No miracle will bring Ghana out of economic hardships; only hard work – Seth Terkper

Former Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper has charged Akufo-Addo's government to focus on things it can control in its efforts to address the economic challenges facing the country.

According to him, it will be suicidal for the government and Finance Minister to sit and wait for a miracle to happen.

He proposes that the Ministry of Finance should work hard and come up with competent home-grown policies to tackle the economic challenges facing the country.

“The situation we are in now we have to go back to the early 80s or 70s and I gave you where we were with respect to our debts. To the extent that our budget is dependent on the Central Bank. By the way, if there were things done off budget is likely to also include the Bank of Ghana financing which should be a loan to the government.

“So the miracle is where we are, it has to do with the future and it’s about real hard work,” Seth Terkper told Starr FM in an interview.

The former Finance Minister added, “It is when we have mastered this that we can win ourselves off the IMF. Which you must do cautiously because you will face a crisis and the rest. So what you have to do is have your own homegrown policy and reserve the right to go to the IMF when you have a genuine crisis.”

Amid the economic challenges, the World Bank has classified Ghana as a high debt distress country.

While the government admits times are hard, it has assured that the necessary steps are being taken to address the problems.

The government is also looking forward to reaching a deal for a support programme with the International Monetary Fund by the close of the year.