Founding President of IMANI Africa Franklin Cudjoe has commended the Minister of Finance Dr Mohammed Amin Adam for the ‘impressive’ job done so far since his appointment this year. Franklin Cudjoe wondered why Dr Amin Adam was not made the Finance Minister earlier. Mr Cudjoe, however, observed that despite some gains experienced under Dr Amin
The post Economic gains: Impressive Amin Adam’s real test will be how to control excess behaviour in election year – Franklin Cudjoe first appeared on 3News.
Founding President of IMANI Africa Franklin Cudjoe has commended the Minister of Finance Dr Mohammed Amin Adam for the ‘impressive’ job done so far since his appointment this year.
Franklin Cudjoe wondered why Dr Amin Adam was not made the Finance Minister earlier.
Mr Cudjoe, however, observed that despite some gains experienced under Dr Amin Adam, his real test will be how to deal with excess behaviors from some appointees in an election year that have the propensity of destroying the economic gains.
“Why was Mohammed Amin Adam not made a minister of finance much earlier? He’s been impressive so far with the conclusion of the debt restructuring with some good savings in principal and interest. His real test begins with how he can ward off the vampires at the centre from sucking the soul out of nearly $500m (IMF+WB) money for infrastructure in this election year.
“He must be realpolitik as some excess behaviour do occur in elections, but he should watch the economic bandits very well, lest he is remembered only for clearing the mess created by them only for their habitual spendthrift cousins steeped in election racketeering to take over. Any attempt to yield to those highway ‘gbaga midus’ will mean avoidable costs in poor procurement processes and eventually poor delivery of services, roads especially. Finance Minister , Dr. Amin Adam must not be remembered as the last fiscally reckless finance minister of the Nana Addo- Bawumia clan. It is possible not to,” he wrote on Facebook.
Meanwhile, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam has assured Ghanaians that the government will ensure that the economic gains are not destroyed with election-year spending.
He says that the government is committed to enhancing domestic revenue mobilisation and tightening commitments to control spending in order to avoid policy slippages.
Addressing a joint Ministry of Finance, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Bank of Ghana press conference in Accra on Monday, July 1 he said “We are committed to sustaining our macroeconomic policy adjustment and reforms to fully restore macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability, while fostering a sustainable increase in economic growth and poverty reduction. Despite the fact that 2024 is an election year, we are committed to enhancing domestic revenue mobilization and tightening expenditure commitment controls to avoid policy slippage.”
Dr Mohammed Amin Adam further stated that generally, the macroeconomic environment continues to remain stable as the government implements the IMF-supported programme.
He said that growth is proving to be more resilient and robust than initially programmed and the economy continues to show strong signs of recovery in the first quarter of 2024.
Overall Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for for first quarter of 2024 was 4.7%, the highest since Q1 of 2022, he said.
This growth performance he added, is better than the 3.1% growth recorded in the same period in 2023.
He said “Industry grew the most at 6.8%, followed by Agriculture at 4.1% and Services at 3.3%. The 2024 Q1 GDP growth rate for industry is the highest since Q4 of 2020. Inflation is declining with a strong disinflation process since the beginning of 2023 in response to the ongoing fiscal consolidation, appropriate tightening of monetary policy, and relative stability in the exchange rate. Headline Inflation declined by 1.9 percentage points to 23.1% in May 2024 from 25.0% in April 2024 after peaking at 54.1% in December 2022.
“The Cedi has been under pressure in recent times, however, the exchange rate has largely stabilised since 2023. Year-todate depreciation of the cedi against the US$ is 18.4%
compared to 22.0% recorded in the same period in 2023.”
The post Economic gains: Impressive Amin Adam’s real test will be how to control excess behaviour in election year – Franklin Cudjoe first appeared on 3News.
