Nana Osei Bonsu, the CEO of the Private Enterprise Federation (PEF) has said there is nothing wrong with Ghana seeking support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to put the economy back on track.
Speaking to Kwaku Nhyira-Addo on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Friday (1 July), Osei Bonsu said going for an IMF programme is not shameful.
“We definitely have options but the biggest option we have is the situation we find ourselves in, what is our real problem? Liquidity. Those are things that we need to do, we don’t have the luxury of time.
“The home-grown solutions people are talking about, they are most viable when you have time, now we don’t, and you just listed a number of countries that have gone to the IMF, we have been there before and it gave us relief,” Bonsu said.
“And people think it is shameful to go to the International Monetary Fund. I don’t foresee that, we went there, it gave us relief, why are we going to the IMF, if we have the resources we shouldn’t, but we don’t,” he said.
Bonsu called on the government to hasten with talks for economic bailout.
“If the government doesn’t speed up the kind of process of engaging with IMF and making sure that we get relief temporarily then we are going to find ourselves in a dire situation,” he said.
Start formal engagements
President Akufo-Addo on Friday authorised the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta to commence formal engagements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
A statement signed by the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said: “This follows a telephone conservation between the president and the IMF managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, conveying Ghana’s decision to engage with the Fund”.
