The National Economic Dialogue, held over two days in Accra, has released a communique outlining key recommendations to restore macroeconomic stability, foster growth, and promote good governance. The event, which brought together stakeholders from the government, private sector, and civil society, identified six thematic areas requiring urgent action.
The communique from the event highlighted the need for enhanced coordination between fiscal and monetary policies, reviewing foreign exchange retention regimes, and implementing comprehensive tax reforms. These measures aim to boost revenue collection, address leakages, and strengthen public financial management, ensuring compliance with existing laws.
1. Restoring Macroeconomic Stability
To regain confidence in Ghana’s economy, the dialogue emphasized the need to enhance coordination between fiscal and monetary policy, review the foreign exchange retention regime, and implement major tax reforms, including expanding the tax net and revising the VAT rate. It also called for an overhaul of the public financial management (PFM) system, ensuring compliance with the PFM Act 2016, reforming the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2018, and enforcing transparent financial reporting in state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Strengthening expenditure controls and establishing a credible medium-term expenditure framework were also key priorities.
2. Pursuing Inclusive and Sustainable Growth
The communique highlighted the importance of inclusive economic transformation by promoting industrialized agriculture. This includes establishing new agricultural institutes, reviewing the tax system for agricultural inputs and outputs, and addressing skill gaps to align with developmental priorities. These measures aim to boost innovation and productivity in the agricultural sector.
3. Promoting Private Sector-Led Growth
To unlock the full potential of businesses, the dialogue recommended structuring a platform for sustained government-private sector engagements, enhancing awareness of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and directing a portion of banks’ cash reserves towards credit creation. Fast-tracking company registration and licensing processes was also urged to promote business growth.
4. Addressing the Infrastructure Deficit
Participants stressed the need to introduce investable asset classes in infrastructure through the Ghana Stock Exchange and the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund. Pension fund regulations should also be revised to align with infrastructure projects. The dialogue further called for a performance management system for road construction and maintenance, with the Road Fund dedicated exclusively to road improvements.
5. Implementing Structural and Policy Reforms
In key sectors, the dialogue recommended reforms to improve efficiency and sustainability, especially in the energy sector. This includes reviewing the operations of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), renegotiating Independent Power Producer (IPP) contracts to lower costs, and addressing illegal mining (galamsey) to boost sustainability in the cocoa value chain. COCOBOD’s role should be realigned under the Ministry of Finance to focus on its core mandate of supporting farmers.
6. Promoting Good Governance and Accountability
To ensure transparency and accountability, the dialogue urged the government to accelerate constitutional reforms, link public sector remuneration to productivity, and enhance Parliament’s capacity to oversee public spending. A regulatory framework for political party financing, including mandatory audits, was also proposed to promote transparency. Strengthening independent governance institutions to complement economic reforms was seen as critical to ensuring long-term stability.
The dialogue concluded with a call for swift action by the government to implement these recommendations to restore economic stability, promote growth, and improve governance in Ghana.
