Ghana Always Have The Option To Say No To World Bank And IMF And Back Off - KSM

KSM

Ghanaian ace comedian, event host, founder and CEO of Sapphire Ghana Limited who is also the host of 'The KSM Show' on Metro TV, Kwaku Sintim-Misa popularly known as KSM writes again in a social media post that read, ""BAIL OUT OR DEBT TRAP?"

There has been so much talk and bad mouthing of the IMF. I tend to agree with most of the comments but I refuse to condemn the IMF. Don't get me wrong. I like to think I am a "nationalist" and a "patriot". I believe in "Homegrown" policies and "remedies" I am of the view that "we should be able to lift ourselves from this quagmire of poverty and indebtedness and stand strong as a nation". I believe in all this talk. The only problem is that we have been saying this since I was a teenager in secondary school! Guess what? I am now a grandfather and I still hear the same thing.

The issues we discussed then are the same being discussed now. The only difference is that there were no radio stations to blast our voices but we talked and argued about the same things in our dormitories in high school!. Thanks to FM radio now, the debate is on air. But do you know what freaks me out? The situation hasn't changed one bit. If anything at all, its gotten worse. The last time I checked, we were still blasting the IMF and Wold Bank for being responsible for our economic woes and and yet we still go to them for economic advice and financial bailout.

Read also>>> IMF And USA Set To Ruin Ghana
Who was it that said it is only a "mentally challenged" person, who will repeat the same action and yet expect to get different results? I refuse to condemn the World Bank and the IMF. Who is it that will give you a loan and not set conditions FOR PAYBACK? If we are not intelligent enough to make sure that the conditions we accept do not backfire then we are to blame when it does. We always have the option to say no and back off.

When we got debt relief as a part of the benefit of going HIPC, that was awesome. What went wrong was that the condition they gave us. We were told to use the relief money on projects that will help in "poverty alleviation". Right there we should have known that the only answer to poverty alleviation was wealth creation. We should have invested the relief money in areas that would have generated wealth and the revenue from that invested in wealth creation activities.

What did we do? Instead of investing in activities that would generate income out of which some would be invested in boreholes and public toilets, we invested directly in the boreholes and public toilets and proudly called them HIPC Benefits! They looked good but in strict economic sense they had become liabilities. If you do not invest in activities that generate income, to pay off your loan, you will find out that the "bailout" will become a "debt trap".

We have come full circle again, we are now being BAILED OUT again. Will this be the last time? Are we investing in INCOME GENERATING activities that will create wealth to pay off the loan or are we going to repeat the same but expect different results. Are we opting for a BAILOUT or are we walking into a DEBT TRAP. The option is ours!
‪#‎justthinking‬"