By Benjamin Mensah, GNA
Accra, Nov 13, GNA - When he arrived at Parliament House in Accra, and accompanied by Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, on Wednesday late morning, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta lifted the Budget Bag, and as if flaunting it, indicated that he was coming to give hope to Ghanaians.
He went on a more than two-hour delivery, and presented the 2020 Budget and Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana, on the authority of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, in fulfilment of Ghana’s constitutional requirement.
The 2020 Budget Statement, on the theme “Consolidating the Gains of Growth, Jobs and Prosperity”, was the Akufo-Addo Government’s fourth Budget.
Mr Ofori-Atta’s victorious all white long sleeved shirt, trousers and black shoes to match, signalled an odyssey of a broken economy to that of a burgeoning one, to which the Majority sang, at the end of the presentation: “Asem papa, na mate oye,” to wit, “I have heard good news. It is really good.”
“It is proper to put this budget into perspective to understand how far we have come. On Thursday, 2nd March 2017, I had the honour and privilege to present the first budget of President Akufo-Addo to this House. At that time, as you may recall, the economy was in a very bad shape, suffocating under a mixed weight of debts, arrears, very high cost of living, high youth unemployment and the worst growth rate since 1994,” Mr Ofori-Atta said.
But the heat from placards, bearing the inscription “Bye Bye Budget” displayed by the Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) during, and at the end of the presentation, was quenched by intermittent sips of water by the bespectacled Minister, who gave glory to God for his goodness to Ghana.
The Minority, wishing that former President John Dramani Mahama, would come back to politically lead Ghana sang “wo ye ye ye a JM beba (whatever you do JM would come), was rebutted with “Hena beba yensuro,” (we are not afraid of whoever comes).
Speaker Professor Aaron Oquaye gavelled, and brought the shouting match between the two Sides, to an end, following which both the Majority and the Minority Leaders made comments.
Vice President Bawumia and the Finance Minister, later exchanged pleasantries with the Leadership on both Sides.
Speaker Oquaye’s acknowledgement mentioned dignitaries as former Finance Ministers Yaw Osafo Maafo and Seth Terkper; Auditor General Daniel Demelevo, officials from the Ministry of Finance and the revenue collecting agencies; and his mention of the presence of his better, Alberta was well acknowledged by the legislators.
Present were also People’s National Convention Chairman Bernard Mornah, political party representatives, Development Partners, students; and the media who wasted no time in interacting with MPs on their impressions about the 2020 Budget Statement.
And when he presented the budget, the Finance Minister said: “2019 has been a very good year for Ghana. This is the year that one can confidently say that God’s blessing of the hard work is beginning to manifest, putting us on a positive trajectory for a proper lift.
“I say so because: We have won some painful, but necessary battles for God and country; we have quietly, but incontestably achieved significant structural changes for the economy; we have stabilised greatly the macro-economic turbulence that was all too regular a feature in the management of the national economy; we have delivered on our flagship programmes.”
GNA
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