Use IMF programme to develop long-term growth strategies – Deloitte to government

Daniel Kwadwo Owusu, Country Managing Partner at auditing and accounting firm, Deloitte has called on government to use the mid-year budget to review some of the revenue measures introduced in the 2023 budget.

The call comes after Ghana secured an approval of the IMF-supported programme under an Extended Credit Facility consisting of $3 billion over a three-year period.

Daniel Owusu speaking at the 7th Ghana CEO Summit in Accra on May 22, 2023 noted that some of the new taxes introduced in the budget have the potential to adversely affect the productive sectors of the economy.

He therefore called for a review of government expenditures contained in certain programmes.

“Another recommendation is for government to review expenditure on certain programmes, particularly recurrent expenditure and re-allocate resources to priority sectors particularly the industrial and agriculture sector in order to drive growth and create employment.”

The Deloitte Managing partner further proposed that the IMF programme can be used as opportunity to develop a long-term growth agenda for the country instead of a short-term one.

“This will help to ‘wean’ our economy from significant donor dependency in the medium-to-long term and enable us to realise the ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda and what we are going to do differently this time in terms of national development,” Daniel Owusu noted.

Touching on way to effectively monitor strategic polices geared toward economic sovereignty, the Deloitte Managing Partner proposed that government enhance the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) units of all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and provide the needed resources to ensure that all programmes are tracked to agreed targets and benchmarks.

He explained, “We should embark on Comprehensive Value for Money review of all major government projects before contracts are awarded. This will ensure the country gets appropriate returns on these projects.”

MA