Ghana must reform economy to break cycle of IMF programmes, says economist

Ghana needs fundamental reforms to its public finances and productive sectors if it is to end its repeated dependence on International Monetary Fund (IMF) support, economist Professor Godfred Alufar Bokpin has warned.

Speaking at a public lecture in Accra held as part of the activities marking the 2026 Civil Service Week, Prof. Bokpin said the country’s recurring economic crises were rooted in weaknesses in fiscal management, public investment, state institutions and policy implementation.

He said those problems could not be addressed through fiscal consolidation alone.

“Ghana has had to move beyond traditional measures such as expenditure controls and revenue enhancement and resort to debt restructuring because recurring economic disruptions have imposed enormous costs on the economy,” he said.

Prof. Bokpin, a lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School, said Ghana’s long history of IMF programmes demonstrated that achieving macroeconomic stability did not automatically lead to lasting economic transformation.

“Macroeconomic stability is not the same as economic transformation,” he said.

He argued that Ghana had spent decades concentrating on stabilising the economy without making the structural changes needed to create sustainable prosperity.

The economist also said repeated programmes with the IMF and World Bank had brought substantial external influence over Ghana’s policy design, implementation and monitoring.

Ghana has recently completed its 17th IMF programme, but Prof. Bokpin cautioned against assuming that the country would not return to the Fund.

“I am more comfortable this morning using the word ‘when’,” he said, referring to the possibility of Ghana entering another IMF programme in the future.

He called for a more resilient economic model, a change in attitudes towards economic management and the consistent implementation of long-term policies to break the cycle of repeated financial assistance.

According to Prof. Bokpin, inconsistent policies and weak public-sector institutions were among the main obstacles to stronger economic performance and greater investor confidence.

He said businesses needed predictable policies to make long-term investment decisions and to build the capacity required for indigenous companies to compete in international markets.

Ghana’s central challenge was not simply a lack of resources, he added, but the way in which available resources were used.

Prof. Bokpin said borrowing could contribute to development if funds were invested in projects capable of generating enough economic returns to repay the resulting debt.

However, he questioned the value of projects that took many years to complete, particularly when their costs rose substantially before they began delivering benefits.

He cited road projects that had taken more than a decade to finish and whose final costs were several times higher than their original budgets as examples of inefficiency in public investment.

The economist also linked Ghana’s weak domestic revenue mobilisation to the limited growth of the formal, productive and taxable parts of the economy.

A significant share of economic activity remains outside the formal tax system, restricting the government’s ability to raise revenue domestically, he said.

Prof. Bokpin warned that simply increasing tax rates would not solve the problem. Instead, he urged the government to create conditions that would enable more businesses and workers to move into the formal economy and generate taxable income.

He also called for greater support for indigenous businesses and better coordination between fiscal and monetary policy and the wider real economy.

Such steps, he said, would strengthen domestic production, expand the tax base and make Ghana better able to withstand future economic shocks.

The report was filed by Kodjo Adams for the Ghana News Agency and edited by Kenneth Sackey.