An Economist, Prof. Godfred Bokpin, has called on government to reconsider its decision not to renegotiate or extend Ghana’s current programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), warning of long-term risks to economic stability and business confidence.
Ghana’s Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has ruled out renegotiating or extending the country’s current program with the IMF.
Speaking at a joint press conference with IMF officials in Accra, Dr. Forson emphasized the government’s commitment to implementing the programme to restore macroeconomic stability and drive sustainable growth.
This decision has sparked debate among economists, with some supporting the government’s stance and others calling for reconsideration.
In an interview on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey, Prof. Bopkin expressed concerns about the potential risks associated with the end of the IMF program in 2026.
According to him, without a clear post-IMF strategy, Ghana risks slipping back into fiscal indiscipline, undermining medium-to-long-term growth and job creation.
Prof. Bokpin emphasized the need for a robust de-risking strategy to mitigate potential challenges beyond 2026.
Prof. Bokpin noted that Ghana’s macroeconomic stability is often short-lived, with gains wiped out within two to three years, forcing the country back into IMF negotiations.
He cautioned that the government’s efforts to restore the IMF programme to track may come at a great cost, undermining medium-to-long-term growth and job creation.
” So we are sacrificing our medium-to-long-term survivability or the brightness of our medium-to-long-term for short-term to meet IMF program conditionality. So you smile to them, but just ahead there will be pain for you to have to deal with. Those are the things that you need to look at. Then again, look, if you look at it side by side, you look at what happened in 2024, and you compare that to what happened in 2016, when again we were under IMF-supported programme. It’s just like repeating the outcomes of 2016 and all of that.”
“So the real challenge, inasmuch as I agree with government that they are doing everything possible to bring the programme back on track, even using nine-month budget. Remember, I’m talking about nine-month budget, because the first three months is gone. Your budget was presented later part of March. You have expenditure in advance of appropriation, which was passed to enable you to scale the wall within the first quarter. So your 2025 budget can only travel nine months. So you are using nine-month budget really to restore your fiscal sustainability pathway. That’s a great price you have to pay. And all of that. Once you do that now, the implication is that your medium- to long-term growth will have challenges.”
The economist believes that the government’s decision introduces considerable risk for businesses and investors, who may be concerned about what happens after 2026.
Prof. Bokpin urges the government to present a long-term economic roadmap to ensure stability and mitigate potential risks.
“Now, our biggest problem as a country is that we are unable to achieve and maintain macroeconomic stability for long. So you can have really good macroeconomic stability, let’s say, up to the end of 2026. Then what happens thereafter? What it means is that given the uncertainty of the programme and the position government has adopted, I respect that position to some extent. They’ve got their reasons and all of that. But my view is that this introduces considerable risk to a lot of people who do business in this country. So, for instance, those who would want to take long-term positions in our economy, invest for long, they will be concerned. What happens after 2026? Because we know that fiscal indiscipline tends to escalate when we exit IMF programme.”
