Ken Ofori-Atta Acknowledges Economic Difficulties Amid Global Challenges, Stresses Need for Bold Reforms

The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, once again acknowledged the economic challenges facing the country.

Unlike his previous appearance before the Parliamentary Ad-hoc Committee on Censure, he refrained from offering an apology for the situation. Instead, he attributed the economic difficulties to global events.

During the 2023 Mid-Year Budget Review in Parliament on July 31, he openly admitted that the past year had been incredibly tough for both the country and its citizens.

He highlighted several fundamental and systemic weaknesses that needed to be boldly confronted:

1. Low revenue to GDP ratio.
2. High demand and dependence on imports, even for products that can be produced domestically.
3. Inefficient power management.
4. Lack of robust expenditure and commitment control systems to ensure efficient public service delivery.
5. Issues with expenditure and economic governance related to numerous statutory funds.
6. Weak governance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

He emphasized that the government was actively working to address these issues, with many of the proposed structural reforms aligned with the Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG) secured through an IMF program.

Despite the challenges, the Finance Minister pointed out that the Ghanaian economy had shown signs of recovery over the past six months.

The economy exhibited positive indicators, and the government didn’t plan to seek a supplementary budget.

Notably, progress was being made to exceed non-oil revenue targets for the year, with improvements seen in non-oil tax revenue collection, despite some minor shortfalls in VAT.