2018 budget was boring and full of English - Isaac Adongo

Member of Parliament for the Bolgatanga Central Constituency, Isaac Adongo has added his voice to the mass of opposition members, criticizing government’s second budget; ‘Adwuma’ budget, presented by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta on Wednesday November 15.

Speaking to Ghanaweb after the reading, the Bolga MP said the statement was a mere compilation of lengthy and boring grammar intended to cover up the crux of the issues as they are on the ground.

“You saw that we were sleeping at some point, it was too much English”, he said.

He argues that the Finance Minister overgeneralized the facts which according to him should have been taken individually and dissected for the lay man to appreciate.

Mr. Ofori Atta’s point on growth in the industrialization sector for instance he said, was whitewashed so as to give Ghanaians the impression that the manufacturing sector was actively working when in actual fact they weren’t.

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta during the reading said “At the sectoral level, the Industry Sector recovered from a negative growth of 0.5 percent and is expected to grow by 17.7 percent in 2017 due to increased production in upstream oil and gas.”

Mr. Adongo however reacting to that said the minister just gave a total summation of the growth experienced in that sector without detailing how each variant under the sector performed separately.

“They said the industrial sector grew by 17%....what is the industrial sector? Industrial sector is oil and gas, it is mining such as gold, bauxite and all that, it is manufacturing, it is construction, it is electricity so which one brought us the 17%?”

“But they know that Ghanaians when we hear industry, we think it is manufacturing, so when they say industrial sector grew by 17% they want to pretend manufacturing is doing well, let them give us a breakdown, did he?, he won’t because oil and gas is what gave us the 17%.”



Manufacturing is struggling, service sector is struggling, agriculture is struggling, why is he using omnibus clauses and not breaking down for you to see the true picture but we’ll break them down for you.

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta on Wednesday November 15 presented the budget for the year 2018 before the house in Parliament.

The budget themed: “Putting Ghana back to work”, according to Mr. Ofori-Atta, will stabilise the economy and offer reliefs including reducing electricity tariffs to make the private sector truly competitive and create more employment.