Parliament grants approval for GH¢27.4 billion request for Q1 2021 expenditure

Parliament has granted an approval of government’s request for an amount of GH¢27.4 billion towards expenditure for the first quarter of 2021.

The development comes just two days after the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta presented the request to legislators and the Speaker of Parliament for the amount to be sanctioned.

Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah made the disclosure after the House held a debate on the request on Friday, October 30, 2020.

Dr Assibey Yeboah also provided the House further economic indicators and specifics on how government plans to use the funds.

On Ghana’s rising debt stock, the Chairman of the Finance Committee indicated the total debt stock as at August 2020 remains at GH¢267.7 billion representing 69.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product.

Haruna Iddrisu, Minority Leader in Parliament during the debate in the House interrogated the accuracy of the numbers offered to Parliament by the Minister for Finance.

“What is worrying is that if we don’t get the statistics right on debt and GDP, we will not get the other figures right; even inflation, we will not get it right,” he is quoted in the Citi News report.

Meanwhile, Ghana’s fiscal deficit pegged with the coronavirus pandemic and its associated impact on the economy has resulted in 9 percent of GDP for the period between January and September 2020.

Some economists have expressed worry that Ghana’s borrowing levels is likely to balloon as a result of what they describe as high consumption levels by government.

Meanwhile, in 2018, the national debt of Ghana amounted to approximately 59.29 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, a figure that currently stands at over 65 percent.