E-levy: IMF will cancel ‘Free SHS’ should we go to them for assistance – NPP MP

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for New Juaben South, Michael Okyere Baafi has disclosed why it is detrimental for Ghana to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

He said the flagship ‘Free SHS’ policy will suffer should Ghana to the IMF for economic assistance.

Speaking on the controversial electronic levy, the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry urged Ghanaians to accept the levy as it is the only way to the country’s economic redemption.

“Let’s all support the E-levy. What we left out in our explanation is that if we don’t pay the E-Levy and we go to the World Bank or IMF for loans, they will tell President Akufo-Addo to cancel the implementation of Free Senior High School. If he cancels it, all your children who have finished school and will be proceeding will not get any school to attend because this is what will enable them go to school,” Michael Okyere Baafi explained in Twi.

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has also advised against going to the IMF at a town hall meeting recently.

In a rallying call to Ghanaians to support the levy, he said going back to the IMF will stall all economic improvements the government has made over the years.

Ken Ofori-Atta, at the government’s town-hall meeting to discuss the E-levy on Thursday, 27 January 2022, said, the passage of the E-levy will save the country from falling back on the IMF for financial assistance, which, he said, would be disastrous.

“When we were in the IMF programme, we couldn’t pay for nurses and teachers,” he said; “we couldn’t hire any more because there were restrictions on that. I mean, it’s just really thinking you can go back to Egypt.”

“In a way, we have forgotten how difficult and tenacious that master from Washington was.”

“So, we can deal with them for them to give us advice but we need not ever get into an IMF programme [again]. If we don’t do this E-levy, we’re just pushing ourselves in a way that would potentially end up in such a disaster,” Ofori-Atta said.

Members of the Akufo-Addo government have been courting support for the unpopular levy in the past few weeks.

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