President John Dramani Mahama has denied allegations that his government has reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for an emergency bailout.
Government has been accused by some Ghanaians including the opposition New Patriotic Party( NPP) that it has submitted proposals for reforms to the IMF for a bailout.
But speaking at the opening ceremony for the National Economic Forum, President Mahama said, ‘’I wish to take this opportunity to state with great emphasis that as president I have not taken any decision to enter our country into an IMF programme; what we concentrating on is the preparation of home grown strategy of fiscal consolidation….”
The NPP boycotted the forum stating government has already reached an agreement with the IMF and that the forum was only a strategy to hide the real state of the economy from Ghanaians.
But, President Mahama denied the existence of this agreement and criticized the NPP for refusing to be part of the national forum.
”…It is a tragedy of our very polluted and extremely partisan political environment that such a simple misunderstanding of the relevance of this document should become the basis of a major political player [NPP] to stay away from this important forum,” he said.
President Mahama also expressed the hope that both domestic and international partners will support Ghana in the implementation of the strategy.
The President also spoke about the raging economic difficulties facing Ghanaians. While conceding that his government’s austerity measures have imposed increasing hardship on Ghanaians, the President assured the difficulties will be over soon.
He challenged the private sector of the economy to be bold and adventurous and consider the less explored issues for economic growth and social development.
”We must enter into partnerships to raise the capital and acquire the expertise we don’t have,” he noted.