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Ghana in 2001 under the administration of John Agyekum Kufuor, was pronounced a Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) by the World Bank.
As per the President, loan bosses were not taking a gander at Ghana in view of the obligation his ancestor had abandoned thus, there was no advantage and the full scale economy was “wrecked”.
This is on the grounds that the past government had taught a very ‘bloomsome’ picture to portray that everything was well, thus, Ghana was excessively pleased to concede its obligation.
President Kufuor told KSM on ‘The KSM’ show that preceding winning the 2000 political race, his administration had vowed to do a ton for Ghana to develop financially yet the situation were different when he was confirmed on January 7, 2001.
“Through the mission of becoming President, we had guaranteed a ton. We discussed going to introduce the brilliant time of business, and how we will pivot the economy and so forth; we go in there and tracked down void cash safes; not simply void money chests, endlessly heaps of credits, obligation. The country was essentially bankrupt. Indeed, even the fuel stations had long lines of vehicles since there was no petroleum to sell.
“Nigeria had boycotted Ghana since Ghana owed them a few supplies; thus, they cut us off. We needed to hurry to Nigeria and ask the leader of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo. This was a state thing and I needed to get my administration and economy working.
“I went there to argue. At the administration, Obasanjo had collected his whole bureau and asked me for what valid reason I am in their nation, in this way, I let him know that I am here to argue so you reestablish supplies to Ghana. The spot hushed up, the President raised his head back and said, ‘indeed, our arrangement isn’t to keep providing individuals who don’t pay, so to that end we are not providing Ghana’.
“I let him know that mine was another administration and we expected to have a new beginning and I guaranteed them that when they supply, my administration will do all that with its ability to pay. Then, at that point, Obasanjo said, I needed to give a composed embraced that when they supply Ghana I will pay. Something hit me by then, I detected the temperament was relaxing a little so I said Mr President on the off chance that that is the main thing you need, if it’s not too much trouble, give me pen and paper to keep in touch with you that when you supply us, we will pay. He burst into giggling; he then, at that point, said he will give Ghana 30,000 barrels of rough a day for 90 days on layaway… consistent with his promise, for the whole eight-year time of my administration, the providers came [constantly],” President Kufuor said.
He related a global gathering in Bamako, the capital of Mali, where he had gone to on a greeting and met such countless dignitaries including the Director of IMF, President of the World Bank and the Secretary of State for International Development of the UK, Clair Short.
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President Kufuor said, throughout the break, he was “cornered” by these dignitaries and some way or another, they needed to get his contemplations on such countless issues particularly, the strategies he had come to drive with in light of the fact that he was a new “kid” on the coalition.
He noticed that it took the woman, Clair Short to let me know that “look, everyone knows the territory of Ghana’s economy, on the off chance that you come clean about the economy, you will get the assist you with needing [because] we realize that you are HIPC thus, on the off chance that you will benefit yourself to an IMF program, you might get the reliefs you need.
“Thus, that enrolled with me; the IMF Director then, at that point, said, assuming I make the stride, he will work with us in this way, that we emerge from the obligation. The past system had got us there however pride couldn’t cause us to concede that we are obliged and in view of that expansion was over 40%…the cedi against the dollar was high… thus, it was beyond the realm of possibilities for us to move with every one of the plans we came to office with…
Video : Why I took Ghana to HIPC – President Kufuor makes sense of
“These three individuals believed me should consider what is happening was muddled, thus, I ought to claim up. I returned to Ghana, collected my group and let them know that no one need to hear HIPC thus, we ought to track down an option in contrast to HIPC however nothing clicked… I entrusted the Finance Minister to proceed to illuminate Parliament that we have chosen to go to HIPC… genuinely Britain was the primary country to provide us with a help of 50 million pounds to support our credits; different nations followed,” he focused.
President Kufuor noticed that he felt satisfied to have gone to the Mali gathering which happened to incredible assistance to Ghana.
He said when Ghana’s obligation was dropped, he chose to compose on projects that he developed after the ‘advantage of HIPC’ – something Ghanaians derided him for.
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