefit enormously from this initiative. When it comes to management of the economy, Mr. Osafo- Maafo is optimistic discipline would order our steps.
“From 2008 even without oil, our GDP was 8.4 and it rose to 14 in 2011 when we discovered oil. But even with oil inclusive, it has currently dropped to 6% so the question we must ask ourselves is that if we hadn’t found the oil, where would we be by now.
Our national-international reserve stood at 3.1 billion but has drastically dropped to 900million. This tells us that without the support of IMF, Ghana is heading towards a disaster,” Mr. Osafo- Maafo said.
He stated that he foresees the IMF adding more specific conditions to the bailout.
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