What really has taken Ghana back to the IMF?

Many Ghanaians I believe were very surprised when they heard the announcement that the government had initiated engagements with the IMF for a possible bailout program. Even some government officials and appointees of the government were not left out in this surprising state.

After the announcement, Ghanaians are now wondering what an IMF program this time round would entail, seeing the last one in 2015 did not make life easy for us. The big question is what keeps taking us to the IMF? Answering this question is very important because it would isolate the problem and help us as a nation deal with it if only we do not want to ever return to the IMF again. Several reasons such as economic mismanagement, gross incompetence, lack of industrialization and an import-driven economy have been outlined as the causes of Ghana’s economic problems.

Even though these reasons are true and have contributed significantly to our economic woes, I believe all of these are not really the causes but the effects of the real cause. For me, the real problem to Ghana’s economic challenges is corruption. This is because any state driven by corruption would yield the other reasons outlined earlier (economic mismanagement, gross incompetence, lack of industrialization and an import-driven economy) which would eventually lead to an economic meltdown.

Ask yourself; why has the one-village-one dam policy failed? Why has the planning for food and jobs failed? Why are we struggling to deal with the lack of industrialization through the one-district-one-factory policy? All these are brilliant policy interventions to deal with certain challenges in the economy.

Why is TOR not working? TOR working would mean some party faithful who are licensed to import finished products and make huge profit margins may be out of business and for their sakes, the whole nation must suffer. We know exactly what to do as a country but greed and corruption has accounted for our poor level of development and economic management. The truth of the matter is that we know as a country what to do to lift many of our people out of poverty in the next 10 to 20 years.

All these failed government programs listed above if well implemented would have greatly transformed this nation. But the question is why did they fail? They failed because they were laced with corruption for the benefit of friends, family and the cronies of the ruling government.

Take a look at the auditor’s general report and the estimations of what was stolen, misappropriated or misapplied. Billions of Ghana cedis far more than any international institution or country would ever give us. Not even the IMF.

Consider the corruption scandals since this NPP government took over and imagine the amount of money Ghana would have lost through these acts of corruption. From the GNPC to GEPA, then to PDS and BOOST. What about the Australian visa scandal, Spunik V and the recent national cathedral? Thank God for an investigative piece by a journalist that exposed the rot at PPA and many others.

The list of corruption scandals can be endless and these are just a few ones that have come to light. Can you now imagine the amounts of money the nation has lost in the six years of this government? According to the minister of finance, Ghana loses about 4 billion dollars annually to corruption. This makes a total of 24 billion dollars in the six years of this government and this may just be a conservative figure.

This would have been more than enough to take care of Ghana’s debt issues over the six-year period. Is this not more than the less than 3 billion dollars the government is seeking over a period of 3 years under an IMF program? Any serious government with all the resources at our disposal would transform this country in 8 years.

The ‘MAGIC’ is therefore in policing and creating an economic discipline that would stem from ‘uprooting’ corruption within the government. That is the secret.

Let’s, therefore, put our government in check because the only way to our development as a nation is a corruption-free government. We may not attain such a state but we can certainly reduce the canker to the barest minimum. Kudos to patriotic citizens like Manasseh Azure, ‘Sir’ Jonny Hughes, Hon. Ablakwa, Captain Smart, Anas and several others who have laid down their lives to fight corruption in the country.

We salute you all because you are doing this on behalf of all of us. I also extend my appreciation to the anti-corruption organizations and coalitions for the good work they are doing. What you are doing is actually the solution to all our problems.

It is therefore my hope and prayer that a government would emerge and make the fight against corruption a real priority. There cannot be fiscal discipline in a corrupt government because such a government would steal and misappropriate funds meant for industrialization, infrastructure and all other development. Ending corruption is our surest and easiest way to economic development and prosperity.