FLASHBACK: Ensure Ghana does not borrow again – GAWU tells IMF

In 2022, after the government announced plans to go to the International Monetary Fund for a financial bailout, the General Agriculture Workers Union, asked the International Monetary Fund to ensure that the country does not borrow again.

“All the things we are going to the IMF are to gain credibility to be able to take more loans. Because we have borrowed and borrowed and borrowed it is no longer sustainable and then we are going to IMF to get what credibility, to do what? To borrow again."

“And one of the conditionalities I think IMF should give to our country is that they should make sure that government does not go to borrow again. And even if they are going to borrow again there should be a cap on it,” he told GhanaWeb in an exclusive interview.

Read the full story originally published on August 25, 2022, by GhanaWeb

General Secretary of the General Agriculture Workers Union, Edward Kareweh, has opined that the International Monetary Fund should impose certain restrictions on Ghana as the country seeks financial assistance.

He stated that Ghana should be restricted from borrowing more or should have a cap on how much they can borrow.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with GhanaWeb on the sidelines of a GIZ-IMANI reform dialogue on August 24, 2022, Kareweh lamented Ghana’s growing debt stock which currently stands at over GH¢391billion.

“All the things we are going to the IMF are to gain credibility to be able to take more loans. Because we have borrowed and borrowed and borrowed it is no longer sustainable and then we are going to IMF to get what credibility, to do what? To borrow again."

“And one of the conditionalities I think IMF should give to our country is that they should make sure that government does not go to borrow again. And even if they are going to borrow again there should be a cap on it,” he stated.

The GAWU secretary also stated that going to the IMF is not the solution to Ghana’s problem but has become a necessary evil that will help bring the country back on track.

According to him, excessive borrowing should be checked.

“My concern is that we should not go to the IMF because IMF is never the solution but it has become necessary because they said if we don’t go to the IMF we will have a socio-economic meltdown,” he added.

“Because we cannot borrow ourselves to death. If we don’t like ourselves, fine, but not our future generation who depend on us. If our great-great-grandparents had done that, today we will not have a country called Ghana to live in. You can’t borrow and borrow and people who are yet to be born and two generations will come and pay that,” Kareweh concluded.