Ghana will be in a state of economic hopelessness 2017 – Economist

An Economist and Member of Parliament (MP) for New Juaben South, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah, is cautioning Ghanaians not to expect anything good from the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the first quarter of 2017 should the party win the 2016 polls.

According to him, Ghana would from January 1 to March 31, 2017, undergo serious economic challenges to the extent that there would be no relief for the poor who depend on government social intervention programs to make a living.

The West African nation, he stressed, would be in a “state of economic hopelessness” if one do a thorough analysis on the paper on “Expenditure in Advance of Appropriation, January to March, 2017 presented to Parliament on Thursday, October 2016 by the Finance Minister, Seth Terkper.

Dr. Assibey-Yeboah made this observation when contributing to the debate on the report of the Finance Committee on Expenditure in Advance of Appropriation, January to March, 2017, on the floor of Parliament.

The former British colony is expected to spend GH?10,999, 108,191 during the stipulated three months period, according to documents presented to the Legislature by the Finance Minister.

During this same period, the government is projected to raise or collect total revenue of GH?8,988,080,585 from tax and non-tax revenue sources.

The deficit of GH?2,011,027,606 is expected to be sourced from both domestic borrowing and external financing including project and program loans.

The GH?10,999,108,191 is expected to be spent on compensation of employees, goods and service, capital expenditure, interest payment, grants to other government units, non-road arrears, tax refunds and amortization.

Out of this amount, GH?3,881,345,637 is expected to be spent on compensation of employees while GH?164,220,432 would be spent on goods and services during the stipulated period.

In the capital expenditure category, an amount of GH?1,251,883,521 is expected to be sent while GH?1,889,870,741 is expected to be spent on interest payment.

Furthermore, an amount of GH?2,368,676,114 would be spent on Grants to other government units, with GH?518,456,296 estimated to be spent on Non-Road arrears.

An amount of GH?151,078,450 and GH?773,577,000 are expected to be spent on tax refunds and amortization during the stipulated period respectively.

What is more disturbing, according to Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah, is the GH?1,889,870,741 that is going to be used in financing interest payment as well as amortization amount of GH?773,577,000.

“Mr. Speaker, in the first three months we will be making interest payment of GHC1.9bn, why do we saddle the next president with such a burden? It is because as of December 2008, our total debt was GH?9.5billion. Where are we now? As at now our debt has crossed GHC100bn. Mr. Speaker, in eight years we’ve moved from GH?9.5billion to over GH?110billion and that is why we are going to pay GH?1.5billion in interest payment in the first three months of the year.”

“If you go further, non-road arrears for the first quarter are GH?518million. Mr. Speaker these non road arrears have been on government books prior to 2016. So the next President Akufo-Addo who has not committed to borrowing come to office and will burden him with these arrears.”

“Mr. Speaker, sadly, what is going into capital expenditure is GH?1.25billion and the President is going round touting his achievement. On the one hand they are telling us they are building infrastructure but tell us how much is going into infrastructure for the first three months. Nothing is going into job creation. What you are telling the Ghanaian people is that in the first three months you are not concerned about jobs.”

“So clearly what we have before us is nothing but a State of economic hopelessness. After eight years, one would have expected that at least the next three years from 2017 would have presented us a signal as to what direction we are going.”