The government has allayed the fears of Ghanaians claiming government’s key social interventions like free Senior High School (SHS) will be scrapped as it seeks help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Deputy Finance Minister, John Kumah has however maintained that key interventions under the Akufo-Addo government will not be affected.
“When President Akufo-Addo introduced free SHS in 2017, Ghana was on IMF programme and it didn’t stop it so I don’t see why people are afraid now,” he opined.
He made the comment on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Friday after the government announced its intent to seek a bailout from IMF.
President Akufo-Addo has instructed Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to begin formal engagements with IMF.
Many, especially members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), argue that going to the IMF is long overdue.
Others also fear all of the government’s social interventions including free SHS will suffer due to the IMF conditionalities.
But, John Kumah has insisted that would not happen because the government is going to IMF with its own homegrown solutions.
According to him, the IMF, over the years, has changed its stance on setting the rule and is now allowing countries to come up with their own policies to revamp their economies.
The deputy Finance Minister cited how Cote D’Ivoire who recently went to IMF submitted their own homegrown solutions to buttress his point.
The reason for going to IMF, he noted is because the government met only 10 percent of its revenue after the implementation of the Electronic Transaction Levy popularly known as E-levy.
This notwithstanding, John Kumah said they would be cuts in some critical areas of the economy to ensure debt sustainability.
“We will come out as quickly as possible and put this economy back,” he added.
Listen to more of him in the audio below.