President John Dramani Mahama has said the problems confronting Ghana will require sufficient time to get resolved. He nonetheless said the country is on the path of development.
“It will take time to resolve all the problems, but I do know that Ghana is on a good path,” Mr. Mahama said at a breakfast meeting with the clergy in the Upper West Region on Friday, July 8.
President Mahama, who is in the region as part of his ‘Accounting to the People Tour’, told Christian spiritual leaders that the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has set the country on a path for prosperity.
“Whoever leads this country going into the future, as long as they continue on the path that we have set, we should make Ghana one of the most prosperous countries on the continent,” he said.
Mr. Mahama admitted the country was running a deficit budget, but indicated that some sacrifices had to be made in order to ensure that the deficit is cut to the barest minimum.
He revealed that salaries, wages and remuneration currently takes 49 percent of government revenue and authorities are making efforts to reduce it further to 39 per cent even though 35 per cent, he admitted, would be ideal.
“This is the reason why we had to impose a freeze on entry into the civil and public service, it did not affect teaching and health,” he explained.
Mr. Mahama added that the sacrifice of cutting employment is paying off as government expenditure on wages has reduced considerably.