Entitled mentality of Ghanaians killing budget in election year - Kwame Pianim

Ghanaian economist and investment consultant, Kwame Pianim has blamed the high level of “entitlement mentality” in Ghanaians towards successive governments to execute developmental projects during election years, as being the major cause of budget overruns in the country.

He established that every deficit experienced by the country, especially in election years, had been attributed to high government spending, without the citizenry giving authorities the benefit of the doubt.

Mr. Pianim explained that Ghanaians become ‘too entitled’ during each election year, identifying it as one of the biggest problems the budget suffers during the period.

Speaking at the 8th edition of the Ghana Economic Forum in Accra, under the theme “sustaining macroeconomic stability through the election cycles: the 2020 test case”, Mr Pianim noted with concern that, the trend of politicians to spend high in order to woo more potential voters during each election year must be stopped.

“The core of our inability to sustain macro-economic stability is what I call the exaggerated entitlement mentality of the Ghanaian, is the pressures we put on our budget during each election year especially. Where we are now, we have the macro-economic stability and what we have achieved is remarkable but precarious. Very very precarious. You have government expenditures around 20percent of GDP, revenue is 6%. Revenue is like pushing on the thread. Expenditure control is where we should be getting at and I think it involves all of us as Ghanaians. It has to be an enterprise to minimize the demands we make on government”. He added.

The Ghana Economic Forum 2019

Organized by the Business and Financial Times (B&FT), the forum served as a platform to deliberate on how Ghana could sustain the macroeconomic gains made in recent times and to find a strategy for sustaining the country’s growth trajectory.

It brought together; chief executive officers, board chairmen, directors-general, legal advisors, entrepreneurs, civil society leaders, and senior-level decision-makers in public & private sector organizations in Ghana and development partners.

Notable among participants included President Nana Akufo-Addo, Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta, Trade Minister Alan Kyeremanteng and the Bank of Ghana Governor, Ernest Addison.