Right. Hon. Speaker, Honourable Members of Parliament, on the authority of H.E. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, I beg to move that this Honourable House approves the Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana for the year ending 31^st December, 2021.

2. On the authority of H.E. the President, and in accordance with Articles 179 and 180 of the 1992 Constitution, permit me to present to this august House, the Budget of the President of the Republic of Ghana.

3. Mr. Speaker, the Statement is an abridged version of the 2021 Budget Statement and I would like to request the Hansard Department to deem the entirety of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy as having been read and capture same in the Hansard of today Friday 12^th March, 2021.

4.  I also submit to this august House the following statutory reports:

1. The 2020 Annual Report on the Petroleum Funds, in accordance with Section 48 of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 2011 (Act 815), as amended 
2. The 2020 Report on the Utilization of the African Union Levies; and
3. The 2020 Annual Debt Report, in accordance with Section 72 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921).

5. Mr Speaker, on October 28, 2020, in accordance with Article 180 of the 1992 Constitution, government laid the Expenditure-in-Advance-of -Appropriation in the House. I wish to report that the subsequent approval of those Estimates by this august House has made it possible for Government business and public services delivery to continue uninterrupted in the first quarter of 2021.

6. Mr Speaker, just three days ago on March 9, 2021, H.E. the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo presented the first message on the State of the Nation of his second term. In that address, he clearly stated that even though, like other countries around the world, we have had to go through the worst possible pandemic of our lifetime, the nation is in relative good state, thanks to the Grace of God and to the swift, decisive, responsible and necessary actions taken by Government to contain the virus, support families and sustain the economy. 

7. Today, I stand here on his behalf to present to you, the state of the economy; how we have managed to mitigate and survive the pandemic and eke out a projected positive growth rate of 0.9 per cent in 2020 contrary to the initial fears of a negative growth rate as experienced elsewhere. I will also present to you deliberate and well thought out strategies that will hasten our recovery and place us on a confident path of sustained economic transformation.