2020 budget to be presented on November 14
All things being equal, the Finance Minister, Ken
Ofori-Atta will present the 2020 budget statement and financial policy of the government on November 14, 2019.
The 2020 budget will prioritise industrialisation as the country strives to become economically independent.
The country had seen three years of macro-economic stability
and it was now time to invest in industrialization in order to boost Ghana’s
economic growth.
“We want the country to become a regional hub for trade, and
a key trade and facilitation centre,” said the minister in an interview
recently, stressing how industrialisation was all part of a national plan
called Ghana Beyond Aid which aims to make the country self-reliant.
The plan, outlined by the Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo
in May 2019, provides a roadmap to economic independence. It came at a time
when the government began settling some of the arrears it owed to the country’s
national pension scheme.
Ofori-Atta also highlighted plans in the 2020 budget to
review the country’s tax exemption policy.
“We lose a lot of resources in exemptions and it’s time to
straighten it out and make exemptions count,” he said. “There are too many
institutions and people who are benefiting but do not need to.”
He revealed that the government had signed a loan agreement
with Kuwait to finance a transportation project called the Dome-Kitase road
project, which aims to provide a reliable year-round land route to the southern
part of the country. The loan, from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic
Development, is worth US$23.8m.
The project is also expected to enhance investment in
agricultural activities, development of light industries, and create jobs in
southern Ghana.
With estimated costs of GH¢179m ($33m), it joins several
other government initiatives designed to improve Ghana’s economy. These include
job creation plans such as the One District One Factory policy, Planting for
Food and Jobs, the Industrial Stimulus Package, and Planting for Export and
Rural Development. Akufo-Addo stressed how these initiatives were beginning to
bear fruit.
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