The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has disclosed to representatives of the Catholic Bishops Conference that the granting of financing assurances following the establishment of the Creditor Committee by the Paris Club co-chaired by China and France, is a huge milestone towards securing the much-anticipated IMF facility for Ghana.
Describing it as the last hurdle, President Akufo-Addo said this means that “the sacrifices that the country has had to make this last year and the difficulties that we are going through, may be that at long last, we are going to see the beginning of the recovery, as with the approval of the IMF, we will be in a strong position to make other arrangements that will help our economy get back into a strong place.”
Speaking about it barely a few hours after the announcement was made in Paris, the President told the delegation of the Catholic Bishops Conference who were on a courtesy visit to the Jubilee House, on Friday, 12th May, 2023, that the feat suggests “that hopefully, next Wednesday, the board itself will meet and may find an approval to the Ghanaian demand.”
“So it is fortuitous, that of all the people who should be the first to hear this announcement directly from me, it is the delegation from the Catholic Bishops Conference.”
Following tons of commendation of President for shepherding the nation dutifully despite challenging times globally, President Akufo-Addo appealed to the Bishops Conference to continue “this relationship of confidence and of trust between the Church and government.”
Such hallowed endeavour, he added, “inures to the benefit of the Ghanaian people; that we continue to work together from our different angles and our different constituencies, having in mind the welfare of the people of this country.”
He said “I’m very grateful for this visit and for the words of encouragement that you’ve given, the reason, apart from the fact that I’m a practicing Christian, I think that anybody who sits in this seat, has to recognise the immense that the Catholic Church and the Christian community is doing for the country, in so many areas. Talking about education, or health or the spiritual narrative of our population.
Concluding on the substance of ensuring cordial ties with the church President Akufo_Addo stated that “the selfless work you are doing is so enormous for the welfare of our country and it is very important that the President should be very solicitous of whatever goes on in the Catholic Church even if he wasn’t a Christian, because the work that you are doing is immense for the country. So that’s been more than anything else the reason why I continue to forge relations of confidence and of intimacy with the church.”