When Otumfuo intervened for my govt, IMF readily agreed a $918m deal for Ghana - John Mahama

On April 3, 2015, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $918 million three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for Ghana to support the Mahama government’s medium-term economic reform programme.

The government was facing a crisis with the economy, and the programme was aimed at restoring debt sustainability and macroeconomic stability to foster a return to high growth and job creation while protecting social spending.

Former President John Dramani Mahama however revealed that, but for the intervention of the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, his government would have had difficulty in securing the IMF deal.

Economic crisis

Explaining, Mr Mahama said when his government faced a crisis with the economy in 2013/2014, the Asantehene was at hand to rescue the situation.

“We had implemented the single spine salary policy from President Mills' time and somewhere in 2013, the arrears were kicking in. So we overshot in terms of revenue which became a burden on the budget. Wages and salaries shot up astronomically so we did the Senchi forum and after that, we came out with the Home-Grown Fiscal Consolidation Programme.

“We tried to implement it but international investors thought that without discipline we could not do that. We tried to convince them but they would not budge,” he stated.

IMF

Mr Mahama continued that the government, therefore, decided that to get the credibility, it needed to go to the IMF to buy into the implementation of the home-grown fiscal programme.

However, when his administration wanted to talk to the IMF they kept delaying.

“One day during a visit to Kumasi, I enquire from Otumfuo whether he could get his friend, the President of the World Bank at the time, James D. Wolfensohn, for him to work on the IMF programme for the government and the Asantehene readily accepted the request.

“Because of that programme, Otumfuo flew to Washington to have talks with Mr Wolfensohn, who together with Otumfuo went and spoke with the IMF Director, Madam Christine Lagarde and within a short period of time, we had the Extended Credit Facility.

“That was the programme that turned the economy around because under that programme, in 2016, almost for the first time in our history, we did not overspend the budget,” Mr Mahama said.

Receiving the Otumfuo

Mr Mahama made the disclosure when he received the Otumfuo commemorative gold coin at his office in Accra on Tuesday, February 8, 2022.

Dagbon conflict

Mr Mahama stated that Otumfuo was the prime mover in the settlement of the Dagbon crisis.

“So we are proud of him and we are happy that this coin had been issued,” he said.

He added: “Certainly If anybody was to be celebrated in this country, you couldn't go past Otumfuo. He has been a part of consolidating our democracy since the time of President Rawlings.”

Delegation

The E ON 3 Group and its key partners presented the gold coin to Mr Mahama.

Executive Chairman of the E ON 3 Group, Richard Adjei Mensah Ofori Atta, led the delegation.