The Ghana Budget will outline the extimated income and expenditure of the government within the 2017 fiscal year.
As earlier scheduled, Finance Minister, Kenneth Ofori-Attah will appear before the Parliament today being Thursday 2nd of March, to present the budget statement for the year 2017. This is in fulfillment of Article 179 of the 1992 Constitution.
The 2017 Ghana Budget will be the first for the Akufo-Addo government which assumed power since January 7, following NPP’s victory in the 7th December, 2016 presidential elections. It will also be Mr. Ofori Attah’s first major official duty as the Minister for Finance.
According to a statement from the Finance Ministry, “The Budget will include measures to restore fiscal discipline and good economic governance, transparent and accountable use of public resources in accordance with the new Public Financial management law and to provide a credible basis for economic policy clarity going forward”.
President Nana Akufo-Addo has been giving Ghanaians high hopes that the NPP under his leadership has what it takes to fix the Ghana’s economy which is currently in bad shape. It is with this confidence that he went ahead to dish out very many juicy promises to the people during the electioneering period which finally gave him a resounding victory in the elections.
However, since after his inauguration, Nana Addo has heightened his lamentations over the poor state of the economy, stressing that it is far worse than what he expected. The President presented the worst side of the country’s economy during his maiden State of the Nation Address on February 21. According to him, no fiscal space was left by the past administration; what is rather obtainable is a growing public debt of GHC122 billion and a double-digit budget deficit.
This reality has created fears in people, including the government, with the feeling that it will be extremely difficult for the big dreams for the country to be achieved. But the President was quick to note that he was not elected into office by Gahanaians to complain but to get things done. He therefore strengthened the people’s hope, saying that he and his team will work hard to fix the economy.
He then promised to give out details of how he will go about restoring the country onto the path of prosperity and progress in the 2017 Ghana budget statement. According to him, it is in the budget that a detailed analysis of the state of every sector of the economy and how to bring about the desired improvements will be outlined.
It is expected that the budget will present in details, how government intends to generate revenue and funds for each sector as well as the plansned expenditures. It wil also reveal borrowing plans in whichever form it will take and how already owed debts are to be taken care of within the fiscal year.
More importantly, the budget will give an overall view of the policies and strategies government is going to employ towards fulfilling her various manifesto promises. In a nutshell, the 2017 Ghana buget will present government’s plans towards correcting or rather eradicating the prevalent difficulties facing the country, such as high level of debt and fiscal deficits, declining GDP growth, unemployment, private investment issues such as high taxation and utility bills, energy and power crises, corruption, etc.
Howbeit, the Finance Minister has joined hands with president Akufo-Addo in raising the hopes of Ghanaians. According to him, the kind of solutions government has been able to find within this short period will impress Ghanaians.
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