The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, is said to present the government’s 2024 Annual Budget Statement and Economic Policy to Parliament on November 15, 2023.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, made this announcement in Parliament in Accra on Tuesday.
“A few days from now, we will be hosting the Minister of Finance to present the budget statement for the 2024 financial year. We are proposing that it be done on the 15th of November. Please kindly take note of the date,” he stated.
The Speaker of Parliament further indicated, “As our oversight responsibility requires, we will have to scrutinize the budget to ensure that it serves the needs of all Ghanaians,” adding that “I believe this house will adopt a consultative and consensus-building approach throughout this process. We have demonstrated enough capacity and experience in budget approval deliberations and this will be no different.”
Mr Bagbin said that the house also needed to urgently pass the budget bill “because this will enable Parliament to engage more technical personnel to put Parliament in good stead to comply with the imperatives of recent legislations passed by this house.”
Meanwhile, the Finance Minister has stated that long-term relief measures for the victims of the Akosombo Dam spillage will be considered during the formulation of the 2024 budget.
Speaking to journalists after touring affected communities on Friday, Mr. Ofori-Atta indicated that while the government had made some relief items available for victims, the government would continue to do more and include it in next year’s budget.
“We have mobilized a few things that we would like to share but I think we are also in the budget season and therefore it will not just be numbers that we are working on but true feelings in the field and therefore the need to look at these social interventions in a real way. We will certainly give this an expression immediately and also in the budget,” he stated.
