IMF Bailout: Free SHS, Other Interventions Will Be Protected - Deputy Finance Minister

Deputy Finance Minister, Abena Osei-Asare has given Ghanaians the assurance that there is no way developmental projects and key social intervention programmes will be affected even as government turns to the International Monetary Fund, IMF, amid an economic downturn..

She gave the assurance in an interview on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Monday July 4, 2022.

“We want to assure people that we have been here at the IMF before and irrespective of that we still ensured development and this time will be no different.

“We have plans in place that we believe will help us stabilise the economy. Other bilateral neighbours will also come in to help us in building back the economy,” she added.

She indicated that between 2017 to 2019, the government implemented the School Feeding programme despite being under an IMF programme and even expanded it.

“In 2017 to 2019, we still implemented the School Feeding under an IMF programme and we even expanded it. In 2017 when we came it was around 1.3 million children benefiting from school feeding, but in 2019 we had move to almost two million children under IMF programme. In September 2017, under an IMF programme we did implement Free Senior High School programme.

“So, like I am saying, the government will do everything possible to protect social intervention programmes that we believe will protect livelihoods and also cause the people who are economically low to thrive,” Mrs. Osei-Asare said.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s recently directed the Finance Minister to commence official engagements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In a statement issued by the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah on Friday, July 1, 2022, the Finance Minister was instructed by the president to seek IMF’s support for an economic programme put together by the government of Ghana.

Source: ghanaweb.com