General News of Saturday, 2 July 2022
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2022-07-02Imagine Bawumia's panic over government's IMF decision - Mahama's aide mocks
Felix Kwakye Ofosu is an aide to John Mahama
Former Deputy Minister of Communication, Felix Kwakye Ofosu has said he wonders the "panic (that) has gripped" Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia following government's decision to seek help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“I can only imagine the panic that has gripped Bawumia following the announcement of an IMF program by his bungling government,” he tweeted on Friday, July 1.
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Kwakye Ofosu's view is connected to the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government's decision to seek help from the IMF amid an economic downturn.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has ordered the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, to commence official engagements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In a statement issued by the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah on Friday, July 1, 2022 the finance minister was instructed by the president to seek IMF’s support for an economic programme put together by the government of Ghana.
Government had banked its hopes on the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) which was passed in March 2022. Government said the levy will mean the country would not need the IMF for economic recovery but the Levy had failed to meet projections.
Speaking at a government’s town-hall meeting to discuss the E-levy on Thursday, 27 January 2022, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said that the passage of the E-levy will save the country from falling back on the IMF for financial assistance, which, he said, would be disastrous.
“When we were in the IMF programme, we couldn’t pay for nurses and teachers… we couldn’t hire anymore because there were restrictions on that. I mean, it’s just really thinking you can go back to Egypt.
“So, we can deal with them for them to give us advice but we need not ever get into an IMF programme [again]. If we don’t do this E-levy, we’re just pushing ourselves in a way that would potentially end up in such a disaster,” Ofori-Atta said.