'NDC are not just incompetent managers of Ghana's economy but also incompetent researchers'

'NDC are not just incompetent managers of Ghana's economy but also incompetent researchers' – NPP Chairman

National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP)

The National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Stephen Ntim, has berated the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) over its claim that Ghana is the only country in the West African sub-region that is seeking a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

According to him, the National Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, lied to Ghanaians when he mentioned at the NDC’s ‘True State of the Nation’s Address' that Ghana’s neighbour Ivory Coast was not seeking an IMF bailout.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, Stephen Ntim said that the blander committed by Asiedu Nketiah showed that the party has incompetent researchers.

He added that IMF also did acknowledge that like Ghana, the economy of Ivory Coast was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

“In his press conference, you would recall that the NDC Chairman was touting and holding Ivory Coast as a standard Ghana should aspire to become. The NDC deliberately misrepresented the economic situation in Ivory Coast by suggesting all is well with our Western neighbours. 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.

“… 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 programme that an IMF financial arrangement could support. 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 spill overs 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 days prior to their press conference,” he said.

Watch a video of Stephen Ntim’s remarks below: