2023 Budget: Minority List Five Conditions Akufo-Addo Must Meet Before They Approve Policy Statement

• The Minority have said they will not approve the 2023 budget unless president Nana Akufo-Addo takes some drastic steps
• Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu has said his side will only back the budget statement unless Akufo-Addo's vice president and finance minister resign
• The Minority also said they want the president to cut down the size of his government by at least half the current number

Minority legislators have listed five demands that president Nana Akufo-Addo must meet before they approve the 2023 budget statement presented by the finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta.

Addressing the press on Monday, December 5, 2022 the minority leader Haruna Iddrisu also said the proposals in the Domestic Debt Exchange programme announced by the minister not long ago was unacceptable. He said his side rejects the debt restructuring proposals and would fight its implementation.

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According to him, the finance minister erred when he failed to announce the debt exchange programme in the 2023 budget statement he presented to Parliament on November 24, 2022.

"The Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government have become desperate and is compelled after reckless mismanagement of the economy to achieve fiscal consolidation," he said.

He then proceeded to list five conditions that the president must meet before the Minority backs policy proposals contained in the 2023 budget.

They are as follows:

1. The immediate sacking or resignation of Ken Ofori-Atta as the finance minister for plunging the Ghanaian economy into a crisis;

2. Dissolution of the Dr Mahamudu Bawumia-led Economic Management Team and his resignation as vice president for doing a poor job;

3. Reversal of the removal of the GH¢100 threshold for E-Levy payment as contained in the 2023 budget;

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4. Reduction in the number of Akufo-Addo appointees. They want the number of ministers and political appointees at the Office of the President reduced to at least half the present number;

5. Removal of all non-essential expenditures in the 2023 budget including some GH¢80 million allocated for works on the controversial national cathedral project.

“As it's now trite knowledge, the Ghanaian economy has been terribly mismanaged in the last five to six years by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration leading to our request for a 17th IMF program to renew confidence and policy credibility on our failing economy despite haughty initial denials," Haruna Iddrisu signed off his address with the press.

Ghana is in an economic crisis characterised by high inflation, an unstable local currency and a debt burden. The country has approached the IMF for a $3 billion relief programme.

Securing that programme has come with the need for a debt restructuring programme.

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President Nana Akufo-Addo Assures 2023 Budget Will Address Current Economic Challenges

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh has reported in a separate story that Nana Akufo-Addo has given the assurance that the contents of the 2023 budget statement and economic policy will address the current economic crisis.

The president said the interventions contained in the policy document would be the game changer.

The president gave the assurance when he spoke at the 38th annual Farmers’ Day Celebration in the Eastern regional capital, Koforidua.

He also called on Ghanaians to support the austere measures introduced by his government to restore the economy to its glory days.

Source: YEN.com.gh