By: Kwame Bediako
Minister for Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, on Thursday, July 23, 2025, presented the 2025 Mid-Year Budget Review in Parliament, detailing the significant economic challenges inherited by the current NDC administration from the previous NPP government. Dr. Forson highlighted the precarious state of the economy, emphasising the derailment of the IMF program and the heavy financial burdens left behind.
“To further illustrate the enormity of this economic burden, we inherited an IMF programme which had derailed and completely gone off track, with key targets missed, putting our economic recovery programme in jeopardy,” he stated.
He quoted the Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, Mr. Boli, saying, “the programme had deviated substantially from its target by close of 2024.” Dr. Forson laid bare other inherited structural problems, including weak commitment control systems and irresponsible spending, which left the country exposed to a risk of over 67 billion Ghana cedis and contract commitments of about 194 billion Ghana cedis.
The Finance Minister also revealed deep sector-specific challenges that the government had to tackle immediately. “We inherited a bleeding energy sector with annual financing shortfall in excess of 1.5 billion U.S. dollars,” he noted.
In addition, he noted that the cocoa sector was burdened with liabilities amounting to 32 billion Ghana cedis, complicating efforts to revitalize this critical export industry.
“We inherited a debt-riddled cocoa sector with liabilities of 32 billion Ghana cedis, a weak financial sector with significant non-performing loans, thus by pumping over 30 billion Ghana cedis into the so-called financial sector cleanup. Steep debt repayment harms were also inherited,” Ato Forson stated.
Ato Forson painted a stark picture of inherited steep debt repayment harms, which constrained fiscal space and required urgent corrective measures. These formidable inherited challenges tested the new administration’s resolve but also shaped the urgent economic reforms and fiscal discipline policies subsequently implemented to set Ghana on a path to recovery.
