The IMF Can’t Trust Us, Ghana Has Been Disgraced! – Kofi Oduro On Piecemeal Releases

Prophet Kofi Oduro of Alabaster International Ministry (AIM) has reacted to the government’s receipt of US$600 million out of a 3-billion-dollar bailout facility from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The initial tranche was released late last week as confirmed by the finance minister and the Bank of Ghana.

Despite being a routine IMF procedure to stagger fund releases over the period of the bailout, Kofi Oduro insists that the Fund has become wiser and wanted to see concrete efforts before releasing further funds.

“The IMF, instead of them to give us the money, US$3 billion upfront, now they cannot trust us. We will give you the money in three years. $US600 million in every six months…, why? Because you are not trusted.

“We (the IMF) are not fools to allow you to come here and we collect all that money and give to you. We want to see whether you are working with the money. We will check the projects, what you said you are doing with it (money) and then we can determine,” he told his congregation last weekend.

“Ghana has been disgraced. You have been disgraced,” he stressed before accusing some clergymen of benefiting from politically-linked financial misappropriation. “Your prophets can’t say this to you because they are beneficiaries.”

Last week, the IMF approved a $3 billion economic recovery facility for Ghana, which has faced severe economic pressure since late 2019.

The government largely attributes the economic challenges to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine War, but the opposition believes the situation is due to mismanagement of the economy by the government.

According to Mahama, unlike the IMF program initiated during his leadership, the recently approved program failed to undertake proper prior reforms by the government, making it a badly negotiated deal.