13 major highlights of Ken Ofori-Atta’s speech on new government measures to shore up economy

Government to cut down on salaries of its workers

$1.2 billion to be introduced into economy – Ofori-Atta

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has addressed the press after months of expectations from Ghanaians for an official statement from the government on the prevailing hardships in the country.

In his address, he spoke about a number of new measures that the government, led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, intends to introduce, as a way of saving the ailing economic from possible full-blown crisis.

According to the minister, the economy of the country has been affected in areas of rising fuel prices, rising inflation and cost of living, exchange rate depreciation, rising interest rates, revenue mobilization challenges.

In a broader scope, the minister spoke on the following topics: Global and Domestic Economic Development; and the Measures to Address the Challenges; Expenditure Cutting Measures; Fuel Price Mitigation Measures; and Revenue Measures.

GhanaWeb brings you some of the highlights of his address:

– There will be 50% cut in the fuel coupon allocations for all political appointees and heads of government institutions, including SOEs

– Government to prioritize ongoing public projects over new projects

– Government will reduce expenditure on all meetings and conferences by 50% effective immediately

– Government has imposed a complete moratorium on the purchase of imported vehicles for the rest of the year. This will affect all new orders, especially 4-wheel drives.

– Government has imposed a moratorium on all foreign travels

– Government will conclude the renegotiation of the Energy Sector IPPs capacity charges by end of Q3-2022 to further reduce excess capacity payments by 20% to generate a total savings of GHS1.5 billion

– Government will conclude on-going measures to eliminate “ghost” workers from the Government payroll by end December 2022

– Additional 1-2 billion dollars to be brought into the country to stabilize the economy

– Discretionary spending is to be further cut by an additional 10%.

– Impose a moratorium on establishment of new public sector institutions by end April, 2022

– Reduce expenditure on all meetings and conferences by 50%, effective immediately

– Ministers and the Heads of SOEs to contribute 30 percent of their salaries from April to December 2022 to the Consolidated Fund

Read his full statement here: