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The Member of Parliament for fanteakwa South constituency in the eastern region, on the ticket of the ruling New Patriotic Party, NPP, Hon. Kofi Okyere Agyekum who doubles as the Ranking Member for Public Accounts Committee in Parliament has settled the controversies of whether Ghana is broke or not.
According to the experienced and 3 times legislator, Ghana is not broke contrary to what some members particularly those of the National Democratic Congress, NDC, have put out.
He explains that the nation is not broke but needs to raise enough revenue to meet the nation’s budget.
He made this known in a one-on-one studio discussion on Radio 1 100.7fm in an avenue to sensitize the general public on the relevance and need to accept the almighty e-levy.
“Former President Kuffour in 2009 left us a growth 9.1% and former president Mahama dropped it to 3.4% in 2016. President Akuffo-Addo picked it to 8.1%, 6.3%, 6.5% in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively. In 2020, our growth rate declined to 0.4% due to the effects of deadly Covid-19 pandemic. The growth rate in 2021 was 5.2% and we are projecting 5.8% in 2022. So if anyone tells you Ghana is broke, it’s not true. Ghana is not broke” – Hon. Arafat posits
He explained further that Ghana is among the few countries to register a positive growth rate after the invasion of the dreadful Corona virus pandemic.
“In 2020, the global economic growth shrinked and it was unprecedented. Most countries registered negative growth but Ghana grew at 0.4%.” – Hon. Kofi Okyere Agyekum revealed.
The fanteakwa south legislator emphasized on the need to accept the e-levy to help develop the nation.
“Our budget for 2022 is 145 million but our target revenue is 100 million so its either we borrow or contribute the remaining 45million by ourselves.” – Hon. Arafat maintained
He then advised the citizenry to accept the e-levy.
