Former President John Mahama has urged the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva-Kinova, to be truthful about her assessment of Ghana’s economy.
According to Mr Mahama, a wrong diagnosis of the economy by international diplomats will cause them to prescribe inappropriate remedies.
Mr Mahama’s comment is in direct response to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva-Kinova’s statement that the current economic woes facing Ghana are due to external factors.
Speaking at the Africa Climate Change Adaptation Summit in the Netherlands, she attributed the woes to the Russia-Ukraine war and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Bulgarian economist maintained the current global challenges have created serious debt crisis which calls for broader consultation among global leaders and pledged IMF’s commitment to support Ghana’s economy.
Though Mr Mahama says it is a relief to hear Madam Kristina Grigorieva reaffirm the commitment of the IMF, he argued the mess is a result of bad policies.
“While the norm in international diplomacy of being guarded in what one says is appreciated, comments by high ranking officials must be grounded on facts that take into consideration local realities and opinions.
“The incontrovertible fact is that Ghana is in a mess due to the bad policies of this government, which have contributed massively to the dire state of affairs,” Mr Mahama said in a Facebook post.
He added ill-advised policies cannot also be ignored when discussing issues about the economic woes.
“The consequences of the government’s ill-advised policies such as the botched, insensitive and dubious cost in closing down locally owned banks, unbridled levels of corruption and lack of accountability including the mismanagement of COVID-19 funds, unconventional borrowing practices riddled with opaqueness and conflicts of interest, resulting in an unsustainable debt envelope, costly, experimental and untested programmes, etc., cannot be ignored in understanding the current dire state of the Ghanaian Economy,” the former President stressed.
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