NDC's IMF suggestion 'lame' – Kumah

Deputy Minister of Finance Dr John Ampontuah Kumah has warded off suggestions by the Minority in Parliament that Ghana needs to seek debt relief from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), calling the suggestion “lame”.

“The NDC solution is for Ghana to go back to IMF, that is a very lame suggestion to give to us,” he told Media General‘s Eric Mawuena Egbeta on Monday, July 26.

“I can tell you we are not going to IMF today or tomorrow, not as far as this government is concerned. Maybe when the NDC comes back to power in future and they want to take Ghana back to the IMF, we will do that.”

He was speaking on the sidelines of a Policy Dialogue organised by the Minority in Parliament at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).

Addressed by the Ranking Member of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, the Dialogue was strictly on the economy and the Finance Minister was invited to attend.

Dr Forson, who is also a former Deputy Finance Minister, suggested that Ghana’s debt stock requires an urgent relief from the IMF.

“The Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government must seek urgent debt relief from the International Monetary Fund through the newly proposed Debt Relief Initiative, known as the Common Framework for Debt Treatments Beyond the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), which can be likened to the HIPC Initiative,” the Member of Parliament for Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam Constituency suggested.

This is what Dr Kumah, who is also MP for Ejisu and representing the Finance Minister, counters.

“We have just taken Ghana out of IMF and if you organise an economic policy programme and all you are telling government is for us to go to IMF, it shows you the lack of ideas that the NDC has.

“They have no alternative ideas to offer to Ghanaians.”

By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|editors.3news.com|Ghana

Follow @kwame_amoh