I can't fathom what will happen if IMF deal is not secured by May – Joe Jackson

The Director of Business Operations at Dalex Finance, Joe Jackson, has stated in the case that if Ghana is unable to secure an IMF deal by May, the country may be thrown into a myriad of challenges.

According to him, the level of Ghana’s reserves sends a bad signal that may not be good for the country.

This was after the 2023 International Monetary Fund Regional Economic Outlook Report (Sub-Saharan Africa) showed that Ghana’s net international reserves are expected to end in 2023 at approximately three weeks of import cover (0.8 months).

Joe Jackson lamented the state of the reserves and said “We will have no import cover at all at the end of the year. It’s not a good sign at all, it shows how severe the economic crisis that we are facing is. It’s been coming for a long time. I tweeted to alert the public that the situation is getting dire.

“At this moment I cannot fathom what will happen if we don’t secure the IMF deal,” he was quoted by citinewsroom.com.

He, therefore, called on labour unions and stakeholders to come on board the Debt Exchange programme to enable the country to make some headway in its bid to secure an IMF bailout as soon as possible.

Joe Jackson posited that if the right steps are not taken, the country may face a lot of challenges with fuel importation, electricity, and other forms of imports.

“We have to come to the table, we have to do everything required to get the deal, otherwise we will face massive shortages of foreign currencies. We will be facing Dumsor because we cannot import fuel. There will be fuel shortages, we won’t be able to import drugs, tomatoes, or chicken. This is a cry to the labour front, pensioners, and all the other stakeholders who have a role to play in making sure we get the IMF deal by the end of May.

“Let’s get to the table and realise how dire the situation is. Those kicking against the DDEP should come on board. We are between a rock and an extremely hard place. As much as we say this is not fair, the country needs their funds. The sad thing is that somebody has to pay. We have got to come together as a nation to resolve this issue,” he said.

Joe Jackson also recommended that government broadens its consultation with pensioners to give them an elaborate and candid appreciation of the matters at hand.

This he believes will help them understand the state of the country’s finances.

“The government must show leadership by cutting down its expenditure, cut down on the size of appointees, reduce the size of borrowing for this year’s budget so that it can have some authority in speaking to the pensioners and other stakeholders and say this is where we are and this is what we have to do to stay off disaster. Let us all remember that we are in a crisis, and we have got to keep praying for sensible heads to prevail,” he intimated.

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