Former Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, has urged Ghana to fully harness its natural resources to avoid seeking yet another bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Ghana is currently under a $3 billion Extended Credit Facility (ECF) programme with the IMF, aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability and ensuring fiscal sustainability.
Speaking after the launch of the Institute of Economic Affairs’ (IEA) seminar series on natural resource management on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, Prof. Oquaye said Ghana’s resource wealth, if managed prudently, could provide the fiscal space to end the cycle of repeated IMF interventions.
“For the 17th time, we had to go to the IMF to have what we call temporary relief. But can we go on forever in this way? Every regime—military, NDC, NPP—has been there,” he lamented.
He questioned why Ghana, despite its vast mineral and natural wealth, has consistently failed to break free from IMF dependence.
“We have gold, diamond, oil, bauxite, timber, lithium, can we not work them to our advantage? We wouldn’t mind being a new Dubai. It’s a desert, but they have used oil to transform that society,” he said.
Prof. Oquaye noted that the IEA seminar series seeks to ignite critical conversations on reforming Ghana’s natural resource governance framework to unlock long-term economic transformation.
