Accept e-levy or we go back to the IMF – Ken Ofori-Atta pleads with Ghanaians

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Finance Minister
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has warned of dire consequences for the Ghanaian economy should the controversial electronic levy fail to pass.

He said the country will have to go the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for assistance if the e-levy is not passed.

In a rallying call to Ghanaians to support the levy, he said going back to the IMF will stall all economic improvements the government has made over the years.

Ken Ofori-Atta, at the government’s town-hall meeting to discuss the E-levy on Thursday, 27 January 2022, said, the passage of the E-levy will save the country from falling back on the IMF for financial assistance, which, he said, would be disastrous.

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“When we were in the IMF programme, we couldn’t pay for nurses and teachers,” he said; “we couldn’t hire any more because there were restrictions on that. I mean, it’s just really thinking you can go back to Egypt.”

“In a way, we have forgotten how difficult and tenacious that master from Washington was.”

“So, we can deal with them for them to give us advice but we need not ever get into an IMF programme [again]. If we don’t do this E-levy, we’re just pushing ourselves in a way that would potentially end up in such a disaster,” Ofori-Atta said.

Ken Ofori-Atta – Finance Minister

The E-levy since its announcement by the Finance Minister has received public backlash from some Ghanaians especially Members of Parliament from the Minority Caucus.

At a recent press conference, the Minister outlined a number of modifications to the Bill and announced that the government continued to engage stakeholders on the bill ahead of resubmission before MPs.

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