Opposition candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo has been sworn in as Ghana’s new president. Beyond the current euphoria sweeping through much of the nation, the winning party is stuck with Ghana’s IMF programme at least for the next two years. It remains to be seen how they will rise above the country’s worrying high debt ratio, currently around 70 per cent of GDP, to achieve their ambitious campaign promises.
A few months ago Ghana’s New Patriotic Party (NPP) seemed mired in party indiscipline manifesting itself in leadership clashes, ethnic divisions and rumours of a spent kitty.
Few could have predicted the dramatic fashion in which the party would rise to overwhelm the ruling National Democratic Party (NDC) and snatch Ghana’s 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections in such convincing fashion two weeks ago.
But the goose started cooking when the John Mahama administration signed a three-year bailout package worth $918 million with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in mid-2015. Who submits to IMF conditionalities going into an election year?