Dr. Stephen Amoah, Deputy Minister of Finance, has described the mid-year budget review as a reflection of government’s empathy towards the citizenry in the face of the recent economic hardships.

“I think it is quite clear that the 2024 mid-year budget review which was presented is a material evidence of the fact that we actually integrated the welfare, utility and the satisfaction of the good people of Ghana…”

Dr. Amoah said this on Saturday during a discussion on an Accra-based television station.

He said though Government should have introduced new taxes to consolidate Ghana’s fiscal space, it decided not to do so considering the post-COVID hardship and other economic challenges of citizens.

Dr. Amoah, also the Member of Parliament (MP) of Nhyiaeso Constituency in the Ashanti Region, said the Government had launched the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) goal and committed about 8.2 billion Ghana cedis to support SME actors to create jobs for Ghanaians.

He said there had been an increase in Government commitment of funds towards the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), school feeding programme, National Health Insurance, amongst others.

“So all these are clearly evidence or indicative of the fact that the government is highly committed to the welfare of Ghanaians and because of that, we’ve been very disciplined in managing our fiscal space,” he said.

Kofi Adams, MP of Buem Constituency in the Oti Region, however, disagreed with Dr Amoah for describing the budget as an empathy towards Ghanaians.

“We vote for Governments to work and deliver development for our well-being. We don’t vote them to come and just give us words that you cannot relate to action, activity, the daily occurrences in your life and in the performance of that government.

“For example, we’ve all been complaining, businesses have been complaining, that they need a certain support or arrangement that will enable them to perform better or at least be able to sustain themselves because a number of them are already leaving the country and more have plans to leave. This budget gives no comfort to any business person,” he said.

Professor Godfred A. Bokpin, Economist and Professor of Finance, University of Ghana, said despite some significant progress made in revamping the economy, the recovery plan had not been people-focused.

“It’s a recovery that has left millions of Ghanaians behind. So you can’t look at the macro numbers and say that, once we’ve seen this recovery, then all is well with Ghanaians.”

“Actually, there’s a big gap between the macro level development that the government is talking about and then micro household level development where Ghanaians are still going through a lot of challenges. When you create economic disruptions, the cost of correcting that can be huge,” he said.

He described Ghana’s economic recovery as “probably one of the most expensive and pricey economic recovery in our history.

“Pricey and expensive because of the sacrifices Ghanaians have to go through. And the price that we have to pay is coming through three different channels.”

The Professor said for a nation to record economic transformation and increasing productivity growth, it must first guarantee macroeconomic stability.

He said though it may take a while, consistency on the part of government would help to translate the macro-level development to micro and household-level improvement.