President John Dramani Mahama has taken a subtle swipe at the previous Akufo-Addo administration, declaring that his government will not host celebratory “kenkey and waakye parties” to mark Ghana’s exit from its International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.
Speaking at a citizens’ engagement at Ndewura Jakpa Senior High School in the Savannah Region, President Mahama revealed that the IMF-supported programme was on the brink of collapse when his administration took office in January 2025.
He explained that key performance indicators had veered significantly off track, forcing his government to implement urgent, stringent measures during its first quarter to restore economic stability and programme compliance.
“We inherited the IMF programme from the previous government. At the time we took over, all the agreed performance indicators were out of track, which meant that the programme was in danger of derailment so we had to take some stringent actions to bring it back into alignment and we were able to do that,” Mahama said.
“We have also come to the end of the IMF programme. We inherited the IMF programme from the previous government. At the time we took over from the previous government, all the agreed performance indicators were off track. It meant that the programme was in danger of derailment. And so in the first quarter, after we took over, we had to take some stringent action to bring the programme back into alignment and bring it back on track.”
Following these corrective actions, subsequent IMF review missions praised Ghana’s progress. A delegation that concluded its visit last week expressed satisfaction with the government’s performance, paving the way for recommendations to be sent to the IMF Executive Board to approve the final disbursement.
“The missions that came approved the programme and the final mission just left Ghana last week and they have given us a satisfying mark and it is now going to the board to release the last tranche of $380 million to support our economy but we are not going to have a kenkey party because it is still work in progress,” the President noted. “It’s now going to the board. And the board will release the last tranche of $380 million to support the Ghanaian economy. But we’re not going to have a kenkey party because we believe that it is still a work in progress. Unlike others who left the IMF and held waakye and kenkey parties, happy to be free from the IMF, we are not doing that because we know that our economy still needs a lot of work to be done.”
Whilst the programme has been successfully navigated to its final stages, President Mahama emphasised that his administration remains strictly focused on deeper economic reforms, stressing that the national recovery process is far from complete.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
