I know how to stop us from going to IMF every now and then - Dr. Afriyie Akoto

Former Food and Agriculture Minister, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has said he has the expertise to help the country cease going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for support.

"...Our Finance Minister is now in China, the country is going through distress . . . I have something in mind and the expertise to help this country so we will not be going to the IMF every now and then.

"Sixty-six years of this country we have been to the IMF seventeen times . . . our development is being finance by debt, so long as we continue to rely on debt to finance our development we will go to the IMF umpteenth times, but we have the capacity to generate our own foreign exchange and fiscal revenue to fund Industrialisation, to fund Health, to fund Education, Infrastructure," he told Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's 'kokrokoo' programme.

Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto is seeking to lead the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to the 2024 general elections.

Ghana's Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has travelled to Beijing on Wednesday to meet Chinese officials to discuss a proposed restructuring of Ghana's debt.

The talks are expected to focus on ways to reduce Ghana's debt burden and secure additional financing assurances for the country's economic programme.

Ghana, which is struggling with its worst economic crisis in a generation, secured a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in December for a $3 billion loan, though asking lenders to provide financing assurances is a condition for the IMF's board to sign off the programme.

China is Ghana's biggest bilateral creditor with about $1.7 billion of debt.

The government's current priority is to secure IMF board approval, with the fine details of debt treatment operations to follow later.

The meetings will take place on Thursday and Friday.