Ghana Needs a Bipartisan Debt Commission to make the IMF Loan Sustainable

Ghanaians should express appreciation to the International Monetary Fund for the Board’s approval of an extended credit facility, which is a loan of $3 billion to the people and Republic of Ghana. We understand that this will be a three-year program of about $1 billion every year. Ghana is one of Africa’s longest-standing members of the Fund and has received various forms of IMF assistance over its 66-year relationship.

This loan approval has come at a very critical time in Ghana’s economic history. This is a difficult time for Ghanaians, especially those living in Ghana, because of the economic hardships that we hope it will help to relieve. The main value of this relatively small IMF loan is its ability to catalyse and mobilise the release of additional funding from the global financial community.

As a former staff member of both the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank, I’m hopeful that this loan approval will enable the government of Ghana to manage Ghana’s resources better than in recent years.

The mere approval of this IMF loan does not guarantee the government of Ghana the additionality in funding that is needed by the economy. The global financial community will need to be convinced that Ghana will not repeat poor examples of resource management. Ghana needs to depart from actions, both in the public sector and the private sector, which has tended to erode our financial situation.

Above all, this is the time for Ghana to establish a bipartisan Ghana Debt Management Commission, which would have some key responsibilities, including ensuring that the people of Ghana all become committed to understanding the long-term challenges that face our economy and why Ghana must not return to the IMF again for more bailouts from bankruptcy.

Restoring Ghana’s economic fortunes in the short, medium and long -term, must be a national bipartisan task. Many who have served Ghana at home and abroad, have the requisite knowledge and experience that all governments must learn better to tap into, for national economic and financial resuscitation.

I hope we can engage in a discussion on the merits of a Ghana Debt Management Commission. Hopefully, such a body could be established before the end of this year, 2023. If it is not possible under the current regime in Ghana, then I hope a future government will examine its merits. It should be welcomed both by Ghanaians and the institutions which have agreed to bail us out.