“Ghana’s 2026 Budget: A Bold Blueprint for Transformation or Another Missed Opportunity”

By Seidu Agongo

Ghana’s Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has unveiled the 2026 budget, promising tax reliefs for businesses, bold industrial policies, 800,000 jobs, and expanded social protection under a disciplined fiscal framework. The budget has been hailed as a bold blueprint for transformation, but its success hinges on execution.

The budget offers several positives, including tax reliefs, industrial push, job creation, social protection, and fiscal discipline anchored in law. However, the writer, Seidu Agongo, a businessman and philanthropist, cautions that plans don’t build roads, bulldozers do, and policies don’t create jobs, projects do.

Agongo emphasizes that Ghana’s development graveyard is littered with brilliant strategies that died due to bureaucracy, and the country cannot afford to repeat that cycle. He calls on sector ministers, agency heads, and implementing officers to move from PowerPoint to pavement, from press conferences to performance, and from plans to actions.

The writer believes that execution demands speed, accountability, and collaboration. He cites the government’s track record, including inflation down from 23.8% to 8%, the cedi appreciating by 34%, and public debt slashed from 68.9% to 45% of GDP, as evidence of a government that acts in the interest of the people and the public purse.

Agongo suggests that ministers should own their targets, publish quarterly scorecards, and let citizens track progress in real time. Agency heads should cut red tape and focus on outcome obsession, while procurement officers should remember that every delay is a job denied.

The writer concludes that Ghana cannot afford to lag behind neighboring countries and that the private sector is ready, investors are watching, and the diaspora is hopeful. He emphasizes that hope needs proof, and that proof comes from execution.