The President, Nana Akufo-Addo, who has band his appointees from travelling out of the country as part of the austerity measures, has left Ghana on Thursday, March 31, 2022, on trips to two countries, whose benefits to Ghanaians remain doubtful, especially when many public sector workers are complaining about delayed salaries.
On Friday, April 1, 2022, at Charlotte, North Carolina, in the United States of America, he honoured an invitation of Bishop T.D. Jakes, where he will deliver the keynote address at this year’s International Leadership Summit, on that Friday.
With National Service Allowance in huge arrears, West African Examination Council’s contributions unpaid, Ghana Education Trust Fund’s (GETFund) collection not transferred to its coffers, while other statutory payments remain unsettle, Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, on Thursday March 24, 2022, announced that with immediate effect, Government has imposed a moratorium on all foreign travels, except pre-approved critical/statutory travels.”
Mr Ofori-Atta, made these known when he addressed the media to throw more light on government interventions to address the economic difficulties which were manifested in rising fuel prices, rising inflation and cost of living, exchange rate depreciation, rising interest rates and revenue mobilization challenges but it is obvious that the ban doesn’t affect President Akufo-Addo.
He left the country hours after assenting his signature to the E-Levy bill to get Ghanaians to cough out a whopping 1.5percent on every electronic financial transaction in Mobile Money (MOMO) despite stiff opposition, including a court action filed at the Supreme Court on the passage of the bill in Parliament last week.
The bill was rushed through the House by one-sided NPP Member of Parliament (MPs) after NDC MPs staged a walkout which they are struggling to convince Ghanaians about.
On his last trip to Dubai Expo, said to be one of the country’s most expensive trips, the President had everyone who matters in the energy sector in Dubai whether or not they had anything to do there.
It was even reported that Human Resource managers of some institutions were there for no benefit to the country. Most of the state officials on the trip flew on First-class, sometimes above US$10, 000 each.
The Dubai trip, had the President abandon his use of the rented luxury jet for Emirate, but with E-levy passed, President Akufo-Addo is gone back to his expensive private jets rented from Europe at the expense of the Ghanaian taxpayer.
On the US trip, a statement issued by the Presidency, had explained that since 2011, the International Leadership Summit (ILS), formerly the International Pastors and Leadership Conference, has cultivated aspiring and tenured entrepreneurs, leaders, and influential change agents with invaluable leadership insights.
After the pastor’s event, the President will travel to London, where he will launch one of his government’s flagship tourism drive projects, dubbed “Destination Ghana”, and hold bilateral discussions with the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
The President was accompanied by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, MP, and by officials of the Presidency and Foreign Ministry.
President Akufo-Addo, will return to Ghana on Wednesday, April 6, and, in his absence, the Vice President, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, shall, in accordance with Article 60(8) of the Constitution, act in his stead.
At the Thursday 24th March, 2022, press conference the Finance Minister, said the Akufo-Addo government’s plans to address the economic difficulties due to recent global and domestic events and assured that government will not roll back on its major policy interventions such as the free SHS.
“Let me say this, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has absolutely no intention to roll back on a major policy like Free SHS. We see education as the best enabler for sustainable economic growth and transformation and will do more to improve on it for it to serve more and better our children” he assured.
Mr. Ofori-Atta revealed that, Cabinet deliberated extensively on a number of issues and approved measures to support current efforts to address the challenges Ghanaians were facing at its first regular quarterly retreat for 2022.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, it is important to stress, right from the onset, that the difficulties we are facing in Ghana are not peculiar to Ghana. It should also be stressed that several governments in both developed and developing countries are busily coming out with various prescriptions to bring their economies back on track, after the devastating impact of COVID-19 which distorted global supply chains, and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war” he added.
According to Minister, two forces shaping global events were novel coronavirus pandemic and the crisis in Ukraine and Ghana’s decision to focus first on protecting lives and then livelihoods paid off.
Mr. Ofori-Atta disclosed that Ghana, like most countries in the world, had a tall list of coronavirus-induced bills to pay from 2020 and 2021 and came out with plans and policies to boost investor confidence and job prospects for 2022 and beyond.
“As you recall, we lost Ghs 13.1 billion of revenue and had to increase our expenditure by GHS14.2 billion with combined fiscal impact of GHS26 billion (6.8% of GDP)”, he noted.
On some of the challenges facing the Government, he cited the unyielding stance of the Minority in Parliament against the E-levy that could gravely affect investor confidence in Ghana’s capacity to implement its programmes and settle debts, triggering a downgrading by credit rating agencies, and leaving the cedi vulnerable as Ghana could not access the International Capital Market.
Again, on the international front, the launch of the attack on Ukraine by Russia after the devastation wreaked by the Coronavirus pandemic had disturbed supply chain, surged inflation, and created uncertainties in the financial markets.
To address the adverse impact of the domestic and international challenges the country was facing, the Minister enumerated measures to address the challenges which included some spending cuts.
Government, he disclosed had announced and, immediately, began implementing a 20% expenditure cut as part of fiscal stabilisation and debt sustainability measures after Parliament failed to approve key revenue streams at the appropriate time.
This, he added, had been done through the quarterly expenditure ceiling allotments to MDAs. Quarter 1 allotment was currently under 11 implementation while Q2 allotments would be issued shortly.
Other measures to ensure the achievement of the fiscal deficit of 7.4% of GDP for 2022 included 50% cut in fuel coupon allocations for all political appointees and Heads of Government institutions, including SOEs, effective 1st April 2022 and imposition of a complete moratorium on the purchase of imported vehicles for the rest of the year. This will affect all new orders, especially 4-wheel drives.
Again, Government has imposed a moratorium on all foreign travels, except pre-approved critical/statutory travels, government will conclude on-going measures to eliminate “ghost” workers from the Government payroll by end of December, 2022 and conclude the renegotiations of the Energy Sector IPPs capacity charges by end of Q3-2022 to further reduce excess capacity payments by 20% to generate a total savings of GHS1.5 billion.
The Minister further disclosed the imposition of moratorium on establishment of new public sector institutions by end of April, 2022, prioritization of ongoing public projects over new projects which would enhance efficient use of public funds over the period by finishing ongoing or stalled but approved projects, reduction of expenditure on all meetings and conferences by 50% effective immediately and approval by Cabinet for Ministers and Heads of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to contribute 30 percent of their salaries from April to December 2022 to the Consolidated Fund.
Mr. Ofori-Atta stated that Government would pursue a comprehensive re-profiling strategies to reduce the interest expense burden on the fiscal and liaise with Organized Labour and Employers Association to implement with immediate effect, the measures captured in the Kwahu Declaration of the 2022 National Labour Conference.
On the current fuel challenges, he revealed that, unlike other countries where the hike in crude oil prices and exchange rate volatility were leading to shortages in supply of petroleum products, government was implementing measures to guarantee constant supply of petroleum products.
To mitigate the impact of the rising price of petroleum products at the pumps for the next three months, the Minister disclosed that government has decided to reduce margins in the petroleum price build-up by a total of 15 pesewas per litre with effect from April 1.
