NDC’s COTE D’IVOIRE, TOGO AND BENIN AT THE IMF
The opposition National Democratic Congress has been using Côte d’Ivoire, Benin and Togo as their refrain anytime the economy comes up for a discussion.
They have always been fawning over the point that though these three West African economies also got hit by COVID-19 and the Russian/Ukraine war, they have not shown signs of economies on the verge of collapse.
They do not hesitate to drum home the point that it is the way Ghana’s economy has been mismanaged by the Akufo-Addo-led government and have sought to isolate what they term as the bad governance from any catastrophe that might have occurred globally.
Now, the IMF has announced that Côte d’Ivoire is being given US$2.6 billion In a bailout since the economy would collapse without an injection of such a quantum of money.
IMF Staff has reached a Staff-Level Agreement with Benin on the First Review under the Extended Fund Facility and Extended Credit Facility Arrangements. The Fund is giving Benin US638 million.
Togo expects a new agreement with the IMF at the end of the first quarter of 2023. This is to enable the country to safeguard its ailing fiscal and monetary system which have been hit by the after effects of the deadly coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia.
What this means is that, contrary to the claim by the NDC that Ghana’s economic challenges are not borne out of the resultant effects of COVID-19 and the war in Europe and that no other West African country is going to the IMF, it has been established that these three countries the NDC cites as not being affected by COVID-19 and the Russian/Ikraine conflict, has been the main causal factors for the trio seeking bailouts.
It would appear that these news items from the IMF have curtailed the propaganda the NDC would have spewed out there.
P. K. Sarpong, Whispers from the Corridors of the Thinking Place.
