Former Finance Minister Seth Terkper has said that the Akufo-Addo-led government could have gone to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for support much earlier than it has done.
Nonetheless, he welcomed the decision by the government to seek support from the Fund.
Mr Terkper told Paa Kwesi Asare on the News 360 on TV3 Friday July 1 that attention must be focused on the nature of proposal that the government will be presenting to the Fund.
“I do agree with the sentiments that we could probably, have gone to the Fund much earlier and the situation would not have worsened,” he said
He added “The Funds were clearly there and that is when we probably we could have gone earlier. I think that it is important to know that we are where we are and therefore we can focus on the proposal that government will be giving to the Fund. It is not a one week thing, government will definitely may have to make proposals.”
A Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr John Kumah expressed optimism that an IMF programme would help the country to come out from the economic challenges swiftly.
He said the government hoped that the programme would benefit the country.
“Our objective as government is to restore confidence in the economy and rebound it from the difficulty, from the challenges, not only in Ghana but almost all economies around the world.
“We believe that where we stand now, an IMF intervention will help us come out quicker than we could. We hope that it will benefit the country,” he told TV3’s Komla Adom on the mid day news on Friday July 1 while throwing more light on the instruction given to the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta by the President to commence formal engagements with the IMF, inviting the Fund to support programmes put together by the Government.
This followed a telephone conversation between the President and the IMF Managing Director, Miss Kristalina Georgieva, conveying Ghana’s decision to engage with the Fund.
The Ministry of Information announced this in a statement on Friday July 1.
Source 3news.com|Ghana
