Former Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye, has criticised Ghana’s repeated reliance on the International Monetary Fund (IMF), describing it as an unsustainable response to long-standing fiscal challenges.
Speaking in an interview with Bernard Avle on Channel One TV’s The Point of View on Monday, December 15, Prof. Oquaye noted that Ghana has sought IMF assistance on 17 occasions, largely because government revenues consistently fall short of expenditure.
According to him, IMF programmes typically become necessary when the country is severely cash-strapped and requires emergency support to stabilise the economy.
“Ghana has been to the IMF 17 times; we’re not able to do what the government should do because we don’t have enough resources. IMF becomes a bailout situation when we’re so cash-strapped, and we need their support. These 17 times of being at the IMF cannot be our therapy. It’s not helping us,” he said.
He stressed that repeated IMF engagements cannot serve as a long-term solution, warning that such dependence has failed to address the structural weaknesses at the heart of Ghana’s economic difficulties.
“Our financial income, as against our output expenditure, doesn’t match,” Prof. Oquaye added, arguing that this imbalance continues to push successive governments back to the IMF.
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