Ghana’s parliament avoids a government shutdown by passing an interim budget

In order to avoid an unprecedented government shutdown, the speaker of the Ghanaian parliament said that the parliament has passed a preliminary budget that permits the government to spend 68.1 billion Ghanaian cedis ($4.65 billion) through March.

The preliminary budget was passed by the parliament during a lengthy session that lasted till Thursday night, according to parliamentary speaker Alban Bagbin.

Following a successful election on December 7, John Dramani Mahama, who was president of Ghana from 2012 to 2016, is scheduled to become the president of the West African nation next week.

Nana Akufo-Addo, who has led the country that exports oil and gold for eight years, was scheduled to give his final state of the nation speech later on Friday.

Election years usually see the passage of a provisional budget in November to fill the void until the president-elect assumes office.

A stalemate over whether the departing New Patriotic Party (NPP) or the entering National Democratic Congress (NDC) party holds a majority of members in the House caused the provisional budget presentation to prolong this time around.

Mohammed Amin Adam, the finance minister, assured the joint business and finance committees that government operations would not be impacted by the interim budget’s delayed passage.

Seth Terkper, a former finance minister, told Reuters that it “averts a government shutdown and (the) likelihood of worsening Ghana’s ongoing debt default saga.”

As per the tentative budget, over one-third of the authorized sum is designated for payments to energy-sector service providers.

According to preliminary estimates, Ghana’s energy sector is expected to face a crisis situation, with arrears exceeding $2.5 billion during a period of unpredictable power delivery, as stated by President-elect Mahama last month.

Mahama, the primary opposition leader who ran for office, is making a comeback to power as Ghana’s economy recovers from the worst crisis in a generation.

($1 = 14.6500 cedi in Ghana)