US$1bn IMF loan isn’t because Akufo-Addo has mismanaged the economy – Kweku Baako

Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Kweku Baako Jnr. says the International Monetary Fund (IMF) $1 billion loan facility to the Government of Ghana is not because President Nana Akufo-Addo has mismanaged the economy.

According to Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, the loan was transferred into Ghana’s account to be used to mitigate the impact of the raging coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic affecting the lives of the people and the economy at large.

He emphasized that the IMF loan is interest-free, hence there are no conditionalities attached to the grant.

But members of the NDC have chided the government for reverting to the IMF when they rebuked the Mahama government for borrowing from the same entity.

Kweku Baako, setting the record straight on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’, disclosed that the IMF loan facility under the Akufo-Addo administration serves a different purpose and therefore asked the opposition National Democratic Congress to stop scoring political points with the issue.

“We haven’t gone back to IMF because we (government) have mismanaged and going for the program. There’s a distinction. This return to IMF, quote-unquote, is not the same IMF entry we made in 2015 or so . . . The conditions, the circumstances and indeed the conditionalities and other things are totally different. So, you can’t do that. When you do that, you actually ridiculing the situation and indeed you’re inviting people to look from a purely political perspective,” he said.

Source: Peace Fm