General News of Wednesday, 15 October 2014

Source: starrfmonline.com

Nduom: Govt must fulfil side of IMF bargain

Former presidential candidate of the Progressive People’s Party, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, says the Government of Ghana is likely to brush aside whatever promises the country makes to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in connection with the country’s quest for a programme to rescue its economy from the doldrums.

Dr Nduom told Journalists Tuesday that Ghana has the penchant of disregarding such promises and conditions and so hopes the current Mahama administration breaks ranks with the trend.

“…This has been a habit of ours. Non-performance after we’ve agreed, signed and collected money”, the former Energy Minister said.

Ghana is currently in talks with the Bretton Woods Institution for a programme that would give policy credibility to the country’s homegrown measures meant to keep the economy afloat.

President John Mahama approached the IMF following a continuous fall in the value of Ghana’s currency–Cedi–against the Dollar and other major currencies of international trade.

The Government of Ghana and the IMF are expected to come to certain agreements after the negotiations for the programme. However, Nduom doubts Ghana will fulfil its side of the bargain.

“…Now when some of us point these things out, people say: ‘Oh, but they are doubting Thomases. They don’t believe in the Ghanaian’. That’s not the point.

“The point is we want our Government to learn from this bad experience and the bad name that they’ve been given to this Nation and to all of us. That you go and make promises, you must know what you are promising to do, and when you come, you must deliver,” he stressed.