General News of Wednesday, 9 August 2023

Source: classfmonline.com

I don't abandon ship in rough waters – Ofori-Atta on defying resignation clamour to fix economy

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has said he needed to stay on despite clamours from within his own party to resign to fix Ghana's broken exonomy since he does not believe in abandoning ship in choppy seas.

In the heady days of the exonomic downturn, nearly 100 MPs from tye majority caucus openly called for Mr Ofori-Atta's resignation for failing to steer the economy to success.

President Nana Akufo-Addo promised to take action on the MPs' demand after he had appealed to them to give his cousin a bit more time to complete talks with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout.

Despite the completion of the process, Mr Ofori-Atta remains at post.

In an interview with national broadcaster GTV on Sunday, 6 August 2023, Mr Ofori-Atta said confessed that even though he got battered and broken by the pressure brought to bear on him, he had to stay on to fix the problem.

"In the period of censure, in which parliament then voted against it, but more importantly, you were in a situation where you were battered and broken", he said.

"And, [you] do not leave a ship at that time, and given the urgency of ensuring the IMF programme will get through, for me it was a duty to serve, and there was no running away from it", Mr Ofori-Atta added.