ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
Most of the Energy sectors SOEs have continued to witness worsening financial positions since the assumption of office by President Akufo-Addo, despite his administration receiving over 12 billion cedis in ESLA revenues and almost 20 billion in petroleum revenues over the past 4 years.
The ECG which recorded a profit of over 500 million cedis under President Mahama in 2016 has posted cumulative losses of over 4 billion cedis since the 2017 financial year.
The GRIDCo which also posted profits in 2016 has equally taken a turn for the worst with total comprehensive loss of over 600 million cedis as captured in their 2018 financial Statement.
Due to the worsening financial position of GRIDCo, Agence Française de Développement has had to withhold funding for a major upgrade of the National transmission line for over 2 years culminating in congestion of the GRID.
This particular line would have enabled Ghana to export additional power to Burkina Faso Even more disturbing is the fact that the Energy Commission which is the technical regulator of the sector has seen its budget slashed by more than half on account of the Capping and Realignment Act rendering the commission ineffective.
According to the 2019 PIAC report, of the US$334,636,806.22 of raw Gas supplied by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to Ghana Gas (GNGC), no payment was received, largely on account of VRA’s inability to pay GNGC for the lean gas supplied bringing the total indebtedness of GNGC to GNPC in respect of lean gas supplies to US$668,118,346.04.
From the forgoing it is obvious the current load shedding (Dumsor) being inflicted on Ghanaians is as a result of mismanagement and unnecessary political interference by the Akufo-Addo Government in the management of the Energy sector.
It will be recalled that when the nation was faced with a similar challenge under the NDC, the Mahama Government was candid with Ghanaians and proceeded to implement pragmatic policies to comprehensively address the challenge and subsequently handed over a resilient and robust energy sector to President Akufo-Addo.
Note that President Mahama is on record to have also bequeathed over 230 million cedis in the ESLA account to President Akufo-Addo in 2017.
It is important to note that under the previous NDC Government we initiated several projects to strengthen systems reliability.
Some key projects that were implemented include: -The 330kv line from Aboadze to Accra which was constructed under the NDC.
-The Aboadze Prestea Kumasi 330Kv is another one initiated by the NDC government.
-We also constructed the Accra Aflao 330KV transmission line.
-We should not also forget the 330kv export line to Burkina Faso terminating into Burkina’s 225kv line.
Also, under the NDC government, the Ghanaian State through GRIDCo implemented the Substation Reliability Project where a number of GRIDCo substations were upgraded with higher capacity assets.
The Tema Accra Fourth Bulk Supply Point was initiated by the State through GRIDCo under the NDC government.
Indeed the Pokuasi and Mallam Bulk Supply Points which is currently under construction is the product of the NDC Government through the MCC Compact 2.
But for the mismanagement of the ECG Concession by this Government which resulted in the PDS scandal, Ghana wouldn’t have lost the $190 million dollars meant for improving the distribution sector.
Instead of conceding on their shortcomings and being honest with Ghanaians, this Government has adopted political chicanery, denial and misinformation as a cardinal tool while the ordinary Ghanaian is made to bear the brunt of these avoidable power outages.
The epileptic Power situation in many parts of the country needs s to be addressed and addressed urgently.
The minority in Parliament taking cognisance of the current erratic and unreliable power supply coupled with the lack of sincerity on the part of Government officials and handlers of the power sector, the Minority in furtherance to our commitment towards ensuring reliable and uninterrupted supply of power proposes the following 10 point recommendations for implementation; 1.
The Energy sector players must be proactive and inform (Publish a schedule) electricity consumers who will be affected by these outages in advance so that affected customers can take remedial steps to mitigate the effect of such outages.
Government must cut down on wasteful expenditure and Inject the much needed capital into the power sector especially GRIDCo to make up for the impaired cash flow of these utilities.
Government must desist from political interference in the management of the Energy sector.
Consequently, Government must refrain from engaging in political appointments especially within middle management levels when vacancies are declared.
