IMF bailout was avoidable – Kwaku Baako Jnr

Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide, Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako Jnr. has described as highly avoidable, Ghana’s reversion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bail-out, stating that “the only reason we are where we are, is because this government has wrecked the economy by driving it into a ditch”.
Kwaku Baako was contributing to a panel discussion on Ghana’s resort to the IMF for a bail out, on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo Morning Show.
According to the New Crusading Guide Managing Editor, anyone who has not been following the many reports and incidents of corruption in the country will be very surprised that Ghana is in an economic mess, and has to turn to the IMF for a bail out.
Explaining, Kwaku Baako said the Mahama-led NDC government has been blessed with so much revenue in the form of high taxes, oil revenues, unprecedented loans, good export prices, and foreign remittances, yet it is now saddled with an unprecedented debt-to-GDP ratio of almost 70%, depreciating currency, rising inflation, arrears in statutory payments, collapsing of the NHIS and other social intervention policies, and now, the final resort to the IMF for financial bail-out.
Mr. Baako attributed the country’s current economic mess to a lack of firm political leadership, and fiscal indiscipline which has been compounded with a plethora of complaints of corruption involving senior government officials. Describing the resort to the IMF for a bail-out as an indictment on the competency of the Mahama government, he wondered how after over $27billion in loans, this government is now struggling to gain policy credibility with a paltry $940million?
The ace journalist also raised doubts about President Mahama’s ability to fulfill all his promises as contained in his 2015 State of the Nation Address, cautioning that, following the stringent conditionality that comes with the IMF bail-out package, which will include monetary discipline, members of the NDC government communication team needed to re-direct their efforts at watering down the high hopes of the citizens. “The future is going to be tough”, he added.