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The 2024 Mid-Year Budget Review will dwell mostly on housing and road financing through public-private partnerships (PPPs), and not focus on taxation, Finance Minister Mohammed Amin Adam has said.
Dr Amin Adam said the taxes that were to be raised had already been approved by Parliament and there would not be any new taxes.
He said this when, together with directors of the Ministry of Finance, he met with members of the Ghana Association of Bankers, representatives of non-bank financial institutions and civil society organisations, and members of academia and trade associations.
The engagement was to continue to whip up the interest and commitment of the banks to the growth of the economy by deepening PPP arrangements.
Dr Amin Adam said Ghana needs to be intentional about growth and that bringing in the banks to help accelerate PPPs in financing public investments and projects is crucial.
“T-bills are safe”
“Government is not able to take as much external credit as it could, because we want to achieve our debt sustainability levels,” he said.
“We expect the Mid-Year Budget Review to announce a few measures on how we can promote economic growth and get the banks to appreciate where we are going.”
The minister gave his assurance that the government will not touch Treasury bills, adding that, “As the minister, [I] do not intend to touch the T-bills. They are safe.”
He urged bankers and financial industry players to have confidence in the economy as the data has shown that Ghana is on the right path.
“The tough decisions that the government had taken when we were in crisis will certainly not be the same decisions to take in our economic recovery,” Dr Amin Adam said.
In encouraging the bankers, he said, they had a role to play in building investor confidence by “telling them of our smooth effective recovery but if you don’t do so, then you have succeeded in deterring them from investing in our economy”.
John Awuah, the chief executive officer of the Ghana Association of Banks, said there is work to be done in the area of market assurance, as banks have not taken on board government instruments.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Awuah said banks are ready to support the economic recovery where businesses will thrive.
He said the banks will provide credit support as long as it will not pose a risk to the industry.
Awuah raised concerns over delays by the rating agencies in grading Ghana’s trajectory and recovery, adding that banks have started to analyse the progress Ghana has made.
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