President-elect of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, has revealed that his administration’s primary focus upon taking office will be to revive the country’s economy. According to him, the state of the economy significantly influenced the decision of Ghanaians during the December general election.
In an interview with Voice of America’s (VOA) Paul Ndiho, Mahama emphasised that economic performance is closely linked to other sectors of the country.
He stated:
If the economy is in a bad way, it affects education, it affects agriculture, it affects sports, and it affects every sector of the country. So we're going to have to be dealing with stabilising the economy.
Unfortunately, in this circumstance, we have two major issues: one, macroeconomic stability and two, debt sustainability. In all the other times that we've gone to the IMF, it's just been for macroeconomic stability.
The president-elect outlined his plan to address economic challenges, including a review of the ongoing IMF programme.
We are going to continue the IMF programme. We already have requested some discussion with the IMF because we're not part of the initiation 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.
He, however, clarified that his administration does not intend to abandon the programme, saying:
We're not jettisoning the programme, but within the programme, I'm sure that there can be some leverage for tweaking it. And so if we're able to reach that agreement, then we'll continue the programme till it ends. What it means is that the budget must align with the IMF programme. So there's not much leverage in there for making the kind of radical reforms that you might immediately need to make.
John Mahama further stated:
But we would accept the reforms that are being made under the IMF and deepen them when we have our own programme after the current extended credit facility runs out. So, so far so good. Bringing down inflation is the number one priority.
Stabilising the currency is number two. Bringing the deficit down, cutting expenditure, increasing revenues. I mean, those are the things that we need to be looking at.
The president-elect also noted that the implementation of his proposed 24-hour economy policy will be central to improving productivity.
John Dramani Mahama will officially be sworn into office as President on 7 January 2025, taking over from the outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo.