Prez Kufuor Extols Otumfuo’s Contribution To Ghana’s Exit From HIPC

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has extolled Otumfuo Osei Tutu II for his contribution to the economic development of the country.

He mentioned specifically the Asantehene’s input in Ghana’s exit from the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, at a time the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was hesitant to.

Explaining how Otumfuo facilitated Ghana’s exit from the HIPC initiative, Mr. Kufuor mentioned that “my administration did so well to attain the completion point of the programme, but just before the country could exit the programme, the board of the IMF, which was meeting in Washington, USA, decided that the government had not observed the conditionality of not increasing wages and salaries so they were going to take the country out of the programme, which could have come with some grave consequences”.

“I spoke to Otumfuo about the new development, coincidentally, the Asantehene was in Washington on the invitation of the then President of the World Bank, James D. Wolfensohn. After Otumfuo stepped in and spoke to his friend on behalf of the country, Ghana was relieved of about half of the $8 billion debt owed by the country and finally redrawn from the HIPC initiative for highly indebted countries”, he added.

Former President Kuffuor made this revelation in an interview with Wofa Yamoah on Opemsuo Radio earlier today.

Source: Opemsuo.com/ Effah Mensah Wiliam