“Last two years have taught us to be more self-reliant” – Dr Dawumia on IMF

The major lesson of the last two years over the International Monetary Fund(IMF) bailout is that we have to be more self-reliant as a country, the vice president of the Republic of Ghana Dr. Bawumia said.

Whether or whether we approach the IMF for a program, it is crucial that we make choices that will benefit the nation as a whole.

“Restoring fiscal and debt sustainability through spending cuts, tax increases, and structural reforms is the immediate priority.

To improve debt sustainability, non-concessional borrowing should be reduced, the vice president continued.

In addition, Dr. Bawumia noted that the absence of measures to guarantee sustained stability prevented successive governments from achieving long-term economic stability following each of the previous 17 IMF programmes. As a result, the government is concentrating on putting such systems in place.

“I should note that Ghana has gone to the IMF for a program 17 times since independence and after each IMF program, the underlying system and structure of the economy remained the same,” Dr. Bawumia said.

“It is important to note that the focus of economic management by successive governments since independence in Ghana has been on crisis management as a result of factors such as the collapse in commodity prices, increase in oil prices, debt unsustainability, political instability, macroeconomic instability, etc. Governments, have by and large, not focused on building systems and institutions that underpin economic activities in a modern economy.”

“The systems that will reduce bribery and corruption, the systems that will improve the efficiency of public service delivery, the systems that will increase domestic revenue mobilization, and the systems that will generally make life easier for Ghanaians,” says Dr. Bawumia of these modern systems for sustainable economic development.

According to the vice president, the government has focused on building these systems since 2017. These systems include a biometric national identification card, an operational digital property address system, a vigorous program for financial inclusion, the digitization of government services, and many others.

The vice president claims that these methods are boosting domestic income mobilization, lowering corruption, and enhancing services and access.

In order to secure a durable economic recovery following the most recent, 17th IMF programme, he advocated for a renewed focus on developing and strengthening these mechanisms together with improved budgetary discipline.

Source: Ghanatodayonline.com