Majority leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu
It is evident that the government’s vision to leverage its credibility, as a global player, to turn around the post-Covid-19 economic downturn into future gains is President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s major strategy into his second tenure.
Presenting the 2021 Budget Statement and Economic Policy last week, Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, standing in for Finance Minister-designate Ken Ofori-Atta, said beyond the government’s commitment to completing programmes that were suspended as a result of the pandemic, it is also poised to develop the arts and sport sectors to boost growth and generate employment.
Earlier last week, during the presentation of his Message on the State of the Nation, the President had affirmed the commitment in adding momentum to already existing transformational development initiatives that were ongoing in all the sectors, including agriculture, health, education, energy and manufacturing.
Ghana’s post-Covid responses have been duly recognised, particularly, in the resilience of its economy to withstand the shocks that had hit global businesses and national economies, including our West African neighbours.
But that was also reflected in how we managed food security and other challenges, apart from faring excellently in tracing, testing and treating Covid-19 cases, as the country was rightly hailed by development partners and the World Health Organisation.
Hope
With the government’s deft initiative intended at introducing Covid-19 Health Levy of one per cent on VAT, as part of revenue measures to help the economy recover, fears that our public debts would keep rising have automatically been erased.
That spells hope for the future as far as funding state projects and programmes under this government is concerned.
Clearly, we have constructed for ourselves effective pillars for turning around the dire post-Covid-19 global economic situation, and this has already been manifested in the relative resilient state of our economy, as amplified by the remarkable growth figures disclosed in the Budget Statement and Economic Policy.
Indeed, we had proved to the world that we are among the fastest growing economies in the world, having scored stunning ratings in the books of Bloomberg as well as Fitch and other such global financial research institutions.
Growth
As the President had indicated, prudent handling of our national resources has made it possible for the government to build enough reserves to enable it undertake funding of ambitious projects across the country, including rolling out of the ‘Year of Roads’ programme.
Additionally, the government had been proactive in sustaining support to critical sectors, including health and education.
Of equal importance is the fact the Cedi performed very well against other currencies in the sub-region, as Ghana traded favourably with its neighbours.
That is why any claim by any political party that the 2021 Budget Statement and Economic Policy merely makes promises to attain political ends must be dismissed by the discerning Ghanaian.
No abandoning of projects
We must also, as citizens, laud the government for its commitment to completing projects that are already in the pipeline, including those that were initiated under the previous administration.
As the Majority Leader rightly noted, prudent management of our resources implies that we move away from entertaining waste in the generation and administration of projects and programmes under the incumbent government.
It is our prayer that appointees will be minded to ensure government’s philosophy of prudent management of resources.
Overall, the outlook does not look bleak, particularly against the background of the government having already shown how competent it has been in managing the affairs of the state.
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