Akufo-Addo's Refusal To Reduce Government Size Affecting Investor Confidence: Expert Fears For Ghana

• Nana Akufo-Addo has been criticised for keeping a large government size amid the economic challenges
• A finance expert attached to the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) told YEN.com.gh that a lot of decisions under the current government like a lack of expenditure rationalisation is hurting Ghana investor confidence
• Haruna Alhassan has said Ghana's economic challenges are not because of a lack of money but significantly due to profligate expenditure

Ghana's recent difficult luck with foreign investments could persist for a long time under Nana Akufo-Addo because of some of the hard lines he has adopted, a finance expert has predicted.

Haruna Alhassan has said Ghana's investor confidence is ebbing away because the president does not seem to care about the importance of prudent economic decisions to the larger investor community.

The finance expert attached to the think tank, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), told YEN.com.gh in an exclusive interview on February 13, 2023, that Nana Akufo-Addo's refusal to heed numerous calls to reduce the size of this government to reflect the current economic crisis is particularly bad for investor confidence.

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Civil society and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) have said the president was still spending huge funds on maintaining an extravagant government although he was preaching "belt-tightening" or austerity.

"The lack of a credible expenditure rationalisation has already affected investor confidence. Our current economic challenges are not because of a lack of money but rather profligate expenditure and a lack of accountability," the CSJ senior fellow told YEN.com.gh.

Akufo-Addo urged to merge ministries, reduce presidential staffers

Minority lawmakers in Ghana’s Parliament have been pushing Nana Akufo-Addo to reduce spending by cutting the huge size of his government.

The Minority caucus suggests that the president can either merge some ministries or sack some presidential staffers whose jobs are not critical.

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The legislators were trying a last attempt to get the president to significantly reduce the size of his government, which is currently hovering around 110 ministers and deputy ministers.

The Minority made the call after Nana Akufo-Addo appointed three new people to fill the positions of three ministers who resigned from his government.

Minority leader Dr Cassiel Ato Forson said at a press conference last week that the president did not have to appoint three new replacements for Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto and Kojo Kum.

He said the economy was in distress so the president’s decisions must reflect this.

Other calls Akufo-Addo has not adhered to

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh has reported in a separate story that although Akufo-Addo assumed the reins of power on January 7, 2017, with a mandate to serve Ghanaians it has not been smooth for him.

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With economic conditions deteriorating and culminating in a return to the IMF for an economic bailout, Ghanaians have expressed their desire for radical measures to be instituted.

Some of those calls include demands for Ofori-Atta to be sacked and a reduction in government size. But the president has not heeded these calls, which has irked a section of the populace.

Source: YEN.com.gh