According to them, the move will be a duplication since government already controls majority shares in some banks that have a focus on the intended reason for setting up the national development bank.

[contextly_sidebar id=”SbUN7C5QZYKS9hulTaWAiUMFuKR6YqlF”]The Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta during the 2018 budget presentation in parliament announced that government will launch a national development bank with a seed capital of 500 million dollars.

But reacting to the plan, Financial Analyst and CEO of Sam Bed Consult, Sam Bediako Asante was of the view that government must rather focus on equipping the already existing developments banks with mandates in the issues the national development bank will be addressing.

“Within the banking system, we have National Investment Bank (NIB) and adb bank as the only development banks. I think if government has anything as far development banks are concerned, then these two banks should be resourced in such a way that they can do exactly the purpose for what they were created,” he argued.

He observed that NIB and adb have the ability to deliver on their targets if their activities are strengthened enforced.

“adb is for agric and agribusiness purposes, and NIB for industrial purposes. We need to make sure they invest in those areas. We need to make sure they fulfill the purpose for which they were set up. We don’t need another development bank to do that”

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By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

The post National Development Bank launch needless- Financial observer appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to government, it was compelled to approve the extension because the IMF threatened to immediately abrogate the whole deal if they declined the proposal.

A Deputy Minister of Finance, Kwaku Kwarteng, who made the revelation on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, said the IMF told them that the programme “had under-performed” and Ghana would miss its objectives for going for the facility hence the only way to be back on track is an extension.

[contextly_sidebar id=”N27KTYNJCuSvSMxnFmqkL36DgKCPk3JD”]…The IMF has been around for two years and they the IMF are now telling us that the programme has under performed, and so we should now extend it. We didn’t think we needed that. So when we expressed that view to them… what we didn’t anticipate was the response we subsequently got from the IMF. It was that if we do not extend, then there is no way we were going to achieve the objectives of the programme so they will end the programme today,” he said.

The NPP government had in the past chastised the Mahama government for putting Ghana under the IMF programme and promised not to extend it after the programme elapsed in 2018. But per the new agreement, the programme will now end in April 2019.

IMF approved an additional 94 million dollar disbursement for the extension which implied that freeze on government sector employment will linger on.

Some Ghanaians subsequently lashed out at the Akufo-Addo government for the one year extension window.

But defending the issue on the Citi Breakfast Show, Mr. Kwarteng said government approved the extension because “we didn’t want to hurt Ghana’s credible image”

“…I for instance thought that, from what we had told them, we did not want to come out of the programme as though there is a new government and government had abandoned the programme, it will send a wrong signal to the market and it will hurt our image as a credible country so we said we were not going to do that.”

He said the IMF further threatened not to continue with the fourth quarter review of the programme with Ghana if the government rejects the request for an extension.

“That was in plain language that the IMF was telling us that if you do not extend beyond first quarter of 2018, then we think that we are not even going for the review,” the Deputy Finance Minister added.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post We were ‘forced’ to extend IMF programme – Gov’t appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.