No Prophet, not even Owusu Bempah could see Akufo-Addo going to IMF? - Apaak wonders

Government heads to IMF amid economic crunch

IMF expresses readiness to support Ghana

Government laments failure of E-Levy to meet projections

Member of Parliament for Builsa South Clement Abas Apaak has expressed shock that no prophet in Ghana could predict Ghana's present economic crisis.

The crisis has forced government to turn reluctantly to the International Monetary

Read full articleFund, IMF, for bailout amid a downward spiral of the economy.

According to the parliamentarian, it was shocking yet that not even the President's own priest could predict the economic downturn let alone approaching the IMF.

"No prophet in GH saw that July 1st 2022 would be NADAA/NPP IMF day? Not even NADAA'S own prophet Owusu Bempah? Herh!" Apaak posted on Twitter on July 1, 2022.

Apaak joins a long list of Minority lawmakers mocking government for turning to the IMF despite swearing against a return to the international lender.

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.

Meanwhile, 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.