2016 budget presents no hope for Ghana – Dr. Bawumia

• Posted on November 16, 2015
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, running mate to the 2016 New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has observed that the 2016 budget presented by Finance Minister Seth Terkper on Friday presents no hope for the country.

He said the NPP would present an alternative to what Terkper delivered for almost three hours in Parliament House where most of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs stayed away during the presentation.

He said unlike the “reckless borrowing” of the current Government, which “has compromised the oil discovery,” a future NPP administration will give Ghanaians an economy which can rely on regular power supply.
Dr Bawumia said the NPP, when given the mandate, will provide an exciting economy.
“I will tell you what it will not be; it is not a dumsor economy; it is not a dead goat economy; it is not a friends and family economy; it is an economy that will create jobs,” he told journalists as the NPP prepares to release its alternative policy on Thursday.

The Minority NPP has already described the budget as a dead goat that will take the country nowhere, especially in the face of massive unemployment.

Dr Bawumia hinted of a better alternative in his interview with the media.
According to Dr Bawumia, nothing in the budget presented by Terkper addresses the fundamental problem of the economy. He said the borrowing by the government will eventually saddle the state with about GH¢99 billion by the end of the year.

Ghana’s total debt stock, according to Mr Terkper, currently stands at GH¢92.2 billion from GH¢9.5 billion in January 2009 when the NDC took over power.

Dr Bawumia said the 2016 budget failed to address the basic challenges of the citizenry.

“How does this budget address unemployment, the youth unemployment? And you look at the resources this government has had over the last seven years, phenomenal amount. Taxes, loans and oil alone; GH¢200 billion,” he underscored.

“When the Kufuor administration was there, with such meagre resources, so much can be pointed to as well. Social interventions, free maternal health and so on. You can point to infrastructure but the IMF Managing Director put the nail on the head when he said that the borrowing done by the government has been used for consumption and not for investment,” he added.

“They can try to hoodwink us with pictures of development all over the place but the reality is that they should have been doing twice as much. They had ten times as much resources as the NPP government had. We are going to build a new economy, we cannot just criticise without providing alternatives so we will organise a press conference on Thursday to state our objective,” he stressed.

A DAILY GUIDE Report