‘Ghana Will Not Seek IMF Aid’

President John Dramani Mahama intends to wean Ghana of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after 2017, according to Minister for Employment and Labour Relations Haruna Iddrisu.

He said the government would not to take up another IMF programme upon the expiration of the current arrangement.

According to the Minister, the financing from the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has been increased from 0.0-0.5 percent for some emergency.

The Minister indicated that the president will sign the Public Finance Act which will ensure discipline in the expenditure of ministers, chief directors, heads of agencies, MMDs, adding that those who flout the laws would be sanctioned appropriately.

He made this known at the 7th edition of the ‘Government for People’ Forum held in Tamale in the Northern Region.

 

Dumsor

 

According to the Minister, in recent times, government has been intensely criticized because of the power crisis which has adversely affected industries and individuals.

“The challenge is how to get crude and gas to power the plants and also FPSO Atta Mills has arrived and it will produce gas.

“The president is intervening just that his intervention may not show off today to meet your demands but at least there is a policy shift to increase the generational capacity of energy.”

Haruna Iddrisu assured Ghanaians that the president would ensure energy sufficiency and reliability in the country.

 

Ghana EXIM Bank

 

The Ghana EXIM Bank is to support the financing of small and medium enterprises and make capital available to the private sector.

According to him, it would create job opportunities in the SMEs sector which contributes 80 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

He noted that Mahama administration has made significant investment in infrastructure to stimulate economic growth.

Haruna Iddrisu indicated that government has established a Ghana Infrastructure Fund to support laudable projects to encourage persons to become successful entrepreneurs.

 

Teachers Arrears

 

The Minister denied reports of a freeze on recruitment in the education and health areas, indicating that there was a clause called the Exception Clause which applies specifically to these sectors.

He assured teachers that government was undertaking validation to ascertain the actual number of teachers in the system because many teachers have worked for about three years without financial clearance because they are not recognized by the system.

“We are working with Ministry of Education to work things out so that you only report on the basis of an appointment subject to three month arrears to which government will pay for you.

Government has validated 35,000 to 40,000 teachers and there are outstanding 90,000 teachers.

“It’s very important because a driver became a director of education and this came to light through the validation process.”

From Eric Kombat, Tamale