The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a further strain on governments finances.
The situation worsened due to unprecedented easing of fiscal and monetary policy adopted by Countries to cushion the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic.
The African Development Bank(AfDB) estimates that African governments needed an additional US$154 Billion in 2020 to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic crisis
To address this dilemma, the Sustainable Borrowing Policy introduces two pillars to manage debt. The first pillar emphasizes debt management and transparency through agreed policy actions and technical assistance.
A second pillar will rely on coordination and partnerships with other multilateral development banks, development partners and lenders.
*Razak Kojo Opoku’s comments*
Since multilateral bank such as AfDB is taking pragmatic steps to address the post COVID-19, I respectfully would like to appeal to Ghanaians to disregard the noise of NDC MPs and support Akufo-Addo’s government in its quest to use a homegrown policy such as E-levy to revive and sustain the Ghanaian economy post COVID-19.
Domestically, we have the capacity through the Mobile Money industry to support our economy with US$1 billion annually through E-levy without borrowing the same amount from the IMF to pile up the country’s debt to GDP ratio.
At the family or personal level, would you go for a loan while you have a property that you can sell to raise the exact amount of money you will be seeking as a loan?
It has been proven over the years that, the World Bank and IMF have always conspired to prescribe unrealistic economic parameters as the panacea to the socioeconomic development of Ghana and African Countries.
However, the so called assistance given by World Bank and IMF in the form of loans and grants can be best described as miserly donations in exchange for policy measures that are not workable practically within the economic environment and the local architecture of our economy which rather turn the clock of our progress backwards since 65years of political independence.
We are politically independent but economically dependent largely on the Western World, World Bank and IMF.
As usual, some local Ghanaian Intellectuals in the academia or Civil Society Organizations who largely depend on World Bank, IMF and Western Donors for their respective research works are always afraid to criticize them for the fear of losing their funding support. A case of personal interest against the national interest. These Intellectuals are the first to suggest IMF and World Bank to Government as the best options for the sustainability of the Country’s economy.
