An Associate Professor of Finance and an Economist at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), has said this will not be the last time Ghana will go the International Monetary Fund for assistance.

Prof Godfred Alufar Bokpin, in an interview on JoyNews’ The Pulse on Tuesday, explained that his assertion is because the government has not shown the required leadership in these economic difficulties to give assurance that it can handle another crisis on its own without help, if it occurs.

“This will not be our last time. The reason I am saying this will not be our last time is that, even in the midst of this crisis, government hasn’t demonstrated the required leadership to say that on our own we will be able to come out of a crisis if it shows up.”

“We are not prepared to tackle the fundamental canker in our governance, which opens up to external shock,” he said.

https://youtu.be/m67o2sRoqu8

He stated that the leaders have not shown any signs of progress to give Ghanaians confidence that the country will not go for assistance from IMF again.

“…….we can change the narrative if we see the signs, but the signs are not there to show this will be the last time Ghana will go to the IMF,” he told Blessed Sogah.

However, he advised the government to ensure that the right mechanisms are put in this IMF deal to ensure that it does not suffer similar fate in 2024 as it happened in 2016 during the election period.

“We were under IMF deal in 2016 and within the first year, we made a lot of progress. But in the 2016 election, we used the election to practically revert all the gains we made in the first year of implementation of IMF programme.

“……. the last review in 2016 didn’t happen because the economy was practically put on autopilot just for elections and nobody cared about the numbers and IMF programme. And that is why when we were done with the election, we had actually destroyed the fundamentals of the economy.”

“So for this one, we have to make sure we put in the right mechanism so that the 17th IMF programme does not suffer a similar fate in 2024.”

https://www.myjoyonline.com/more-measures-will-follow-debt-exchange-programme-prof-bokpin/

Meanwhile, Prof Bokpin has said the government’s introduction of a debt exchange programme is the first level of measures to be implemented before Ghana qualifies for an IMF bailout.

According to Prof Godfred Bokpin, there would be more programmes to follow.

“This is not to scare anyone. The debt exchange government announced is just the first level, there would be more to come,” he stated.

According to him, “there would be exchange with non-tradable government debt, there would be some other fiscal adjustment that would have to be made beyond what is in the 2023 Budget.”