IMF deal: Akufo-Addo ‘shifting goalpost’ – Minority

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has clearly changed his position on the three-year programme signed between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Ghana, then under the leadership of John Mahama, in 2015 for the former to provide an extended credit facility to the country, Haruna Iddrisu, Minority Leader and Member of Parliament for Tamale North, has said.

According to him, Mr Akufo-Addo, who during the electioneering for the 2016 polls stated emphatically that he was going to review the IMF programme if he won the elections, because in his view the deal was not in the interest of Ghana, remained mute on his stance on the deal he took while delivering the State of the Nation Address to Parliament on Tuesday, February 21. This, Mr Iddrisu said, was inconsistent on the president’s part.

Speaking at a Minority press conference on Wednesday, February 22 to respond to Tuesday’s State of the Nation Address delivered by the president, Mr Iddrisu said: “We remain optimistic that our projections in 2016 to the IMF and the World Bank are attainable and, therefore, we look forward to the statistics.

“The president failed to acknowledge the half-growth this year indicated by the IMF and the World Bank and a host of other international bodies based on the gains made by the immediate past NDC administration. Even while he paints a gloomy picture of the economy today, the prospects, as we indicated, look very bright.

“On the IMF programme itself, we find it curious that President Nana Akufo-Addo did not repeat his emphatic statement on the campaign platform that he would review the programme because it was not in the nation’s interest. He has shifted the goalposts and he is now talking about he negotiating and extending the three-year external credit agreement.”