{"id":37974,"date":"2014-08-08T16:23:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T16:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=37974"},"modified":"2014-08-08T16:23:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-08T16:23:00","slug":"ghanas-plea-to-imf-a-sad-recognition-of-the-perils-of-prosperity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/08\/ghanas-plea-to-imf-a-sad-recognition-of-the-perils-of-prosperity\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghana\u2019s plea to IMF a sad recognition of the perils of prosperity"},"content":{"rendered":"
Gladys Obeng returned home in Accra recently to find her two children in tears after their day at primary school. When she asked what was wrong, they told her they had barely eaten since morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI give them 2 cedis [35p] every day to buy\u00a0kenkey<\/a>\u00a0and bread for lunch. But with the prices in Ghana now, the money was buying them less and less food every month.\u201d<\/p>\n Once seen as a\u00a0shining economic success story<\/a>, the situation in the Obeng household is mirrored across Ghana as soaring inflation and interest rates coupled with\u00a0a plunging currency<\/a>\u00a0take their toll on citizens.<\/p>\n When the west African nation discovered the\u00a0continent\u2019s biggest oil find<\/a>of a generation in 2007, expectations were high. Petrodollars pumped from the Jubilee oilfields would propel the country into middle-income status if handled wisely over a decade, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted.<\/p>\n Consultants from Norway advised on how to avoid the oil curse, seen starkly in neighbouring Nigeria.<\/p>\n And there was reason to be hopeful: already the world\u2019s second-largest cocoa grower, behind Ivory Coast, and Africa\u2019s second-largest gold exporter, behind South Africa, a relatively successful track record of managing a commodity-based economy made Ghana the poster child for a heady \u201cAfrica rising\u201d narrative.<\/p>\n