Medium term prospects are high - Finance Minister

Finance Minister Seth Terkper said on Wednesday that the medium term prospects for the country’s economy is bright, and that the transformational agenda of the government is on course.

The Minister said government was of the view that the measures outlined in the budget to address the structural and fiscal weaknesses would lead to an improved fiscal situation, strengthened rules for Public Financial Management, and create an enabling environment for increased local production and an expansion of the economy.

“In the near term, we will have access to additional oil and gas revenue, employ risk management tools, smoothen forex flows and increase value addition through diversification and effective tariff classification and variation,” he said, in the presentation of the 2015 Budget Statement to Parliament.

In addition, he said, the government would put in place measures to boost Ghana's foreign exchange resources so as to improve its foreign exchange reserves and maintain exchange rate stability even after the IMF programme.?

He said with the budget, the government would stabilise the economy through measures that were beginning to bear fruits, strengthen state institutions and improve the governance of the country.

It would build the 50 secondary schools and begin the progressively free education programme promised, he said.

“We will introduce new rules and deploy systems to strengthen expenditure management notably in pay roll management, which will reduce waste and corrupt practices as well as facilitate the application of sanctions,” Mr Terkper said.

Mr Tekper said the government would expand health facilities and complete the over 100 CHPS compound, including those that Ministers were committed to building.

It would also complete a number of roads and water systems that had been started, increase the generation capacity of energy to reduce power outages, and complete various ongoing infrastructure projects.

It would provide cash grant to over 150,000 households and over 400,000 individual beneficiaries so that the extremely poor would not go to bed hungry, and ensure that it increased opportunities for Ghanaians to have a better life, he said.

He stated that the government was strengthened in its resolve to implement the 2015 budget, however, though it needed the help and support from Parliament and the entire people of Ghana, since that budget offered another opportunity for Ghanaians to work together to achieve the goals of promising medium term opportunities.