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 done 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 a 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 so-called programme called home-grown which was just about cutting cost
that really were not possible to cut. They talked about raising 2billion
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.
Source: 3news.com