'IMF has never supported any society to develop' – Alban Bagbin laments

Speaker Alban Bagbin has expressed reservation about successive government’s resort to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for bailout during economic crisis.

Bagbin, speaking at an event in the Volta Region over the weekend said Ghana’s economic crisis resulted from politically tainted development plans which has often resulted in the abandonment of projects by one party when they take over.

He stressed that it was time to get a national development plan and vision and to rally all parties around it to avoid fragmented plans and the attendant abandonment of projects.

“We leave a lot of uncompleted projects, wasting a lot of national resources and going to beg the IMF to salvage us when we know that the IMF has never supported any society to develop.

“No society in the world has been developed through the support of the IMF. So, we have been there 17 times and we are worse off, yet we are going again. Cap in hand, begging for salvation,” he stressed.

His comments come when the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Ado-led government is under an IMF programme worth US$3 billion, with only the first tranche of US$600 million paid to date.

The Ghanaian economy has been a topical issue in recent months following a downturn occasioned by galloping inflation, a depreciating currency, and a general decline in the quality of life coupled with the high cost of living.

The government has serially blamed the aftermath of COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war before submitting to a US$3 billion IMF loan last year, of which US$600 million as tranche one has been credited to the government account.

Ghana at IMF: IMF has never supported any society to develop. - Alban Bagbin #JoyNewspic.twitter.com/BADs0gddYY

— JoyNews (@JoyNewsOnTV) December 17, 2023