Chief Executive Officer of Dalex Finance, Joe Jackson, says the government deserves credit for the modest economic improvements recorded over the past year, even as the country continues to face difficult choices.

Speaking at Joy Business’ end-of-year economic forum, the JoyBusiness Review 2025, held on Thursday, December 18, Mr Jackson said it was important to acknowledge progress where it has been made, rather than focus solely on challenges.

“Let’s celebrate the small gains that we have. One of the things I’m always advocating is that these same people, if things went bad, we would be holding them up, we would be stringing them up, we would be drawing and quartering them. So when things are working, let’s give them the benefit,” he said.

Mr Jackson noted that recognising positive outcomes encourages responsible leadership and sound economic management.

“If things go wrong, I will come and sit here and I’ll be singing a different tune. So, number one, let’s celebrate the wins that we have. That’s a positive thing to do. By celebrating them, we are reinforcing and saying this is good behaviour. Keep it up.”

Earlier at the forum, Mr Jackson named Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson and Bank of Ghana Governor Dr Johnson Asiama as the top contributors to Ghana’s economic performance in 2025. He praised both officials for what he described as their hard work and commitment in steering the economy over the past year.

Read also: JoyBusiness Review 2025: Joe Jackson names Ato Forson, Johnson Asiama as Men of the Year

However, he acknowledged that the path to stability has not been easy, describing the government’s position as a difficult balancing act.

“We are between a rock and a hard place sometimes, because not spending might also be putting a brick on our growth,” he said.

He explained that while citizens are eager to see development, the government has had to restrain spending to stabilise the economy. “As a nation, we are impatient. We are in a hurry. We want roads fixed. We want schools built,” he said.

Responding to concerns about limited government spending, Mr Jackson said the authorities appear more focused on controlling inflation and restoring confidence.

“The government is not spending much, and it’s not spending much because, from their behaviour, you can see that they are far more concerned about inflation than anything else,” he said.

“And bringing inflation down, and making sure that we are so well behaved that we can start to restore investor confidence, so that we can go back to the markets that we were shut out from.”

“Remember that going to the market is not a bad thing. What makes it horrible is what we use the money for. If you’re going to the market and use it for productive purposes, to bridge our infrastructure deficits, then we’re fine,” he added.

Mr Jackson said recent improvements in inflation and currency stability have helped Ghana regain some of its appeal to investors.

“From where I sit, the biggest benefit is that, looking at Ghana now, it is starting to retain some of the attractiveness we had a decade or more ago. We can begin to attract investor confidence and return to the markets,” he said.

He warned, however, that the current reliance on Treasury bills is not sustainable.

“We are not even doing local bonds yet; we’re still relying on T-bills. That’s definitely not sustainable. It is only restrained and disciplined behaviour that will get investors to return and start subscribing to Ghanaian local bonds after what the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme did to us,” he said.

According to him, fiscal discipline was unavoidable given where the country was coming from.

“From where we were, staying on the straight and narrow was absolutely important. We had to do that. We didn’t have a choice.”