Going to IMF has never helped Ghana, we have to cut down on expenditure - NPP MP

Member of Parliament for Akim Swedru, Kennedy Osei Nyarko has opined that going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has never solved our Economic challenges.

His comments come after a former NPP MP advised the government to seek relief from the IMF instead of depending on the E-Levy.

A former New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for New Juaben South, and a one-time Chair of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah, has asked the government to reconsider its decision not to go back to the IMF in the face of the country’s dwindling revenues.

He argued that the government’s insistence on passing the Electronic-Transaction Levy to shore up its revenue target is not right given the existential economic challenges.

But Mr. Osei Nyarko believes going to the IMF had not helped Ghana.

To him, what will rather solve our numerous Economic challenges are as follows;

1. Raising more local revenues to fund our number of programmes and activities.

2. Cutting down our expenditures drastically like what the Government has recently done.

3. Growing our economy by taking advantage of the digitalisation space and the industrialisation agenda.

He said going to the IMF comes with several conditions and we must not go to them for help.

“One thing we should note is that monies given to countries by the IMF are not free. It comes with interest which the country will one day pay for.

"It will only come and compound our debt distress situation. We know our problems as a country and that’s our inability to raise more revenues to fund projects and also excessive expenditures.

"If we can deal with these two burning issues then automatically 70% of all our problems will be solved,” he said.