Ghana’s 2026 Budget Statement and Economic Policy has come under intense scrutiny from the Minority Caucus in Parliament, which has dismissed the government’s fiscal plan as a hollow blueprint filled with political slogans, unrealistic projections, and policy proposals lacking substance and cost clarity.
At a fiery press conference in Parliament House, Accra, on Friday, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Minority Caucus criticised the budget as a “litany of initiatives they do not intend to implement,” warning that the document offers no meaningful path to growth, jobs, or structural transformation.
According to the Minority, the 2026 Budget—presented under the theme *“Resetting for Growth, Jobs, and Economic Transformation”—*fails to align with the pressing economic challenges confronting the country.
Rather than charting a credible route towards recovery, the Caucus argued, the budget offers repackaged policies, fragile fiscal assumptions, and exaggerated claims of macroeconomic stability.
Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, Ranking Member of the Finance Committee and Member of Parliament for Karaga, led the charge, accusing the Finance Minister of engaging in what he described as “fiscal deception.”
He said the government continues to propagate an illusion of fiscal discipline while persistently failing to invest in growth-enhancing sectors of the economy.
He cited what he called systematic under-execution of public investment, noting that the government was programmed to spend GH¢5.1 billion between the first and third quarters of the year but managed to disburse only GH¢3.8 billion, far below the annual allocation of GH¢6.7 billion.
To Dr Adam, this shortfall is not merely a budgeting flaw, but evidence of a consistent pattern in which the government deliberately avoids capital spending—even in critical areas such as infrastructure, agriculture, energy, and industrial productivity—to create the appearance of fiscal consolidation. “This is not fiscal discipline; it is fiscal deception,” he insisted, describing the 2026 Budget as a document crafted to impress international creditors rather than address structural weaknesses in the domestic economy.
He further criticised the revenue projections as “wildly unrealistic,” arguing that the government ignored repeated warnings from the Minority about the impracticality of its revenue mobilisation strategies.
The new numbers contained in the budget, he argued, vindicate the Minority’s long-standing position that overly optimistic targets undermine fiscal credibility.
“The government’s revenue policies were unrealistic, and they didn’t listen to us. The data in the 2026 budget has, however, vindicated our stand,” he said.
Beyond the fiscal assumptions, the Minority’s most biting criticism centred on what it described as a persistent gap between policy announcements and implementation.
Flagship initiatives such as industrial transformation programmes, agricultural interventions, digitalisation projects, and job creation schemes were, in the view of the Caucus, presented without transparency.
They pointed out that cost breakdowns were missing, timelines had been brushed over, and performance indicators were either vague or non-existent.
Dr Adam said the government’s approach amounted to offering Ghanaians “half-baked policy ideas” merely packaged as transformative initiatives.
He noted that the accumulation of such incomplete proposals over the years has left the economy “crawling” instead of progressing, despite repeated promises of transformation.
“As a result, we look set to endure another year of fiscal indiscipline masked as prudence, despite the economic evidence demanding a change in approach,” he lamented.
The Minority also introduced a new descriptor for the 2026 Budget, calling it a “Galamsey Budget” — a metaphor meant to suggest that the government was digging up old, exhausted policy ground in search of political convenience rather than laying the foundation for genuine, sustainable growth.
To the Caucus, the budget is “growthless, jobless, and minimalist,” offering little beyond rhetorical flourishes designed to mask deeper economic vulnerabilities.
The Caucus argued that the government’s narrative of recent macroeconomic stability, which formed a core justification for the budget’s direction, is overstated.
They maintained that the so-called stability is shallow, resting largely on austerity, external financing arrangements, and temporary liquidity support rather than real productivity gains. “What we need is economic transformation, which Ghanaians were promised; but what we see now is economic stagnation masquerading as progress,” Dr Adam said, adding that the disconnect between policy projections and lived realities continues to widen.
According to the Minority, the economy remains structurally weak, heavily debt-burdened, and vulnerable to external shocks.
The budget’s silence on critical fiscal risks—such as contingent liabilities, the financial sector clean-up costs, energy sector arrears, and state-owned enterprise inefficiencies—was particularly worrying to them.
They argued that downplaying these issues further undermines the credibility of the government’s fiscal consolidation narrative.
Their conclusion was stark: the 2026 Budget does not offer the hope of transformation, jobs, or prosperity. Instead, it extends what they describe as a troubling pattern of fiscal opacity, misguided priorities, and political messaging.
For a country seeking sustainable pathways out of economic turbulence, the Minority believes the budget falls short of providing the strategic reforms and investments needed to unlock growth.
As Parliament prepares to debate the budget in the coming weeks, the Minority Caucus has signalled its intention to challenge the government rigorously on both its numbers and its claims.
They insist that Ghanaians deserve a budget grounded in transparency, fiscal realism, and genuine transformation, rather than what they see as a rhetorical document constructed to paint a rosier picture than the economic evidence supports.
