The Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori-Attah, has delivered words of assurance to Ghanaians by noting that the government is doing its maximum best in ensuring that the country and the investor community will be able to sail through the tough times ahead.
Mr. Ofori Attah expressed confident that the country is doing the right thing and on the right path, hence, hopes for a revival of the economy in no time.
Ghana has received massive assurances of support from the international community concerning the country’s IMF bailout bid.
Commenting on the matter, the minister noted that he was pleased with the show of support, adding that: “It was all testament to the hard work the country has put in to ensure that it got the IMF deal as soon as possible.”
“We have worked hard as a country to get here and we have stick to it through the difficult times as you know, especially through the debt exchange programme, and I think the world recognizes that we are prepared to take responsibility and share in the burden of what we have to do. But still, clearly, I believe God’s favour is on the country and it’s really up to us to work hard so that we can get through this programme.”
Mr. Ken Ofori Atta
Speaking on the pressure the massive show of support may have had on him, he noted that “The pressure is to do your best, understand that there will be bit of difficulties but you’ll have to take the community across the Jordan and that’s what we intend to do irrespective of the difficulties.”
The finance minister expressed optimism that all the strategies and measures adopted by government to raise revenue and to manage the country’s debt levels were “on the right path” and for the good of the country.
“But what do we as a nation learn from that? How do we ensure expenditure controls, commitments to that, raise our revenue and ensure that we spend what we earn? And me I think that will be the issues the country has to contend with. Understanding how to protect the public purse and ensuring we all pay our taxes and we all don’t waste government resources.”
Mr. Ken Ofori Atta
Hopes Of No/Little More Years Before Returns To The International Capital Market
More so, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta disclosed that Ghana may have to wait a little more years (probably some three or more years) before returning back to the international capital market.
According to him, while the country hopefully gets onto an IMF programme, Ghana’s temporary obstruction from the international capital market poses an opportunity for the country to finally pursue earnestly its self-sufficiency agenda.
“In terms of returning to the international capital market, I suspect it will take some two-three years or so for us to get back to it. I think in the interim we should be able to generate local resources to do that.
“But I think what is also significant about the programme if you look at the Ghana Cares programme, is our policy to be self-sufficient in poultry, rice, tomatoes etc., which we’ve begun to do to reduce foreign exchange demands and actually hopefully begin to export those products.”
Mr. Ken Ofori Atta
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