‘IMF Bankrupted Ghana’

Ghana is facing a cost-of-living crisis and crushing debt. The government blames the eyewatering inflation on the Ukraine conflict and Covid. Protesters blame their plummeting currency on government corruption. Meanwhile the International Monetary Fund says another loan is the answer.

However, some believe the IMF has long been the problem. According to Ghanaian journalist Kwesi Pratt Jnr, its destructive neoliberal policies have caused today’s mess.

Under Kwame Nkrumah, the country had prospered.
However, after decades of IMF cut backs, Ghana’s economy has been crippled.

Today, Accra is returning to the Western lender, bowl in hand, for a 17th time. But if a break from the shackles of debt was possible under austerity programmes, it would have happened by now.

What’s more, the West never made its wealth from the neoliberal capitalist model it preaches. According to Pratt, that came from colonialism, the slave trade and exploitation.

It’s a strong argument. Listen to him make the case and give us your thoughts.