By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, has pledged his government’s commitment to implement key recommendations from a two-day National Economic Dialogue held in Accra.
According to the Finance Minister, the final communique from the Dialogue will be his “Bible” for shaping the 2025 budget and economic reforms.
Speaking at the closing session, the minister highlighted the strong alignment between the discussions and his initial presentation, emphasising a shared understanding of the country’s economic challenges.
“Most of the presentations feed into the first presentation I made. It clearly shows the connections and understanding that together we understand the situation and the problems of this country. What is left is the resolve to come together and fix it,” he stated.
Dr Ato Forson acknowledged that while identifying solutions is crucial, implementation remains the biggest challenge. The successful execution of the recommendations from the two-day event depends on public support, he added
“Implementation is the challenge; we can only implement as a government if we get the buy-in of the citizens,” he reiterated.
Dr. Forson announced that the 2025 Budget Statement and Economic Policy will be introduced on March 11, incorporating many of the concerns raised during the dialogue.
“Most of the concerns you’ve raised, you’ll begin to see them in the budget,” he assured participants.
The Finance Minister has, therefore, admonished stakeholders not to leave the government to carry out the reforms alone.
“We call on you to support the government in educating the public, for the public to understand that the time has come for us to reset and reform the economy. We’ve got to do this together,” he retorted
According to him, discussions that went on during the two-day sessions reflect the deep interconnectedness between different sectors of the economy and the urgent need for comprehensive reforms.
“And so clearly, what I can say is most striking to me, particularly sitting there quietly, is that interconnectedness between the macro group to the private sector, to infrastructure, to all the other sectors, even to the governance and the corruption sub-sectors, is the need for us to do major reforms.”
The Minister of Finance further stressed that the country already understands its problems and the necessary solutions—what remains is to implement them.
“And so the solution is there, we know the problems, we know what we have to do to resolve the problems, let’s start the implementation.
So I will wait for the communique, and I can use the communique as my Bible, going into the preparation of the budget and to make recommendations to Cabinet for adoption and approval for us to input into the budget,” he reaffirmed his commitment to put all the key takeaways from the dialogue to action.
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