Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta
Emmanuel Amoah Darkwah, a chartered economist has asserted that it is not a good call for Ghana to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help.
The economist maintained that there are fundamental problems we have to resolve as a country instead of going back to the IMF.
He noted that financial mismanagement, lack of fiscal discipline, over expenditure are some of the things we have to solve to help us deal with our economic challenges.
Mr. Emmanuel Darkwah said the government must cut down on expenditure since the expenditure of the government was excessive.
He disclosed that Ghana has gone to the IMF 16 times since independence despite knowing the cause of our problems.
“The challenges confronting Ghana economically are obvious. We know our problems and we know the solutions to our problems,” the economist said.
He said it should not take the IMF to tell us to place a freeze on public sector jobs since we already know that the public sector was full.
He posited that over the periods we have gone to the IMF we knew our problems and yet, refused to solve them.
“We know that we are not raising enough revenue. We know that our expenditure was high. We know that our tax net was narrow. I don’t understand why we should go to the IMF when we know our problems and the solutions.”
He reiterated “since 1957 that Ghana gained independence, we have gone to the IMF 16 times. On average, every four years, we go to the IMF. We are displaying that we cannot manage the economy and need external hands to help us. How long do we continue to do this”.
View his Timepath below: