Ghana’s fiscal space cannot fund political party pledges - Dr. Acheampong

Dr. Theo Acheampong, Political and Economic Risk Analyst, says Ghana’s fiscal space cannot support the pledges made by the country’s major political parties.

“You realise that these manifesto promises would have a big impact on the fiscal space, and there is actually no money lying around to fund some of their promises without borrowing from the international capital market,” he stated.

Dr. Acheampong made the statement during a political radio and television programme broadcast by Multimedia Networks and monitored by the Ghana News Agency.

He pointed out that, in comparison to the 2020 general elections, the two major political parties have made more promises, with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) offering 620 and 380, respectively.

Dr. Acheampong said that the manifestos of the two parties lacked the policies needed to promote growth and economic transformation.

He said the NDC’s pledge of free primary healthcare, for instance, would cost $1.7 billion per year and $7 billion over four years.

Dr. Acheampong warned that the pledges would instead burden Ghanaians, leaving the future government with no choice but to raise taxes or borrow to fulfill them.

He emphasized that the manifestos must provide a clear benchmark related to specific sectoral outcomes for assessment and advised political parties to consider the financial implications of their proposed policy measures, as well as how they planned to support them.

Prof. John Osae Kwapong, a Fellow at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), said the two major political parties had not figured out the fiscal implications of their policies.

He said political parties ought to offer voters information on how much their promises would cost and how they propose to fund them.

The fellow asked stakeholders in the democratic arena to compel political parties to provide the funding mechanisms for their pledges.