Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Dr. Stephen Amoah, has touted the 2024 budget as one of the best ever delivered in the Parliament of Ghana.

According to him, the budget, dubbed the Nkunim budget by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, prioritizes the consolidation of Ghana’s fiscal space which had been wrecked by unsustainable debt levels, high inflation and a rapid depreciation of the cedi.

He said the budget came at the right time taking into consideration the economic situation the country and the world at large is grappling with.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile, Saturday, he said, “This year’s budget just like any other country, the playing field or the concentration is on the fiscal space whether you like it or not because 2022 up till now look at the world. The world’s debt to GDP was about 258%, in fact in 2022 we had over 80% debt to GDP. Now it’s about 66.4%.

“So any government that knows what it’s doing will concentrate on the mechanization of our fiscal space to consolidate it by mechanizing a very good equilibrium between revenue we’re generating internally and then how we can control cost and then manage our borrowing in a way that will not jeopardise this economy, at the same time thinking about this economy because agriculture grew 6.3% which is even higher than 6.2% in 2017.”

He noted that the government had paid particular attention to the manufacturing sector.

This, he says, accounted for the government’s decision to grant zero VAT rates on certain locally manufactured products to spur economic growth and create jobs as a result.

“Services grew but our manufacturing grew negative, so the government looking at the aspect of manufacturing and decided to give some leverage in the way of reducing some of the tax components in the area of manufacturing so that we can produce more in our country, create the needed value chains and employ a lot of people.

“So if you look at this budget in my opinion it’s one of the best,” he said.

The Nkunim budget has faced sharp criticism from the main opposition party, the NDC, and trade union associations that say the government had failed to address the challenges facing the country.

But responding to these criticisms, the Deputy Trade Minister stated that what is needed is the support of all stakeholders to ensure that the country is taking out of this economic quagmire.

“The projection by this government, by the finance minister that Ghana is going to grow about one trillion, it’s something all of us must laud, and support the government as stakeholders and make sure that we are able to attain that. There wouldn’t be any uncertainties that will impair this projection in terms of its reality or realization,” he said.