Rather than adopting fiscal policies that will put the government in check to change the fortunes of the economy, Ivan Innocent Kyei has slammed Dr. Ernest Addison for turning the central bank into a “printing press.”
According to him, the Bank of Ghana has specialised in printing out currency notes to the government without putting the fiscal ramifications on the economy into consideration.
He has bemoaned the entire government machinery for taking the country through the Sri Lankan trajectory which ended up collapsing their economy.
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He told Captain Smart on Maakye Tuesday, February 28, 2023, that if care is not taken, China will take over the country just as they did to Sri Lanka and other countries who defaulted their debt payment.
“The President has failed us. The confidence and trust that was reposed in him by the citizens, he has messed up to the extent that even if he hears the word President in his next life, he will flee to the bush.
”That was the same thing Sri Lanka did. They thought China was going to forgive them their debt but they didn’t so they took over their port. The port is on lease for 99 years and that’s why they (Sri Lanka) fell.
“…And the Bank of Ghana is also printing currencies for them (government). Addison has now turned the Bank of Ghana into a printing press. All he does is to print currency notes,” he said on Onua TV/FM.
His comment follows Ghana’s call on China to forfeit its debts to help her restructure her economy which the Asian giant refused.
President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Friday, January 3, 2023, urged Germany to “encourage” China, an ad hoc member of the Paris Club, to support Ghana’s debt restructuring efforts.
He said it was critical that the Paris Club swiftly establishes, with the participation of other official creditors, a creditors committee, to support the efforts that would enable Ghana to restore economic growth.
The President made the call when the visiting German Finance Minister, Christian Lindner called on him at the Jubilee House, Accra.
Linden, who was the head of a delegation from his country, held bilateral talks with the President aimed at boosting relations and economic ties between the two nations.
President Akufo-Addo told the Minister that the main concern for his government is to conclude negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), particularly at the Board Level and seal a deal with the Bretton Woods institution by mid-March this year.
“Our main concern right now is the arrangements that we are in the process of concluding with the IMF… and the specific assistance that will be useful to us and help us fast-track the process.
“Our target is that by the middle of March, we should be before the Board for the full agreement. We have already taken one important step forward in concluding a staff-level agreement with the IMF and we are now looking to go the full haul in concluding the agreement. We are hoping that it will be done by the middle of March.
“One of the steps towards that has been the domestic debt exchange programme that we are on, which unfortunately, we have quite a lot of difficulties, but has now been virtually concluded,” he stated.
But China after some negotiations has decided to opt out of Ghana’s bilateral debt talks.
By Felix Anim-Appau|Onuaonline.com
