Presidential hopeful of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo says the NDC government's decision to go to the IMF for a financial bailout is a sad moment in Ghana's history.

“It is a sad day in the country’s history because by now, nearly 60 years after independence and with all that we have been through and the corrective measures put in place by the Kufuor regime, you would think that we would be more and more self-reliant,” Nana Addo said on A1 radio in Bolgatanga in the Upper East region.

This follows news that Ghana is likely to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a possible bailout programme by November this year.

Government announced in August it would seek an IMF intervention to tackle fiscal problems including inflation, an unyielding budget deficit and a depreciating currency.

Ghana’s most recent experience with the IMF was under a programme called Highly Indebted Poor Countries initiative under former NPP administration in 2001. HIPC sought to provide debt relief to cash-strapped countries based on the implementation of poverty alleviation strategies prescribed by the IMF and the World Bank.

Ghana has since exited the programme and has become a lower middle income country.

But faced with a worrying deficit since 2012, the government wants the IMF to help.

Deputy Minister for Finance, Ato Cassiel Forson has justified the decision and has maintained that the step by government will provide the country the needed assistance to support the balance of payment, stabilize macro-economic deficit and leverage the whole economy towards industrialization.

“It’s unfortunate that we have got into this”, Nana Akufo-Addo said and pointed out that the fundamental problem was a government that was dishonest, negligent, wasteful and corrupt.

“I believe strong that if we had a government that is prepared to do something about corruption, to make sure that contract and obligations government entered into were value for money”.

He was on a tour in the Upper East region to thank delegates for voting massively for him during the NPP's super delegates' conference.

The Ghanaian experience with the IMF in the 1980’s is one characterized by conditionalities, massive lay-offs, sale of government assets and withdrawal of subsidies  and funding for some government programs.