Is the end of the road near for Ofori-Atta as $3 billion in IMF money lands in May?

Only a few months ago, some Members of Parliament of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) took a clear stance on what they wanted to be done with their dissatisfaction with the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta: sack him.

It was a clear message they had shared with the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and with the rest of the country, because, as they said, they no longer had confidence in the performance of the minister.

According to a number of the MPs, the decisions of the finance minister had plunged the country into unbearable hardship, with many of their constituents mounting pressure on them to help restore the state of their livelihoods.

One of such, as they communicated, was the call for the minister to be sacked, or for him to resign, and they were bent on ensuring this was done.

It was a no-breaks-call that was so loud that President Akufo-Addo called these aggrieved MPs into a meeting.

What ensued in that meeting?

Multiple reports from journalists who claim to have had inside information about the meeting said that the meeting was a heated one, inundated with exchanges from both the presidency and the members of the legislative arm of government.

The meeting, according to Omanhene Kwabena Asante of Asempa FM, had in attendance members of the clergy, respected chiefs, and accomplished businessmen, brought in to negotiate on behalf of the president.

He explained that Kennedy Agyapong, the MP for Assin Central, who was brought in to talk the MPs out of their decision, ended up stoking the flames as he gave the president and the government his ‘honest’ piece.

According to Omanhene Kwabena Asante of Asempa FM, the president was left petrified by the sheer determination of the MPs to get his cousin, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, sacked.

“I have my ears in the president’s office, he was dismayed. In Akan dialect, we would say ‘waf) (meaning he was wet”. The MPs were insisting that they were not going to accept his offer. There was someone from the Pentecost Church in there playing a major role, I want to advise him to remove himself.

“I’m happy the likes of Kennedy Agyapong told the president their piece of mind. Ken was brought in to intercede on behalf of the minister but he said the truth. There was a chief who showed up, they pushed him away. The way they gave it to the chief. The MPs were angry. You can ask Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu if it was an easy situation. There were academicians, religious leaders, opinion leaders, and accomplished businessmen. The president was as calm as a boiled kontomire stew,” he said.

In a later radio interview, Nana Ayew Afriyie, the MP for Effiduase Asokore, explained what the exact words of President Akufo-Addo to the MPs were.

“He promised us this way, after the end of the budget, it won’t be necessary for us to come to him because of what he would do about the finance minister.

“Because by then, there will be no need to come back to him. He can do any of the following: sack the finance minister, reshuffle, re-assignment, or a replacement. He will do something that will not require us to come back to him,” he said.

At the end of the meeting, a compromise was reached that Ken Ofori-Atta would be allowed to continue the negotiations with the IMF, after which a decision would be taken on his future.

IMF money lands in May

The Daily Graphic reported on Friday, April 14, 2023, that its close sources have said that at the end of May, Ghana is set to secure final approval for the $3 billion bailout programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

This is on the heels of a recent meeting of the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, in Washington, DC, towards the finalisation of this deal.

The report added that after the financial assurance from the bilateral creditors, which is the last hurdle for Ghana, is concluded in April 2023, it will pave the way for the request to be submitted to the IMF Executive Board.

This would pave the way for the consideration and approval of Ghana’s $3 billion bailout in May.

“Once the request goes before the board, I am pretty sure it will not encounter any challenges, and so a deal in early or mid-May is possible,” one of the sources who spoke to the paper in Washington, D.C., said.

End of the line for Ofori-Atta?

Going by these reports and the expectations of the NPP MPs, who, by the way, have not relented on their request to have the finance minister sacked, GhanaWeb wonders if this could be the end of the line for the ‘embattled’ minister.

As is the case, the only existing requirement yet to be met to allow President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to make a final determination on the future of Ken Ofori-Atta is the conclusion of the IMF deal.

One of the others was the president’s request for the Minister of Finance to present the 2023 Budget Statement and Economic Policy to Parliament.

Will this, then, be the last straw that breaks the back of the camel? Are we to expect the president to act on the future political life of his cousin, the finance minister, after May 2023, when the IMF deal is finally concluded?

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