Assin Central MP Kennedy Agyapong has said those taking Ghana to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), cannot break the eight-year political cycle of power change, which the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), targets to achieve.

At the party’s National Constituency Officers Welfare workshop at Koforidua in the Eastern Region on Friday, Mr Agyapong said: “Going to the IMF is just like handing over power to the NDC straight away because of the noise we made”.

“Throwing my own words back when I said the NDC went to the IMF because of the mismanagement of the economy or the government, so, if NPP is going to IMF, what am I going to say?” the NPP MP explained.

“So”, he noted, “breaking the 8 is going to be tough”.

“You can’t use the faces of those who took us to the IMF to ‘break the 8’. It will not work”, he asserted.

“My message to you is simple; you can read my lips and I am not scared of anybody in the party”, he said.

“What I tell you is the gospel truth: those who took you to IMF, they cannot – these same faces – cannot ‘break the 8’. A word to a wise person is enough. I was very sad today when I saw the publication that we are going to the IMF.”

President Nana Akufo-Addo recently directed Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to begin talks with the IMF for a bailout.

A statement issued by Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah on Friday, 1 July 2022, said: “The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has authorised Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to commence formal engagements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), inviting the Fund to support an economic program put together by the Government of Ghana.”

“This follows a telephone conversation between the President and the IMF Managing Director, Miss Kristalina Georgievs, conveying Ghana’s decision to engage with the Fund,” the statement said.

“The engagement with the IMF will seek to provide a balance of payment support as part of a broader effort to quicken Ghana’s build back in the face of challenges induced by the Covid-19 pandemic and, recently, the Russia Ukraine crises

The economy has been in rough waters for some time now.

Fuel prices keep rising, the cedi keeps depreciating, inflation keeps soaring, and the cost of goods and services and keep rising.

As of March 2022, Ghana’s total debt stock stood at GH¢391.9 billion.