Former Finance Minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adams has painted a troubling picture for some of Ghana’s flagship government programs, revealing that despite hefty budget allocations, several initiatives including the high-profile poultry project ‘Nkoko Nketenkete’ have not received a single cedi in funding this year.
Speaking at a press conference, Dr. Adams pulled back the curtain on a worrying gap between allocated budgets and actual disbursements.
The agricultural transformation agenda, with a massive 1.5 billion Ghana cedis earmarked for projects like Feed Ghana, Ghana Graze, and Nkoko Nketenkete, remains unfunded halfway through the year crippling progress on programs that are critical for food security and economic growth.
“Halfway through the year, not one cedi has been released to implement Nkoko Nketenkete,” Dr. Adams stressed, highlighting the disconnect between government promises and reality.
Other high-impact initiatives have suffered similar fates. He made mention of the Adwumawura job creation program stating “You look at the Adwumawura program, they allocated 300 million Ghana cedis. They’ve released only 34.5 million half of the year.”
He also criticized other government projects for similar funding gaps. According to him, the Women Development Bank, allocated 51 million cedis, has not received any release despite controversy over the inadequacy of this budget relative to minimum capital requirements.
He disclosed, “You recall all the controversies about the inadequacy of this allocation and that all the support women in Ghana gave to the NDC, you are putting 51million cedis to setup a woman development bank which is even lower than the minimum capital requirement, we complain about this but the sad news is that it is not only small but as a speak to you half into the year, not one cedi has been released for the establishment of the women development bank.”
Technology-led projects also face neglect. Dr. Adams stressed that the National Coders Programme, despite a 100 million cedis budget and a public launch, has yet to receive a single cedi.
“Again they allocated 100million cedis , they’ve released zero. It’s been launched yet no cedi has been released,” he noted.
Again, Dr. Adams revealed that the highly publicized Big Push initiative was allocated 13.8 billion cedis but also has not had any funding released halfway into the year.
“The famous Big Push, we’ve heard about big push, big push all the time, 13.8billion Ghana cedis allocated for that. Again half into the year no cedi has been released for the implementation of Big Push,” he indicated.
Dr. Amin Adams expressed concern over the seriousness with which the government is treating these commitments and the trust placed by Ghanaians in its programs.
“We are at a lost and I don’t know how serious this govt has taken the trust of Ghanaians for,” he asserted.
Source: www.Kumasimail/Kwadwo Owusu
