“There is nothing new in what he (Bawumia) said…what he said have been said over and over again. Dr Bawumia has not said anything new; he has not said anything that is so profound,” asserts the Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jr.
Kwesi Pratt was speaking to the recent economic lecture delivered by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice Presidential Candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) at an event dubbed “The IMF Bailout: Will the Anchor Hold?” organised by the Central University College.
His presentation mostly centred on Ghana’s move to seek financial and technical assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia gave a rather grey picture of the country’s economy and posited that the 1billion dollars IMF bailout was not the panacea to the country’s economic challenges.
The former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana warned that if the data on inflation and GDP given to the IMF by government is not credible, the anchor being sought from the Bretton Woods institution to stabilize the country’s economy, is likely not to hold.
Expressing his views on Dr Bawumia’s address, Kwesi Pratt Jnr noted that quite a number of people, including the Finance Minister, Seth Terkper and President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama have all indicated that the IMF loan is a short term measure and not the panacea to Ghana’s economic crisis and so “what is new about what Dr Bawumia said?”
“Yet the impression is being created by spokespersons of his political party that what he said portrays him as a saint…it cannot be true. The things he said are being said on the market places….”
He told Suhiyini Alhassan that instead of the NPP’s running mate repeating what everybody knows, he should have “addressed the main problems of the Ghanaian economy including water and so on”.
“We are told that there is a problem going to the International Monetary fund to ask for a loan…Dr Bawumia and others are arguing strongly that there is a problem going to IMF for a bailout. I will insist any day, any time that going to the IMF for a loan any day any time will be far better and more prudent than going to the hairdressing salon for a loan and I mean it. Those who saw nothing wrong in going to a hairdressing salon for a loan facility are now raising issues about going to the IMF for a facility and I find that most dishonest” he added.
