IMF dilemma and our haircuts in a collapsing economy

Many people believe that our current economic woes are the result of past governments' actions and inactions.

 

However, the majority of us are of the firm belief that this is self-inflicted coupled with the intransigence of the "Ken Ofori Atta government."

Because in the past, Mahamadu Bawumia had always pontificated that he had the economic magic wand, and for that matter, Ghana's challenges were the result of bad leadership, mismanagement, and incompetence.

The macroeconomic variables that he looked at and made those assertions about were far better than what we are currently experiencing in terms of inflation, debt to GDP, exchange rate, and fuel prices.

The finance minister, whose 'ears are hard," is now threatening the elderly and asking them to surrender their investments or risk losing them, or the economy will collapse by March 2023.

When the Minority group in Parliament, through the ranking member on finance and now Minority leader, Dr. Ato Forson, advised the government to seek an IMF bailout as early as August 2022 or risk going to the IMF in an ambulance, the finance minister refused and called them names. Some NPP communicators even suggested that the NDC wanted to equalise with the idea of going to the IMF.

Unfortunately, we are not in an ugly contest.

He said, "We are not going to the IMF today; we are not going to the IMF tomorrow; the consequences are dire; we are a proud nation." So where is your pride now? With your hopes now pinned on the IMF?

In the early days of the announcement to go to the IMF, the argument was that it was the president's decision, not yours, to go to the IMF. But the question many are asking is: what is your alternative to the IMF program as finance minister if you didn't support it in the first place to now be scaremongering that the economy will collapse?

Again, when they arrived at the IMF and the issue of debt restructuring came out, the minority leader again said that as part of the debt management process, there would be a haircut. The president himself, as part of his address to his fellow Ghanaians, said there would be no haircut.

Now the finance minister is virtually cutting heads for people who don't have any hair at all.

Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia, the Vice President who was heralded as the economic discovery of our time, has stepped down as leader of the EMT, and we are now told that Alan Kyeremanteng was in fact the leader of the EMT.

 

This therefore demonstrates a lack of responsibility, candour and ownership of the problems.

Some questions continue to come up:

We all know that every loan you take has a component of insurance cover. Who were the insurers of Ghana's loans, and what are their roles in the current debt restructuring process?

What is the level of discussion with our current external bond holders, that is, the Paris Club and co.?

What level of sacrifice is the government willing to make to ensure that the economy doesn't run aground?

Why can't the government call for a broader national discussion like the Senchi consensus?