A presidential hopeful of Ghana’s main opposition party has said the decision by his country to go in for a financial bailout from the IMF is a “sign of failure” on the part of the governing party.

Nana Akufo-Addo wondered why the administration of John Mahama is returning the world’s second-largest cocoa producer to IMF conditionalities when one of his predecessors, John Kufuor, successfully took the country out of a similar programme in 2006.

In the former Attorney General’s view, president Mahama appears “overwhelmed” with the country’s economic crisis and so struggling to find solutions.

The former foreign affairs minister nonetheless said any negotiations with the Bretton Wood institution for financial and technical assistance, must inure to the benefit of the West African country.

He told private radio station Asempa FM on Wednesday that the package must create and protect jobs, rather than stifle employment, as well as reduce the rising cost of living, reduce the cost of doing business within the private sector, and also help industrialise Ghana’s economy through structural transformation.

Ghana has been reeling under harsh economic conditions with inflation rising to 15 percent and the local currency, the Cedi, falling by about 40 percent in value to the dollar and other major currencies of international trade, according to the Financial Times.