'IMF exit a result of collective efforts, not single event' — Egyapa Mercer

Former Sekondi Member of Parliament Andrew Egyapa Mercer has argued that while the Mahama administration deserves recognition for successfully concluding Ghana's International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, much of the difficult work that made the achievement possible was undertaken by the previous Akufo-Addo administration.

In a social media post on Tuesday, July 28, Egyapa Mercer said the completion of the IMF's Extended Credit Facility (ECF) programme should be viewed as the result of years of cumulative policy decisions rather than the efforts of one administration alone.

His comments come a day after the IMF Executive Board approved the final review of Ghana's US$3 billion ECF programme, bringing the country's bailout programme, which began in May 2023, to a successful conclusion.

"The current Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, deserves credit for the discipline, coordination, and steady leadership that helped guide the final phase of the programme to completion. Managing an IMF exit is technically demanding and politically sensitive, and that responsibility has been handled with consistency."

Egyapa Mercer traced Ghana's economic challenges from the Akufo-Addo administration through the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economic shocks that followed and the decision to seek IMF support in 2022.

The former lawmaker argued that the bailout and accompanying reforms helped prevent a deeper economic collapse.

He stressed that by the time the Akufo-Addo administration left office in January 2025, inflation had begun easing, economic growth had resumed, international reserves had improved and successive IMF programme reviews had been completed successfully.

According to him, the current administration built on those gains by maintaining fiscal discipline and steering the programme to its formal conclusion.

"The truth is simple: Stability is built, not inherited. And the hardest decisions are often made when the political cost is highest," he stated.

Egyapa Mercer emphasized that although the current administration deserves credit for completing the IMF programme, history should also acknowledge the difficult and politically costly decisions taken by the previous government that, in his view, laid the foundation for Ghana's economic recovery.