Economic Stability Tops Mahama's Agenda for Ghana

Ghana's President-elect, John Dramani Mahama, has identified stabilizing the economy as his administration's top priority.

In a recent interview on Voice of America (VOA),  Mahama emphasized the far-reaching impact of the economy on various sectors, including education, agriculture, and sports.

Mahama's administration faces the daunting task of addressing Ghana's twin economic challenges: macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability. Unlike previous engagements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which focused solely on macroeconomic stability, Mahama's administration will tackle both issues simultaneously.

The President-elect has requested discussions with the IMF to ensure a unified approach to implementing the IMF program.

Mahama reassured the public that his administration will not abandon the program but instead seek to refine it to better suit Ghana's economic needs.

“The economy is going to be the number one focus because it affects everything else. If the economy is in a bad way it affects education, it affects agriculture, it affects sports, every sector of the country. So we are going to have to be dealing with stabilizing the economy,” Mahama stated.

“In all the other times that we’ve gone to the IMF it’s just been for macroeconomic stability but we have twin problems and so we are going to continue the IMF programme,” he explained.

“We’ve requested some discussion with the IMF because we were part of the negotiation of this programme and so we need to look at how we can all be on the same wavelength in terms of implementing the programme. We are not going to jettison the programme.

“I want to make that clear. We are not jettisoning the programme but within the programme, I am sure that there can be some leverage for tweaking it. So if we are able to reach that agreement then we continue the programme till it ends,” he added.

Source: Florence Kyei /Lead News Online