"The 2023 budget is the first level of appreciation of the reality on the ground. Government is now waking up to the reality on the ground and the mess that has been created that needed to be dealt with," Professor Godfred Alufar Bokpin, a Financial Economist at the University of Ghana (UG) says.

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta on Thursday, November 24, 2022 presented the government’s 2023 Annual Budget Statement and Economic Policy to Parliament in accordance with Article 179 of the 1992 Constitution and section 21 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921).

He touched on the various sectors of the Ghanaian economy including measures to deal with economic challenges.

Prof Bokpin in an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme said unlike previous years’ budgets, the 2023 budget “is now mirroring a certain reality” of Ghana’s economic challenges.

However, he believes “this should have been done a long ago” because “towards the end of 2021 the signs were clear…”

According to him, things are expected to get worst especially “in the next 3 to 4 years depending on the measures we are taking now”.

Way Forward

To come out of this crisis, the Economist said we need "some painful fiscal adjustment".

" . . the first level is what we have seen in the 2023 budget, but even with that if you look at the totality of it, it is not adequate. The level of fiscal adjustment we need in order to get out of this situation . . . the 2023 budget doesn’t measure up to that level," he added.