Cape Coast, Nov 16, GNA – Mr Michael Asante, the Central Regional Director of Passport, has urged the Government to pay attention to stabilizing the economy to support low and middle-income earners in the country.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Cape Coast ahead of the 2022 budget presentation, Mr Asante admonished the government to create more avenues for job creation to enhance the standard of living of the populace.
Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister, will on Wednesday, November 17, would present the 2022 Budget Statement to Parliament in accordance with Article 179 of the 1992 Constitution.
This is in line with the Public Financial Management Act 2016, Act 921, which requires the Minister of Finance on behalf of the President – to lay before Parliament estimates of the revenue and expenditure of the government and the annual budget, for the ensuing year by November 15 of each financial year.
He said the Government must initiate policies and mechanisms to assist traders financially in sustaining their businesses.
That, he indicated, would help the youth venture into entrepreneurship more than focusing on employment in the public sector to reduce the rate of unemployment.
Mr Asante further urged the government to create financial rooms to push and pursue policies that would create a friendly environment for businesses.
Also, Mr Asante called on the Government to consider the conditions of service for Civil and Public servants to ensure that they give their best at the workplace.
He noted that though Ghana’s economy kept growing, the country major contributors to the growth were multinationals and this could not sustain the growth.
The only way to localise the growth, he said, was for the Government to support small and medium enterprises to a level where they could become multinational companies.
“The Ghanaian economy has been projected to grow between five to seven per cent in 2022 but until we own the growth, people will not feel it,” he said.
Mr Isaac Yedonu, a Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) personnel at the Information Services Department (ISD), urged the government to prioritize job creation to support the youth.
On salary increment, Ms Kate Yamoah, the Regional Administrator of ISD, urged the government to adjust salaries upwards since inflation and fuel prices had consumed the four per cent salary given to workers.
She appealed to the government to provide accommodation to teachers; especially those posted to hard-to-reach and rural communities for them to comfortably stay in the communities.
Madam Aba Amoah, a trader in Cape Coast, said the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy was by far a very good initiative by the government but expressed disappointment on its implementation.
Mr Philip Awotwe, a Mobile Money Merchant, expected the 2022 Budget to address how the government would sustain the free SHS looking at the huge numbers benefitting from it and what measures had been put in place to gradually do away with the double-track system.
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