Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo has advised his African counterparts to stop seeking loans and begging for aid from developed countries, a few days after Ghana agreed to the terms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $3 billion loan.

Akufo-Addo issued the advice on Wednesday at the US-African Leaders Summit in Washington DC, where about 50 African leaders have gathered at the invitation of the US President Joe Biden, to discuss economic and political matters.

He said countries like Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya have what it takes to propel Africa to economic greatness, urging the leaders to provide quality education and opportunities that will yield economic prosperity in the continent.

“We must bear in mind that to the outside world, nothing like Nigeria, Ghana or Kenya, we are simply Africans. Our destiny as people depends on each other.

“We must work together to change Africa’s narrative which is characterized by disease, hunger, poverty and illegal migration.

“No matter where you come from, as long as you are black, you are African. We must make Africa conducive for progress and prosperity,” Akufo-Addo said.

Ghana is facing its toughest economic turbulence in years, with inflation reaching as high as 50.3% in November, shooting the cost of living up.

Ghana cedis was ranked the worst performing currency in the world in October.

Government’s economic reforms have failed to tame the headwinds. On Tuesday, finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta announced in a press briefing that Ghana was “committed to the (IMF) programme and will work towards meeting the demands”.

Ofori-Atta said the approved proposed three-year loan is expected early next year. He said the agreement will help restore economic stability, tackle price spikes and strengthen the currency.

The IMF had tabled a programme that included a series of reforms to Ghana’s current economic structure as a condition for the loan. Ghana is understood to be unwilling to accept the IMF’s terms earlier. But as its economic situation bites harder, the West African country yielded to the proposed reforms.

Ofori-Atta said the reforms, which include creating a medium-term plan to bring in revenue, increasing tax compliance, making the country’s finances more transparent and improving how public industries are handled, are focused on shoring up public finances while protecting the vulnerable.

Stephane Roudet, IMF’s mission chief to Ghana, said in a statement on Monday that the Ghanaian authorities have committed to a wide-ranging economic reform programme, which builds on the government’s Post-COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG) and tackles the deep challenges facing the country.

Ghana announced that in addition to other reforms, it will restructure its debt and it’s “committed to strengthening social safety nets, including reinforcing the existing targeted cash-transfer programme for vulnerable households and improving the coverage and efficiency of social spending”, Roudet said.

The stringent reforms are geared toward restoring economic stability and debt sustainability while laying the foundation for stronger growth, according to the IMF.

Ghana was bending to all these conditions for the IMF’s loan while Akufo-Addo called on African leaders to stop begging developed countries for money.

“If we stop begging and spend Africa’s money inside the continent, Africa will not need to ask for respect from anyone, we will get the respect we deserve,” he said. “If we make it prosperous as it should be, respect will follow.”

His call has been widely denounced as hypocrisy. While Ghana seeks financial bailout from the IMF, Akufo-Addo is investing $400 million in a national cathedral, a church he said he’d promised to build for God if he becomes president.

Good People, I am withdrawing my public support of the recently unveiled Central Bank of Bank’s policy on cash withdrawal limit. I had supported that initiative on the construct that it would help Nigeria deal with its tax problems. Yes, while we continue to think we can rise with oil and gas, the ascension for Nigeria will only come, when we can generate decent taxable economic activities to finance the future in education, healthcare, etc.

But after learning how Nigeria was unable to reconcile how much was collected on stamp duty, I see no reason to believe that inconveniencing the citizens, on how they withdraw and spend their money, via an additional regulatory layer beyond what has existed for years, will advance the nation. If stamp duty which is collected by banks electronically cannot be traced, and reconciled, through the support of the Central Bank of Nigeria, there is no basis to believe they can become more efficient on tax collection with the new cash withdrawal policy.

So, let us eliminate  the problems, and hope one day, Nigeria will have the right people to do simple things RIGHT. I worked in the banking sector in Lagos. I worked in the most classified and most guarded department in the bank. The bank’s software automation unit is the heart of any bank. Only the most trusted, vetted and selected get closer. Why? You have access to the bank’s general ledger You are the SUPER-admins of all admins in the bank.

Why am I going there? A simple subpoena from the National Assembly will make banks produce the conflicting figures in 6 hours. Just a new line of code from those geeks and you have the numbers. The government can then reconcile. 

But I do not think that is the real problem. My conclusion is that banks have done their jobs, remitted the money, but people stole it within the government, and some did not get enough, and magically, they are fighting. Wait, after 2 months, the heat will go and nothing will happen.

So, CBN, it’s the government that needs a cash withdrawal limit and not companies and citizens; leave us alone!

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Comment 1: Ndubuisi Ekekwe truth Sir. I have had this figured out for so many years now. Tax is the way forward for us, but let us have a government with pure resolve to checkmate cash flow, shutting down the economy where necessary for a proper reboot or new OS to be installed, the corruption has eaten so deep that quick scan can’t fix anything but rather on the surface, it looks like it’s working until the system breaks completely. Tax is Nigeria’s number one solution to earn more. I have also calculated that Nigeria must be making at least 70 trillion Naira annually, with the majority generated from tax, over 50%. We need a budget of at least 60trillion per year for 6 years for Nigeria to begin to emit freshness all over, and yeah under a condition that naira will fare against the dollar during those periods.

Don’t tell me it’s not possible, in two years, under the right culture and leadership, through fair taxes, we can bring in that sum, but before then, let’s have accountable leaders. I pray that we get one this time, but whatever happens after the election, I am optimistic Nigeria will be a glory from Africa and a shine the world will rely on for many things in the less than two decades from now.