Corrective Measures To Address Budget Misalignments Beginning To Work - Seth Terkper

Finance Minister, Seth Terkper says the phase under which the country’s economy had gone through, he would be self-delusional to say he is delighted with the happenings in the economy, though government has outlined measures to start correcting some serious misalignments of the budget.

According to him, the corrective measures which were put in place to address the serious misalignments in the budget were worsened by some setbacks in the area of the West African Gas Pipeline and the gas processing plant.

But speaking to the host, Kwame Sefa-Kayi on the flagship program “Kokrokoo”, Mr. Seth Terkper assured the West African Gas Pipeline was being corrected and the Gas Processing Plant was also on stream, hoping they come on to accelerate growth in the economy.

The corrective measures we have taken are beginning to work, despite continuous setback like prices of commodities particularly gold and now crude oil which as you know affected the budget and I had to go to Parliament twice in order to revise those lines. The prospects are still good; we need to be confidence in ourselves….when you enter into a phase that the economy had gone through, you will not be happy as a minister; I don’t think the Cabinet and the President are also happy,” he professed.

Sounding hopeful in the country’s energy situation, Mr. Seth Terkper averred the country is fortunate to have Atuabo Plant on stream as well as Tullow; adding the signing of the partial risk guarantee which will guarantee the investment in the Sahara Fields will help the economy.

The Finance Minister assured the country has put in significant investment to bring on stream 3 trillion cubic feet or more of gas in the next 3 to 4 years; giving some hope to the economy.

He added “the investment also assures that unlike the past where the government has taken measures to tighten its belt as it is currently doing under the IMF program, the country is going to go into another growth phase of the economy as happened immediately after HIPC”.

We entered on accelerated growth phase after HIPC and we realized we are still vulnerable that the price of commodities despite the shift into Lower-middle Income can still affect our economy,” he stressed.

He therefore advised that when all the investments come on stream, the government must develop policies to that will help the country to manage the vulnerabilities that affect the economy.