Minister for Food and Agriculture Dr Owusu Afriyie-Akoto has predicted that Ghanaians will soon praise the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for engaging the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to support its economic programmes.
According to him, Ghanaians should rather be concerned with the conditionalities that may come with Ghana’s engagement with the Fund.
Last Friday, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, authorised the Minister for Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta to commence formal engagements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to support the country’s economy.
The move has generated mixed reactions and controversy.
However, the Minister for Food and Agriculture has called for calm with the belief that the IMF conditionalities will be favorable to all Ghanaians.
“Ghanaians should calm down and wait for the terms that will come out of our engagement with the IMF and they will realize it will be favorable for the people of this country”, Dr. Afriyie-Akoto urged.
He said it was not strange for Ghana to seek advice from the IMF.
“Ghanaians will soon praise us for going to the IMF. The IMF is not a stranger that we are going to beg, we are prominent African member of the Fund and they are there to advise the government. The president in his wisdom has decided its about time we spoke to them and we are going to speak to them. The terms we will bring is the most important thing”, he told Nhyira FM.
Dr. Afriyie-Akoto said government’s decision to go to the IMF on Covid-19 and the Russian-Ukraine war which, according to him, has disrupted everything in the country.
He said the grounds on which the previous administration went to the IMF is far different from the current situation.
“There have been two unprecedented historical events in the last two years, one of which is global Covid. Since 1919 there has never been a global outbreak of a disease of that nature and we suffered that.
“Then we had this European War which has never happened since 1939 which has disrupted everything in the country.
“So you cannot compare the situation between the last time we went to the IMF to what we are doing now”, Dr. Afriyie-Akoto stressed.
