The President has appointed a seven-member committee to establish a platform for dialogue on Ghana’s pressing development challenges and discuss policy trade-offs, according to information relayed by the Acting Spokesperson.
However, what has drawn sharp criticism is the committee’s first objective—”To communicate the true state of Ghana’s economy to stakeholders and the people of Ghana”—with a four-week deadline to submit its report.
Reacting to this development, Essel-Mills ridiculed the initiative, questioning its necessity when the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Ministry of Finance already publish comprehensive economic data regularly.
“The BoG does this simply,” he noted, citing publicly available figures:
- Ghana’s GDP: GHC 1.020 trillion
- Total Public Debt (Nov 2024): GHC 736 billion ($47.9 billion)
- Debt-to-GDP Ratio: 72.2%
- Domestic Public Debt: GHC 311.7 billion (30.5%)
- External Public Debt: GHC 434.3 billion (69.5%)
- Gross International Reserves: $8.982 billion
- Total Imports: GHC 15.24 billion
- Cedi/Dollar Exchange Rate (as of Jan 9, 2025): GHC 14.8074/$1
- Inflation Rate: 23.8%
- Policy Rate: 27%
- Trade Balance: $4.98 billion
Essel-Mills argued that the BoG, through its Summary of Economic and Financial Data, and the Ministry of Finance, via reports such as the CTRC, Economic Report, Revenue Report, APDR, ABP, and Fiscal Data, already make this information readily available.
Additionally, he highlighted that domestic public debt holders for 2022/23 include the BoG, commercial banks, insurance companies, fund management firms, and foreign investors.
Given these existing data sources, he questioned the rationale behind spending four weeks on a report that, in his view, serves little purpose.
“A spectacularly wasteful venture,” he remarked sarcastically, suggesting the government’s move was redundant and unnecessary.
The committee has four weeks to present its findings—whether they will offer new insights beyond publicly available data remains to be seen.
Source: Essel-Mills
