Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, has revealed that the Akufo-Addo-administration has taken an unenviable place in Ghanaian history, for being the government that signed up Ghanaians to the worst form of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.
Dr Ato Forson stated that Ghanaians must clearly understand that it is not the IMF which imposed these horrible conditionality and austerity on the nation, but rather the government of President Akufo-Addo and the economic mismanagement team, which is steered by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
Furthermore, the Minority Leader said that Ghana’s current IMF programme is the first in the history of the country to have come with debt restructuring. “This debt restructuring programme has impoverished the rich, the middle class and, to a large extent, the poor,” he added.
He stated that the debt restructuring rendered many banking and financial institutions “insolvent and bankrupt”, adding that many banks, non-banking financial institutions and insurance companies, had already declared huge losses in 2022, as a result of what came out of the debt restructuring, which he referred to as “government’s recklessness and mismanagement.”
Dr Ato Forson said Ghana “is in distress, our people are in despair and most Ghanaians have lost hope in this incompetent NPP administration.”
He blasted the administration for subjecting Ghanaians to unwarranted difficulties. He emphasized that all of the difficulties that everyone currently goes through, were avoidable and unnecessary.
Bank Of Ghana Caused The Depletion Of Ghana’s External Reserves
Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson also charged the Bank of Ghana with the blame of aiding in the decline of the nations foreign reserves.
He stated that the Bank of Ghana’s money printing led to the depletion of Ghana’s foreign reserves, which in turn, caused the unprecedented depreciation of the Cedi; the primary cause of the hyperinflation in 2022.
According to him, the Cedi depreciated by over 100% in 2022, going from GHC6:$1 to over GHC15:$1. He said this was calculated using a straight line, noting that due to inflation alone, an estimated 850,000 people were reported by the World Bank to have been pushed further down the poverty line in 2022.
Dr Ato Forson said that despite the earlier spirited denials by the Bank of Ghana and the government, the government now admits that indeed the Bank of Ghana printed money to finance its over-bloated government expenditures in 2022.
“Paragraph 8 of the IMF Staff Report, gives further detail that the Bank of Ghana illegally printed over GHC45 billion, representing 7.2% of GDP in 2022 alone, and GHC35 billion in 2021. This is the first in the history of Ghana.”
Dr Cassiel Ato Forson
Moreover, he called the Central Bank “a crime scene”, claiming that the government had a hand in the Bank’s transgressions. He said, “The Bank of Ghana is unquestionably a crime scene, and the economic managers led by Mr. Strategist assisted and abetted this economic crime.”
On the word of Ato-Forson, Ghana’s public debt skyrocketed from GHC120 billion in 2016 to GHC600 billion by the end of 2022; a rise of roughly 400%, under the watch of the country’s current economic administrators.
He emphasized that because of the country’s high debt levels, it was impossible for it to fulfill its debts to both domestic and foreign creditors. For the first time in its history, he claimed, Ghana defaulted on the payments of both its domestic and foreign loans, as a result of its high debt levels.
As well, he noted that this explained why in another discomfiting first in Ghanaian history, pensioners picketed outside the Ministry of Finance to demand payment of their interest and principal. “Rating agencies reduced Ghana’s creditworthiness to “D,” which is another way of saying “very junky,” he mentioned.
The minority caucus leader, however, predicted that all 23 of Ghana’s banks will suffer “massive impairment losses of over GHC18 billion in 2022,” signaling the near-collapse of the nation’s banking system.
He said that this does not include the impairment losses suffered by insurance companies and non-bank financial institutions. He stated, “The cost of this government’s economic mismanagement is unprecedented. In fact, the Bank of Ghana is bankrupt and in severe financial crisis, and needs urgent attention.”
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