Mahama lacks 'competent' cousins like Ken Ofori-Atta - Chairman Wontumi alleges

The decision by President Akufo-Addo to make Mr Ken Ofori-Atta the Finance Minister would go a very long way to prolong his stay in office, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party has said.

According to Mr Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, the presence of Mr Ofori-Atta in this current administration has shown clearly that President Akufo-Addo has surrounded himself with competent people, unlike the "non-performing" ministers who made up former President Mahama's government.

Mr Bernard Antwi-Boasiako popularly known as Chairman Wontumi explained that the 2020 budget statement presented by Mr Ken Ofori-Atta proved clearly that President Akufo-Addo's government has put the plight of Ghanaians first and is a caring one.

Chairman Wontumi stated that "If Mahama had a competent minister like Ken Ofori-Atta to serve under him, he would have dropped on his knees and given thanks to God. You can't even compare his non-performing ministers to the current ones serving under President Akufo-Addo."

He continued that "President Akufo-Addo is fortunate to have a competent cousin by his side; if John Mahama had a competent cousin like Ken, he would have ruled Ghana for long but he has none".

Finance minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta yesterday presented the 2020 budget statement to Parliament.

During the presentation, he praised the macroeconomic achievements of the current government stating that “our discipline and determination to stay focused has been recognized by our global partners namely the UN, World Bank and IMF to mention a few.”

In the year 2020, Mr Ofori-Atta stated that government will make a strong push on the under-listed priorities in order to consolidate the gains achieved within the last three years and to drive Ghana’s economic transformation forward in line with the

He touched on some of the vision of President Akufo-Addo to move Ghana beyond aid noting that “We will take a radical policy and institutional reforms towards raising our tax-to-GDP ratio over the medium term from under 13% currently to around 20 %.

The focus will be on efficiency and base broadening rather than imposing new taxes on Ghanaians and businesses,” he said.

“This way, we can raise our domestic contribution to our ambitious transformation agenda, in line with the Ghana Beyond Aid vision,” he said

On Business Regulatory Reforms he explained that a 3-year reform initiative, coordinated by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI), will be implemented to make Ghana one of the most transparently and efficiently regulated business environments in Africa.

“This will empower our local businesses and also help us realise our ambition of making Ghana the Gateway to Business in West Africa,” he said.

According to him, work is progressing steadily on preparations to realise government's vision of establishing Ghana as a regional financial services centre in West Africa.

The Concept Note has been approved by the Government and work is ongoing to draft an International Financial Services (IFS) Bill for broader stakeholder consultations.

He also noted that government is aiming to use digitization to transform Ghana's development path in line with the global realities of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

"We will continue the impressive achievements made over the last three years in using digitization to improve government services and make it more accessible to Ghanaians. We will also intensify efforts to support the development of Fintech and the knowledge economy in Ghana", he said.

On the issue of Science and Technology, the Finance minister mentioned that it is the foundation for industrialization.

He added that government has therefore resolved to complement our advances in human capital in the education sector with a focused push to develop our national technological capability.