The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has said the year 2022 was his worse year in office. 

Mr Ofori-Atta says the year in question compelled him to take very “difficult decisions but necessary decisions” for the recovery of the Ghanaian economy. 

According to him, key amongst these decisions were the government’s decision to seek for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Delivering the 2023 Mid-Year Budget Review on Monday, July 31, he insisted that had it not been the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak and the Russia-Ukraine war, such a move would not have been undertaken. 

“Mr. Speaker, 2022 was the most difficult year for me as Ghana’s Finance Minister. On July 1st 2022, we took what was then a very difficult but necessary decision to request support from the IMF to implement our Post-COVID-19 Programme of Economic Growth (PC-PEG).”

“The country was going through a dire period of economic uncertainties and despondency.”

Meanwhile, he added that the economy is currently showing signs of recovery. 

“Mr. Speaker, for the first six months of the year, we continue making progress to exceed our non-oil revenue targets for the year. We have seen improvements in non- oil tax revenue collection despite some noticeable shortfalls in VAT.”

“However, oil revenues have fallen short of expectations due to changes in global prices. We will, therefore, undertake a downward review of the oil-related revenue as well as the corresponding expenditures to align with the underperformance of some of our revenue handles. Specifically, this will impact the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA).”

Mr Ofori-Atta has thus urged Ghanaians to support the government in its quest to restore the country’s economy from it ravages. 

He said the government is determined to ensure that the plight of the citizens are ameliorated urgently. 

The Finance Minister had spoken quite emphatically that Ghana was not going to the IMF. The sudden U-turn that took Ghana to the IMF, thus compelled critics to chastise him.