The National Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Stephen Ntim has told his counterpart in the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia that all is certainly not well economically with Ivory Coast as the latter has claimed.

Mr Asiedu Nketia while presenting an address in what the NDC party described as the True State of the Nation a fortnight ago touted and held Ivory Coast as a standard Ghana should aspire to become.

But responding to the NDC’s statement at a press conference, Chairman Ntim accused the NDC of deliberately misrepresenting the economic situation in Ivory Coast by suggesting all is well with Ghana’s western neighbor.

“In actual fact, the Ivory Coast they were advertising was negotiating at the time with the IMF to obtain $2.6 billion in a blended Extended Credit Facility. Ladies and gentlemen, permit me to quote from the IMF’s release after its staff concluded a mission to Ivory Coast on 15th March 2023. “The Ivorian authorities and IMF staff have reached a broad agreement on the authorities’ economic reform program that an IMF financial arrangement could support.”

Chairman Ntim added: “The authorities are advancing their agenda for deeper economic transformation under the 2021-25 National Development Plan. They have taken measures to strengthen macroeconomic stability and reverse widening fiscal and external imbalances as the economy has been hit hard by the triple shock of the Covid-19 pandemic, global financial tightening, and adverse spillovers from Russia’s War in Ukraine.

“As it turned out, the NDC as a party are not just incompetent managers of Ghana’s economy but also incompetent researchers. They should have known about this Ivory Coast-IMF negotiated deal just five day prior to their press conference.”