Bright Simons tackles Oppong Nkrumah for IMF ‘lies’

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Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has said that a claim by the information minister that about 100 countries have applied for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout is false.

Simons explained that Kojo Oppong Nkrumah’s claim is false because not all programmes run by the IMF are bailouts, including the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) and the Catastrophe Containment and Relief (CCR) Trust.

He added that only a few countries are getting the kind of support the government is requesting from the IMF.

“Govt of Ghana spokespersons say “half of the world’s countries” have gone for an “IMF bailout”. This is not true. The IMF has many programs. Those that can be classed as “bailouts” are not the ones like the RFI, RCF & CCRT that many countries, including Ghana, went for in 2020.

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“Only about 25% of countries with an IMF program are getting the treatment Ghana needs [ECF (Extended Credit Facility)/EFF (Extended Financial Facility)] & have needed 4 times since 2000,” portions of a tweet shared by Simons on July 5 read.

The IMANI vice president further stated that the assertion by the government that it is seeking IMF help to provide Balance of Payments support is false.

“It is also not true that Ghana only needs Balance of Payments support. Debt sustainability & macroeconomic stability help is needed too,” he added.

Information Minister Kojo Nkrumah said that the government’s decision to seek an IMF bailout was borne out of circumstances that are different from those that caused the erstwhile Mahama administration to do the same in 2015.

He stated that Ghana’s current economic crisis was brought about by external factors, not from domestic economic mismanagement as has been suggested by the opposition.

“That is why for example, from 2020, about half of the world’s countries are applying to the Fund for some support. It is not to say that all of the people who manage all of these over one hundred economies do not know how to go about their jobs but is it evidence of the fact that something external, something exogenous has hit, that is why today, Egypt, Kenya, I understand Tunisia is also applying for some sort of support, are asking for support,” he added.

He also indicated that the government was hoping to get some $2 billion, which it would use to boost its Balance of Payment Account.

View Bright Simons’ tweet below:

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