The International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout request by the government has been met with regret by the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC).
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) issued a statement on July 3 with the words, “The Trades Union Congress (TUC) deems this decision by the government a catastrophic mistake and a sad one for Ghana.”
“The IMF will be given control of our nation’s economy for the seventeenth time. It is quite unfortunate because it shows unequivocally that we are unable to handle our own business.
This follows the Friday declaration that, on the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-orders, Addo’s Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta will commence official negotiations with the IMF.
The engagement is to provide balance of payment support as part of a broader effort to quicken Ghana’s recovery from the challenges of Covid-19 and, recently, the Russia-Ukraine war.
But the TUC said the recent development is a signal that the pre-Covid economy touted by government as strong was not resilient enough.
“It must have been built on a ‘foundation of straw’ but Ghanaians were told that our economy was strong and stable.
It is now very obvious that the economy of Ghana is in a desperate situation.”
Dr Baah’s statement predicts doom over the bailout being sought from IMF.
“These IMF programmes have only imposed unnecessary hardships on Ghanaians with practically nothing to show for them. The solutions proffered by the Fund are not appropriate for our economy. They scratch the edges of the problem without tackling the fundamental issues facing the economy.”
It said what the country needs now are measures that tackle the structural constraints to economic and social development.
“Those measures must include policies and programmes aimed at ending the domination of foreign companies in the most productive sectors of the economy, minimise our dependence on natural resources and build a robust manufacturing base.”
It said Ghanaians should rather prepare for more programmes with the IMF in the years to come.
TUC also expressed disgust that the government abandoned the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2019 between Social Partners to, inter alia, provide a post-IMF Extended Credit Facility local development partnership arrangement among Social Partners to ensure the irreversibility of macroeconomic gains.
“Our understanding of the unilateral decision by Government to commence engagements with IMF, without any consultation with the social partners, amounts to a declaration of the end of the social partnership initiated in 2019 with the above-mentioned objectives.”
TUC warned that it will not allow the imposition of any “needless hardships” on the working population of Ghana based on this unilateral decision.
The government negotiations are set to begin on Wednesday, July 6.
