I support Mahama going to IMF for help – Nduom

Former Presidential Candidate, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, says he supports the Ghanaian Government’s resort to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a programme to help rescue the ailing economy of the West African country.

President John Mahama began talks with the IMF after Ghana’s economy took a nosedive. The local currency – Cedi – fell by almost 40 percent against the Dollar and other major currencies of international trade since January this year.

The Government has taken a lot of flak from the main opposition New Patriotic Party for running to the IMF for help. Its two-time presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo, believes the IMF move by the Mahama administration is proof of the NDC Government’s incompetence in handling the economy.

At a press conference Tuesday, Dr Nduom said he supports the move by the Mahama administration to seek help from the Bretton Woods Institution, since, according to him, things could get worse if nothing was done to help stop the country’s plummeting economic fortunes.

“The Government going to the IMF means that it has reached the limits of its ability to manage the economy so if the Government has said: ‘I’ve reached the limits of my ability’, then I would say: ‘I support the Government to go to the IMF’ because otherwise there’ll be no solution; we’ll be sitting here and things will become worse and worse and worse”, Dr Nduom said.

“So the hope is that by going there, they’ll find a solution and bring that solution that will help improve the situation because whether we like it or not, we have this administration in place until 2016 elections, and if they come back again, we are still stuck with them.

"If somebody else comes, perhaps it’s a different matter, but for now until then, the President is called John Dramani Mahama, and he and his administration are there, and if they say we have reached the limits of our ability, then I say: ‘Go where you can get the help that you need’, and if they feel that the help can’t come here, it can’t come from somewhere else but it’s only the IMF that will bring that help, then I say: ‘Go there, go there!’”