Government and its communicators must desist from engaging in the propaganda on excess capacity and come out with a formula for absorbing capacity charges as part of operating cost.
Power sector managers must ensure that they pursue Long term planning to ensure fuel security for generating assets at the least cost possible.
Government must allow Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to take the responsibility for their fuel supply requirements.
Immediate steps must be taken to aggressively address ECG’s spiralling technical and commercial losses currently estimated by its worker unions at 34% 8.
The Ministry of Energy must conduct a comprehensive reconciliation of the total indebtedness of all players including government and its SOEs including (GNPC, GNGC, VRA, GRIDCo, CENIT, ECG, NEDCo) in a transparent manner.
9.The Ministry of finance must take steps to utilize the $1 billion sovereign bond borrowed in 2020 to address the financial challenges of the Energy sector.
Government must ensure that Energy sector SOEs Publish details of their financial statements including details and ageing of their indebtedness as well as debts owed to them on time.
Finally, Government must come clean on the current power crisis as a matter of urgency and desist from engaging in blame games.
Shifting blame and providing conflicting information only goes to exacerbate the crisis which is threatening lives and businesses across the country.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press fraternity, good morning.
We have invited you to present our preliminary position on the 2026 Budget and Policy Statement of the government presented in Parliament yesterday.
This is the second annual budget of the NDC Government.
We were expecting that this budget will deliver hope and positive direction to our economy following a year of inactivity.
Unfortunately, it is another budget used to apportion blame to the NPP Government, and thus neglecting the responsibility of the NDC government to the people of Ghana.
As a responsible minority, we have chosen to present a constructive alternative view to the budget which was more or less another litany of initiatives they do not intend to implement.
Gradually, the people of Ghana will come to terms with this government’s mastery of propagating empty slogans and yet delivering nothing.
The 2026 Budget is presented under the theme “Resetting for Growth, Jobs and Economic Transformation.”
It builds on recent macroeconomic stability which began under the NPP government.
The trajectory for a return to single-digit inflation, improved reserves, and early signs of recovery in non-oil GDP was expected and known a year ago due to the policies the previous NPP Government implemented.
As we have said in the past, the NDC has not initiated any new strategic policy to drive these developments.
They have simply stuck to script developed by the NPP with the IMF two years ago when we negotiated the ECF programme The central proposition of the Budget is that Ghana is now transitioning from stabilisation to a “Big Push” of investments that will drive jobs, exports, energy security, and socio-economic transformation.
While the Government highlights recent stabilisation gains, a close examination of the Budget numbers reveals concerns that must be brought to the attention of the Ghanaian public.
Stabilisation is not transformation.
Real economic transformation requires strong productive investment, credible financing, improved energy reliability, and a vibrant private sector.
The 2026 Budget does not yet provide the scale or structure of investment needed to shift Ghana from short-term stabilisation to long-term, productivity-led growth.
This statement provides a clear, fact-based assessment of the 2026 Budget’s realism, risks, and implications for growth, jobs, and fiscal credibility.
The Illusion of Fiscal Discipline The NDC Government (the Minister for Finance) has hailed Ghana’s 2025 fiscal outturn as evidence of prudence and consolidation.
Yet behind this narrative lies a deeper problem: the systematic under-execution of growth-enhancing public investment.
Parliament approved capital spending equivalent to 1.5% of GDP, but the government implemented only about 0.5% year-to-date.
Even this, we can challenge it as it may have been inflated.
But for a government that seems to want to shift the fortunes of Ghanaians with its so-called “Big Push”, this is heartbreaking.
This 1-percentage-point gap, nearly US$1.1 billion in foregone public investment, was not a product of efficiency savings.
It reflected cash rationing, auction shortfalls, and mounting debt service pressures (in levels).
In reality, the Minister’s approach to fiscal management is not disciplined; it is reactive, relying on short-term cuts to maintain the appearance of order, and this is very dangerous for our medium-to-long-term development.
