The Minority in Parliament, yesterday, flayed government for ignoring real issues affecting the cost of living in the country in its maiden budget presented before Parliament.
According to the Minority in Parliament, the budget the finance minister presented stops short of addressing everyday cost of living crises such as rising transportation costs, energy, and water bills.
Addressing the press after the budget presentation, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, the immediate past Minister for Finance and Member of Parliament (MP) for Karaga, in the Northern region indicated that Ghanaians voted for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) due to the rising cost of living and wondered how the government could be so insensitive as to fail to even comment on, let alone initiate, any measures to address the situation.
“The budget did not address cost of living issues. Transport fares continue to increase. There was no mention of stabilising petroleum prices. It did not address energy bills, electricity bills, or water bills. Looking at all the indicators, these bills will continue to increase. We thought that, having campaigned on the cost-of-living crisis and come to power with the support of the Ghanaian people, the least the government could do was present a budget that would address the cost-of-living crisis in terms of transport fares, petroleum prices, and energy bills,” he stated.
Dr. Adam also chastised the finance minister for trying to deceive Ghanaians regarding the country’s real economic status, stating that the minister preferred instead to lament with his own ‘cooked’ figures and hesitated in announcing the country’s current economic indicators.
Doing a comparative analysis of the economy the erstwhile NPP government inherited in 2017 and the economy left for the new government, Dr Adam stated that real GDP growth for the last quarter of 2024 was 5.7%, as released by the Ghana Statistical Service and confirmed by the finance minister, against a growth rate of 3.4% in 2016 and a projected growth rate of 4% in 2025.
The former minister for finance wondered how an economy accused by President Mahama of having been criminally mismanaged could grow at 5.7% when a reset economy that is meant to correct the problems is projected to grow at 4%.
He added that the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government also left gross international reserves of $8.9 billion, equivalent to four months of import cover, as against 3.5 months of import cover inherited in 2017 and a projected cover of three months for 2025.
On debt-to-GDP, he stated that data suggests the NPP, as at the end of 2024, left a debt-to-GDP ratio of 61.8%, compared to the 73% it inherited, indicating that Ghana is no longer a heavily indebted country.
“The NDC has six percentage points to achieve IMF targets, but the way they have started borrowing, Ghana may not achieve its IMF target of 55% by 2028,” he stated, adding that on trade balance, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) left a primary balance surplus of 0.7%, stating that the NPP has left the economy stronger than it inherited.
Dr Mohammed Amin Adam intimated, that “It is shocking that a Minister for Finance would claim a breach of the IMF programme even before the IMF conducts a review. The IMF is conducting the review in April, but the minister is claiming a breach—the first time in the history of Ghana that a Minister is happy for his country to breach when the IMF has not said so.
“That should tell Ghanaians the level of misinformation and lamentation they are engaging in. When the country breaches an IMF programme, it has serious implications for attracting investment into the country. This Minister for Finance is appealing to investors to come to Ghana while also telling them that the economy is bad when the evidence does not support what he says. Is he attracting or driving away investment? This is not the way to govern a country.”
The former Finance Minister also spoke about the NDC’s promise of a $10 billion BIG PUSH, yet allocated only $800 million in the budget for the programme, stating that even if it increases to $1 billion a year, that will not amount to $5 billion by the end of their term.
He also flaked the allocation of a paltry GHc 51 million to set up a Women’s Bank when the minimum capital requirement for banks is GHC 400 million, questioning why the government is deceiving Ghanaian women when their Vice-President is the first female Vice-President. He described such promises as ‘sakawa’ promises.
The former Finance Minister also accused the government of establishing the Gold Board as an attempt to loot state resources and distribute them among its members.
“The Gold Board is to be financed from the budget. The minister is allocating $279 million to the Gold Board. We have never funded the gold purchase programme or the Gold for Oil programme from the budget. To fund the gold purchase programme from the budget is just to put money into the pockets of NDC cronies. It is create, loot, and share. The BoG was funding the gold purchase programme, and therefore, it did not affect the taxpayer. Now, there is a Gold Board which is going to rely on the taxpayer. This is create, loot, and share and shall be resisted,” he emphasised.
