President John Dramani Mahama has taken a subtle swipe at the previous administration led by former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, saying his government will not organise celebratory “kenkey and waakye parties” over Ghana’s exit from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.
Speaking at a citizens’ engagement at Ndewura Jakpa Senior High School in the Savannah Region on Saturday, May 23, President Mahama said his administration inherited an IMF-supported programme that was already facing major challenges and was close to derailing by the time the NDC government assumed office in January 2025.
According to him, key performance indicators under the programme had gone significantly off track, forcing his administration to implement difficult but necessary measures to restore confidence and keep the programme on course.
“We inherited the IMF programme from the previous government. At the time we took over, all the agreed performance indicators were out of track, which meant that the programme was in danger of derailment so we had to take some stringent actions to bring it back into alignment and we were able to do that,” he said.
President Mahama explained that after the corrective measures were introduced, subsequent IMF review missions acknowledged the progress made by his government in stabilising the programme.
He disclosed that the latest IMF mission, which concluded its work in Ghana last week, expressed satisfaction with the government’s performance, paving the way for recommendations to be submitted to the IMF Executive Board for approval of the next tranche of support.
“The missions that came approved the programme and the final mission just left Ghana last week and they have given us a satisfying mark and it is now going to the board to release the last tranche of $380 million to support our economy but we are not going to have a kenkey party because it is still work in progress,” President Mahama stated.
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