Using Ghana’s macroeconomic parameters and IMF-consistent multipliers, you will clearly understand the cost of the damage: - Effective demand cut: 0.514 % of GDP - GDP impact: circa 0.41 % of GDP (≈ US$469 million) - Revenue loss: circa US$75 million - Forgone potential growth: circa 0.1 percentage point annually.
The government has effectively traded tomorrow’s output for today’s optics.
Every 1 percentage-point cut in public investment means thousands of construction and supply-chain jobs not created, roads and schools not completed, and private contractors pushed into arrears.
Short-term fiscal “savings” thus translate into higher unemployment, weaker SMEs, and slower future tax growth.
Real GDP grew by 6.3% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, yet the composition of this growth is telling.
The recent 6.3% growth is services-heavy, led by ICT, finance, and trade, while construction and manufacturing lag.
The government is not building the economy’s productive base.
Banks, meanwhile, are crowded out by government borrowing at the short end, preferring T-bills over long-term lending, deepening the cycle of high interest, low investment, and low job creation.
Since this administration came into office, budgets have been presented in this August House but not implemented (2025 Budget and the Mid-year Budget).
Allocations for capital expenditure and goods and services remain unreleased, and workers across the public sector are paid, but not given the necessary tools and inputs to work.
Some Ministries do to have basic things and are unable to provide fuel for government work.
This is true fiscal indiscipline.
A close look at the data presented in the 2026 Budget confirmed the fear by the minority earlier this year that this government was incapable of implementing the programmes they presented in the 2025 Budget.
For example: Goods and Services – The government programmed to spend GHS5.1 billion from Q1 to Q3, but ended up spending only GHS3.8 billion.
This compares to the annual allocation of GHS6.7 billion.
The amount released for goods and services is 56% of the total allocation for the year.
CAPEX – The programmed CAPEX for Q1-Q3 was GHS26.6 billion, but the actual release was just GHS11 billion.
This is 34% of the total CAPEX of GHS32.6 billion allocated for the year 2025.
The more concerning from these developments is the systematic and deliberate under-execution of growth-enhancing public investment.
The under-execution of capital projects is also a mirror of fiscal fragility including: - Revenue pressures because persistent shortfalls have eroded space for discretionary spending.
- Financing constraints because frequent auction under-subscriptions have forced reliance on short-term T-bills, raising rollover risk, and - Rising interest costs because a growing share of revenue is locked into debt service, crowding out the growth expenditures.
By cutting investment to meet short-term cash targets, the government is treating liquidity symptoms rather than addressing structural weaknesses in revenue and debt management.
Public investment has one of the highest employment multipliers in Ghana’s economy.
Construction and engineering absorb large numbers of semi-skilled workers and drive demand for cement, steel, and transport services.
When capital projects stall, contractor arrears accumulate, SME liquidity tightens, and bank non-performing loans creep upward.
The short-term fiscal saving thus creates medium-term job and credit losses.
The Government has effectively chosen accounting aesthetics over economic substance, with a finance minister who has weaponised underspending as a tool of false prudence.
By systematically failing to release funds for approved projects, the Minister is creating artificial savings that mask his inability to mobilise revenue or manage debt sustainably.
This is not fiscal discipline; it is fiscal deception.
Is it not curious that the much-talked-about “Nkoko-Nkitinkiti” was just launched this week in spite of the fact that the 2025 budget provisioned for it since March 2025, a clear example of how the government is struggling to implement its priority programmes.
And let me use this opportunity to caution that the harmattan season has just started in some parts of the country, and we don’t want stories later that the chicks have been killed by the Harmattan.
Timing is of utmost importance when you are implementing a programme.
Also, the National Coders programme, which was not implemented, has found yet another space in the 2026 Budget with an equivalent GHS100 million allocated to it similar to last year.
Road contractors, businesses and other providers of government services are suffering from this Minister’s self-created liquidity drought while his officials celebrate restraint.
In time, the actual impact of the policies employed during this Minister’s “honeymoon period” will hit all of us.
