The Finance Minister, Seth Terkper has dispelled reports that
President John Mahama has lost confidence in him, hence, the decision to make
former Finance Minister, Kwesi Botchwey, lead Ghana’s negotiation team with the
International Monetary Fund (IMF). Ghana turned to
the IMF for assistance after
the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Economy met on August 1 to reflect
on the range of issues affecting the country’s economy. Under Seth Terkper’s
guidance as Finance Minister, the country has seen significant depreciation of
the Cedi, high inflation rate, huge budget deficit, among other major
macro-economic challenges. Some members of the ruling National Democratic
Congress (NDC) have even advocated for the dismissal of Mr. Terkper because stating
that, his economic management skills are making the government unpopular, a
situation which could cause the party to lose the 2016 elections. Some
political watchers say this could be the possible reason why the President
chose Mr. Botchwey to lead Ghana’s team in the discussions with the IMF. But
Seth Tekper in an interview on the Citi Fm stated that he has
not been sidelined by the President adding that Ghana is meeting with the IMF
as a team therefore, it is unwarranted for people to misconstrue Botchwey’s
position as the leader. He recalled that Botchwey had earlier led negotiations
between Ghana and the United States of America for the Millennium
Challenge Account II. This, he said did not reduce the role of Energy Minister,
Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah. He added that Ghana will go into negotiation with the
IMF with the country’s home-grown solutions to make a case for better
conditions. The team from the IMF is expected in Ghana on Tuesday to begin
negotiations for a programme expected to get Ghana out of its current economic
challenges. The negotiated programme is expected to kick-start in November this
year.
Source: Citi
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