Dr. John Ampontuah Kumah, Deputy Minister of Finance, has rejected proposals by the Minority in Parliament that Ghana should seek debt relief from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), labeling the idea “lame.”
“The NDC solution is for Ghana to go back to IMF, that is a very lame suggestion to give to us,” he told TV3 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 addressing on the margins of the Minority in Parliament’s Policy Dialogue at Accra’s University of Professional Studies (UPSA).
The Dialogue, which was addressed by Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, Ranking Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, was purely economic in nature and was attended by the Finance Minister.
Dr. Forson, a former Deputy Finance Minister, argued that Ghana’s debt burden needs immediate IMF assistance.
“The Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government must urgently seek debt relief from the International Monetary Fund through the newly proposed Debt Relief Initiative, dubbed the Common Framework for Debt Treatments Beyond the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), which is comparable to the HIPC Initiative,” the Member of Parliament for Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam Constituency suggested.
This is what Dr. Kumah, who is also the Member of Parliament for Ejisu and the Finance Minister’s representative, counters.
“We have just taken Ghana out of IMF and if you organize an economic policy program 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.”
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SOURCE: ATLFM ONLINE