Growth without Jobs, Depth or Structural Transformation The current administration secured the mandate of Ghanaians on the back of lofty pledges to transform the economic paradigm of our beloved nation.
Yet, unfortunately, those promises have not materialised.
You remember the 24-hour economy the government launched was said to be a job creation policy with a “homegrown formula”.
They told us 1-3-3 (One Job, Three People, Three Shifts).
What happened?.
Today, the 24-hour economy policy is a confusing mix of policy ideas with no clear implementation arrangements.
The same youth who were told they would have shifts to work once this government comes to power continue to roam the streets without work, while farmers and traders complain of poor sales due to weak demand.
The 24H Economy programme is estimated to cost US$4 billion of which the government is expected to contribute between US$300 – US$400 million.
We are going into the second year since the programme was launched, yet the government failed to announce in the 2026 Budget the targeted tax incentives and rebates it promised to attract investment.
The allocation of GHS90 million to the 24H Economy (the Minister said GHS110 million) of which GHS70 million is for Goods and services and GHS20 million for CAPEX, can best be described as tokenism, given that the programme is the main development blueprint of the government.
This cannot help achieve the programme objectives of creating a 1-3-3 job model.
On another note, the Big Push, which was promised GH¢13 billion for implementation by the government, had, by July, been issued commitments authorisation of only GH¢7.6 billion.
It is yet to be seen how much they have actually disbursed under the programme as the year draws to the end.
Will Ghanaians therefore believe the President and the Minister for allocating GHS30 billion for Big Push in the 2026 Budget when they could not even release funds allocated for the Big Push in the 2025 Budget?
Surprisingly, in his usual excitement, the Minister indicated at paragraph 1183 of the Budget Statement, “The GHS63 billion road contracts awarded so far under the Big Push, will generate an estimated 490,000 jobs”.
How is the government able to award road contracts under the Big Push amounting to GHS63 billion, when the total allocation for 2025 was GHS13 billion?
These 490,000 jobs promised from the Big-Push are dead on arrival as there are no contracts worth GHS63 billion under the Big Push any where in Ghana.
Even if you were to add the total allocation for the 2025 and 2026 for the Big Push, it would amount to GHS43 billion, far less than the GHS63 billion stated.
This is how this government is manufacturing success stories for itself.
Even if this is true, the Honourable Minister for Finance would have violated the Public Financial Management Act, which frowns on awarding contracts without budget allocation or commitment authorisation by the Minister.
The promised “Big Push” for jobs and infrastructure is therefore not reflected in the numbers.
Despite the strong rhetoric, capital expenditure in the Budget for 2026 is only 3.6% of GDP—far below what is required for a genuine infrastructure-led transformation.
At the same time: - Wages: 5.7% of GDP - Interest payments: 3.6% of GDP - Statutory transfers: about 4% of GDP These rigid items consume more than two-thirds of total spending, leaving very limited room for transformative investments.
In reality, this 2026 Budget is not investment-driven and masks serious challenges.
It also shows that there is no structural shift as the composition of the budget remains the same.
We urge Ghanaians to seriously manage expectations as we are in for another year of disappointment.
The high domestic borrowing will crowd out credit to the Private Sector.
The overall deficit on cash basis is 4% of GDP, and the Government plans to borrow 4.4% of GDP from the domestic market.
With banks already heavily exposed to government securities, increased domestic borrowing will: - Reduce access to credit for SMEs, - Maintain high domestic interest rates, and - Undermine job creation and private sector expansion.
This contradicts the stated ambition of a jobs and export-focused recovery.
The capital spending cuts also produced a superficial improvement in the current account: - Direct import compression: circa 0.13 % of GDP - Income-induced import fall circa 0.12 % of GDP - Total current-account “gain” circa 0.25 % of GDP (US $287 million) But this is not a sign of external strength; it is demand suppression.
A healthier balance would arise from export expansion, not from stalled construction and idle capital budgets.
There is also the case of the Goldbod.
In the 2025 Budget, the government allocated US$279 million to Goldbod to purchase gold.
Till date, this amount has not been disbursed.
