Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has justified President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's resort to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial support.

The Minister says the Akufo-Addo government's run to the IMF has no similarity with the previous John Mahama government's chase after the international financial institution.

In an interview with host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" programme Monday morning, Hon. Oppong Nkrumah explained that their kind of going to the IMF is for a "balance of payment" to shore up the economy unlike the erstwhile Mahama administration.

He stated that the former President John Mahama and his government went to the IMF because they had messed up the economy but President Nana Akufo-Addo is going for a bailout due to external factors; referring to the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine/Russia war among others.

"...when the country was handed over to former President Mahama, there was no external global crisis. It was his own domestic management but at the end, he said to us that they have chewed the meat to the bone, so they are going to the Fund for bailout. This is his words, not mine. What tended up happening is that when they went for the bailout and we came into power, from 2017 to 2019, we saw how the Ghanaian economy performed. Today, our economic state has called for us to also go for bailout but it's a different scenario. It's not our internal domestic management that is the cause but the external issues and external pressures that have necessitated our decision to go for this facility", he said.

The Minister expounds on the government's IMF bailout below:

IMF Bailout

Although the assertion for the nation going to the IMF for support has been vehemently opposed, particularly when Nana Addo, in his campaign to become President of the Republic, vowed never to drag the country to the IMF, Ghana is now running back to the IMF.

Ghana has formally requested the International Monetary Fund to support its economic program due to the challenges confronting the citizenry.

It follows a telephone conversation between President Akufo-Addo and IMF Managing Director Kristalian Georgieva conveyed the nation's decision to apply for the support fund.

A statement issued in Accra on Friday 1st July, 2022 and signed by Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said "the engagement with the IMF will seek to provide a balance of payment support as part of a broader effort to quicken Ghana's build back in the face of challenges induced by the Covid-19 pandemic and recently, the Russia-Ukraine crises".

Ghana is a member of the IMF and recently received 1 billion dollars for its Covid-19 response program.

The government expects the IMF support to boost the funding sources needed to execute its economic program.