A professor of Finance and Economics at the University of Ghana says the government’s celebration of a budget surplus in the 2025 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy review means little when trained nurses, university graduates, and others remain jobless.

Charles Godfred Ackah, reacting to the budget presented to Parliament last Thursday, said what the country needs now is not a fiscal showpiece but a clear demonstration of investment in people, infrastructure, and productivity.

“Well, fiscal discipline is good if it’s defined as a way of reducing waste of resources, corruption, and then improving on expense efficiency, then it’s good,” he told George Wiafe on JoyNews’ PM Express, Business Edition.

“But if fiscal discipline means that you should run a budget surplus as a developing country that has so much waste, so much idle resources, manpower, resources wasting - people have finished university five years, six years not getting jobs, nurses are sitting at home, teachers are still home, universities cannot employ lecturers—then what’s the use?”

He questioned the value of surplus numbers when the realities on the ground remain dire.

“Roads are terrible from here to Kumasi and all over the country. You need to invest in infrastructure. You need to invest in the productive capacity of the country.

"And if that means you must run a reasonable budget deficit, and that deficit is going into investing, even in the private sector or households and individuals, people to invest in real estate, to invest in businesses, then that’s not imprudence.”

Prof. Ackah argued that deficit financing is not inherently reckless, as long as it targets growth and not luxury.

“So if we are borrowing from the central bank, or borrowing from Treasury, even external borrowing, and it’s not for salaries and wages, it’s not for buying V8s to run high budget deficits that you don’t see any value for, and it’s to invest in the economy, particularly infrastructure, which is terrible across the country, and is slowing down our productivity and high growth and is not creating jobs for people that are finishing university… I have trained first-class students who haven’t found jobs in five years.”

Drawing comparisons, he dismissed the idea that Ghana should be chasing a budget surplus as a badge of honour.

“Even America is running a budget deficit. Malaysia, Singapore—tell me how many countries in the world run a budget surplus. So why will a poor country like us seem to be happy that you are cutting your coat according to your cloth—what does that mean?”

He insisted the country has not solved the problems that warrant such pride.

“Have you finished solving our infrastructure problems? You can check and see that we have so many problems, and we need to invest. Government needs to spend. The private sector needs to spend. The government needs to spend to crowd in the private sector. And that is not happening.”

Prof. Ackah made it clear that what the country needs is strategic spending, not just trimming.

“So I don’t think that is discipline. By all means, we should reduce corruption. We should improve efficiency in expenditure. But we need to spend.

"Government needs to spend. We have so much to do. Go to hospitals. There are no beds, and people are dying in the hospitals.”

He also raised alarm over public sector wages, saying they have lagged behind both inflation and labour productivity.

“There are a lot of challenges, even wages, which are lagging behind labour productivity. Look at the average wage paid to public sector earners. Look at inflation. Look at the cost of rent.

"Look at the cost of food. And people are being paid ¢1,000 and ¢1,200 after graduating from the university.”

He concluded, “So if all of these things are problems to solve, and the government sits down and says we are trying to be disciplined, I don’t know what that means.”