Rather, the Bank of Ghana has been pre-financing Goldbod’s purchases of gold, including purchases of gold from galamsey operators.
The Bank of Ghana must come clear how much money it has printed to finance Goldbod.
This is important because it amounts to Central Bank financing of the government, a practice frowned upon by Ghana’s programme with the IMF.
The government’s own inability to properly implement any policies beyond short-term cost-cutting has created a paradox: headline figures that appear respectable on paper, but an economy that feels stagnant and lifeless to ordinary citizens.
The economy this government wants us to celebrate is a ticking time bomb that has let down the many young people who were promised jobs, let down the entrepreneurs who were promised opportunities, and let down the nation that was promised transformation.
What we have is an economy stuck in low productivity, weak investment, and broken promises, with a Minister who has no original policy idea to tackle the underlying structural challenges that keep this economy operating below potential.
Meanwhile, the critical productive sectors continue to lag significantly behind, deprived of the investment needed to catalyse their growth.
This no doubt has compounded the government's inability to meet its revenue requirements.
There is no way you can generate revenue from a growthless economy.
You will recall during the 2025 Budget debate in Parliament, we told the Minister that the government’s revenue policies were unrealistic and they didn’t listen to us.
The data in the 2026 budget has, however, vindicated our stand.
Total revenue and grants as at the end of the 3 rd quarter was provisionally GHS154.9 billion against a programmed GHS162.6 billion for the same period, a shortfall of GHS7.7 billion.
Similarly, domestic revenue for Q1-Q3 was GHS153.9 billion against programmed GHS160.7 billion, a shortfall of GHS6.8 billion; whilst tax revenue for the same period stood at GHS124.6 billion against programmed tax revenue of GHS133.5 billion, a significant shortfall of almost GHS9 billion.
In his budget speech, the Minister lost the courage to admit for once that some of his expectations were not met.
Particularly, revenue generation is one of the major components of the fiscal consolidation programme the government is implementing, and for its importance, the Minister should have been bold to concede that all is not well with the fiscal consolidation.
This is why he had to forcefully underspend in productive sectors of the economy a practice he now calls fiscal discipline.
Curiously, this year has been heavily associated with the sweeping of the accounts of various departments and agencies by the Minister including the District Assemblies Common Fund, a symptom of revenue failure, a phenomenon that made many government agencies not able to function during the year.
It is not a crime to accept failure when the evidence is glaring, Mr.
We must also note that the 2026 revenue measures are not realistic.
The Government expects revenue and grants to rise to 16.8% of GDP, driven by an 18.8% increase in non-oil tax revenue.
These targets rely heavily on compliance and digitalisation gains that historically materialise gradually.
If revenues fall short, as we have seen in 2025, three outcomes are likely: - New taxes introduced mid-year, like we saw with the increase in petroleum taxes in 2025 - Accumulation of arrears, or - Cuts to capital and social programmes as they did in 2025.
This revenue optimism may hide significant future fiscal stress which we need to closely monitor.
The Catastrophic Collapse of Market Confidence The Minister also conveniently fails to mention the disastrous auction performance throughout 2025.
Market participants have delivered a devastating verdict on the administration's economic management through their systematic avoidance of government securities.
Out of 45 auctions conducted this year, an unprecedented 25 have failed outright, a failure rate exceeding 55% that reveals not just market scepticism but active rejection of government paper.
Investors are voting with their feet and their capital, demonstrating a clear preference for short-term instruments over any long-term commitments to a government they no longer trust in just 10 months now since they assumed office.
This pattern of auction failures has created a vicious cycle: each failed auction forces the government to rely more heavily on expensive short-term borrowing, which in turn increases rollover risk and further undermines investor confidence.
The cumulative shortfalls of GH¢17.5 billion represent not just a financing gap but a vote of no confidence in the government's ability to manage the economy sustainably.
The stock market's reaction during this budget presentation week provides additional damning evidence of this confidence crisis.
This week, the GSE Composite Index fell by 0.69%.