Ghana Must Rethink Its Engagement with Global Actors – Onsy Nkrumah
By: Onsy Nkrumah
In a recent interview, Fadhel Kaboub, Senior Advisor at Power Shift Africa, made a powerful and unsettling statement:
| “Either these institutions are fundamentally incompetent or they are intentionally creating economic traps”
The IMF and World Bank are not incompetent. On the contrary, they are primarily being used as tools by powerful global actors to serve their own strategic and economic interests.
I have personally visited their impressive headquarters in Washington, D.C., to engage with them and conduct my own fact-finding mission. The professionals there are charming, courteous, businesslike, and highly competent. These are certainly not incompetent individuals or institutions.
What continues to amaze me is this:
Why did successive Ghanaian governments—whether elected or imposed by military regimes—not bother to investigate why Prime Minister Dr. Kwame Nkrumah negotiated specific terms for Ghana’s entry into these two institutions? Had they done so, many misguided economic misadventures could have been avoided, potentially saving Ghana billions of dollars over the years.
Will Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party (CPP) ever be trusted again by Ghanaians, enough to be given a mandate to serve in a more responsible and prudent manner than previous administrations have managed or attempted? That remains the critical question.
It may seem unlikely at the moment, but I firmly believe that a conscientious, diligent, and transparent Nkrumaist-led CPP can reclaim political power if we can urgently overcome the internal “business as usual” culture and present credible candidates to contest the December 2028 elections on the CPP ticket.
It is possible. Believe me, fellow citizens, it is possible. Forward Ever!
Fadhel Kaboub’s Observation of IMF and World Bank:
“The IMF, the World Bank—they’re part of a global economic architecture that was designed during colonial times. The United Nations itself was created during the colonial era, right? For a long time, the UN had fewer than 50 member states because the rest of the world was colonized. So it was the colonizers who established the UN; it was the colonizers who created the World Bank and the IMF, and who dominated the formation of the rest of the global economic architecture.
So, an economic system that was not designed by us, nor for us—why should we expect it to deliver justice for us today?
Let me give you another point to reflect on: the fact that so many of our countries—Kenya included—have been strictly following the economic policies dictated by the World Bank and the IMF for decades. Yet, we remain trapped in debt, even deeper in debt than before. This suggests one of two things: either these institutions are fundamentally incompetent and should no longer be followed, or they are intentionally creating economic traps.
Either way, from our perspective, their model must be rejected. Their prescriptions and directionalities are designed to perpetuate economic entrapment. That’s something we must all reflect on.”
