President John Dramani Mahama has mocked the former Akufo-Addo Bawumia government for organising a ‘kenkey and waakye parties’ to celebrate their exit from the IMF programme.
According to John Mahama, his government would not hold any elaborate celebrations following the completion of the IMF programme.
He disclosed that his government is not going to hold a kenkey party because they believe there is still work to be done.
Speaking during a community engagement in the Savannah Region on Saturday, May 23, 2026, President Mahama stated, “We have also come to the end of the IMF programme. We inherited the IMF programme from the previous government.
“At the time we took over from the previous government, all the agreed performance indicators were off track,” he said.
“It meant that the programme was in danger of derailment. So, in the first quarter after we took over, we had to take some stringent measures to realign the programme and bring it back on track,” he stated.
“But we are not going to hold a kenkey party because we believe the work is still in progress.
“Unlike others who exited the IMF programme and organised waakye and kenkey parties, celebrating their freedom from the IMF, we are not going to do that because we know the economy still requires a lot of work,” he added.
It will be recalled that some days ago, the Mahama government announced the successful conclusion of Ghana’s Extended Credit Facility programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to the Government of Ghana, the country’s plans are to transition away from a financial bailout arrangement toward a non-financing policy support framework.
Also, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, the Finance Minister, has said Ghana must make sure it does not go back to the good old bad days by being forced into another emergency bailout arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to Ato Forson, Ghana risks sliding back into crisis if it fails to sustain ongoing reforms following the conclusion of its International Monetary Fund (IMF) Extended Credit Facility programme.
He highlighted that the government is implementing safeguards to ensure Ghana does not repeatedly resort to external bailouts.
The Finance Minister stressed that Ghana does not want to return to IMF support, adding that discipline must remain a priority.
Meanwhile, Godfred Bokpin, an Economist Professor, has projected that Ghana will be fully ready for another IMF-supported program by 2033.
The Economist Professor argued that if the longstanding structural weaknesses in the economy remain unresolved, Ghana will return to the IMF by 2032 or 2033.
According to Godfred Bokpin, Ghana’s economic difficulties continue to reflect the same challenges that triggered earlier engagements with the IMF, tracing back to Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
Delivering a presentation at the 2026 Axis Pension Trust Pension Strategy Conference, Professor Godfred Bokpin stated, “The reasons Dr Kwame Nkrumah cited for approaching the IMF are not substantially different from the reasons we cited in 2022 for our current programme”.
“If we were learning from past programs with determination, we should be able to identify why we have been going there that often. I can assure you there is a way you can predict if these things persist, that we will be there.
“When the government announced that they were exiting the programme, we did our analysis and concluded that Ghana will be fully ready for another IMF-supported program by 2032 or 2033,” he noted.
