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Cabinet has approved the 2025 budget and fiscal policy for presentation to Parliament on Tuesday.
The Minister for Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, at a press briefing yesterday at the Jubilee House following a special Cabinet meeting, said the approved
budget would speak to the hope and aspirations of Ghanaians.
He said the budget would reflect the state of the economy, what was inherited, and a response to the economic crisis that was handed over to the government by the previous
administration.
The budget would also highlight some priorities of the government, the Government Communications Minister stated.
“The President made incursions into the state of the economy during the State of the Nation Address but the Finance Minister will provide details,” Mr Ofosu said.
The minister indicated that the administration’s first budget would also reflect that President John Dramani Mahama was keeping to his 120-day social contract.
The social contract includes abolition of some taxes that were introduced by the previous administration, including E-Levy, COVID-19 levy, the 10 per cent levy on bet winnings and the emissions levy.
When the Minister of Energy and Green Transitions, John A. Jinapor, took to the podium to brief the press about the state of the energy sector, he disclosed the government’s plan to construct a second gas processing plant, given the huge power demand and energy sector shortfalls.
He said the country’s energy sector faced a huge fuel deficit which had led to power outages and instability for years.
“Cabinet has approved that in partnership and in conjunction with the Finance Ministry, we take immediate steps to construct a second gas processing plant,” Mr Jinapor stated.
The plant was expected to augment the power shortfall and increase supply security across the country as well as improve the reliability of natural gas supply for power generation, he added.
Currently, the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant located in the Ellembele District in the Western Region is the only processing plant the country has. It has been burdened with huge demand for natural gas supply to feed thermal plants.
The Energy and Green Transitions Minister said that, considering the huge power demand, the government would require about $700 million worth of fuel to solve the fuel deficit.
“In order to meet the demand requirements, we require about $700 million worth of fuel in order to fill the fuel deficit because our gas today
is inadequate to meet our fuel requirement,” Mr Jinapor said.
He said the energy sector was “bleeding, and something has to be done.”
Mr Jinapor, who until the ninth Parliament was the Ranking Member on Energy, stressed that the current situation was unsustainable and required immediate attention from the government and stakeholders to prevent further deterioration.
He pointed to the mounting debt within the sector, inadequate infrastructure, and poor management practices as key contributors to the crisis.
“Energy sector riddled with poor infrastructure, huge unsustainable and mounting debt.
At the last reconciliation before Cabinet, the energy sector debt stands at over GH¢80 billion. ECG’s receivables stands at GH¢8 billion, so if ECG were to collect all its receivables we will still have a shortfall of more than GH¢70 billion.
What is more worrying is that the debt keeps ballooning and increasing,” Mr Jinapor stated.
