Nhyiaeso Member of Parliament, Dr Stephen Amoah has said the challenges that forced the Akufo-Addo administration to decide to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are not peculiar to only Ghana.
He said the problems are global.
In his view, there is nothing wrong with the decision to fall on the IMF for assistance in mitigating the challenges.
Speaking on the Key Points on TV3, Saturday, July 2, the Member of the Finance Committee of Parliament said “I don’t think going to IMF is a bad thing. At a point probably, we decided not to go, yes. You can have a problem with your tummy but you will say you won’t go to the hospital, that I can use A, B, C, D but as the situation gets severe you might probably, be compelled by the prevailing challenges to take an option.
“When it comes to decision-making, it is about having goal or objective and the alternative getting to the objective, you have room to operate and calibrate your decision-making or your choices in terms of alternative, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
“Let us be honest with God and ourselves, if it is not politics and it is honesty, this situation is global and when you say this, people think there is no God, they can lie and do whatever they want to do. For NDC, I understand them because NPP would do the same but the people who have what it takes and they are not NDC, NPP, interface players or activists and they are supposed to speak the truth yet they get Ghanaians confused… misleading thousands of people in their confused state, it is not right.”
The former Chief Executive Officer of the Micro Finance and Small Loans Center (MASLOC) called for good negotiation that will lead to conditionalities that are not extreme.
For his part, Bolgatanga Central MP, Isaac Adongo described the decision to go to the IMF as the most sensible decision to take to deal with the economic challenges.
Although he said this decision could have been taken earlier, the government should focus on how to get a good programme to lift the country from the economic doldrums.
He said “The reality is that we ought to focus on how to get Ghana out of this difficulty. We need to put our best foot forward in order that we get a very good programme that will be programme that will turn things around and make Ghana better.
” I believe that the issues around what you said before, what you did say before will go on but the most important thing is that it was the most sensible decision to take.
“This was very late in coming at the time they went top Peduase in March they needed to bite the bullet but they came back with a so-called programme called home-grown which was just about cutting cost that really were not possible to cut. They talked about raising 2 billion dollars to deepen the reason for the programme because the very reason for the programme was the fact that we had borrowed ourselves into a tight corner and we were in a debt trap.”
The Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has been instructed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to commence engagements with the Fund.
This followed a telephone conversation between the President and the IMF Managing Director, Miss Kristalina Georgieva, conveying Ghana’s decision to engage with the Fund.
The Ministry of Information announced this in a statement on Friday, July 1.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana