The Minister of Trade and Industry, Kobina Tahir Hammond, has called on Ghanaians to await the 2024 budget statement to be delivered in Parliament on Wednesday, November 15, as it has some good news.
He took pride in the fact that the budget to be read by the Minister of Finance, Kenneth Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta, will restore macroeconomic stability.
KT Hammond, as he is popularly called, made this known on Tuesday, November 7 while interacting with some journalists in his constituency, Adansi Asokwa, in the Ashanti Region.
“By December, the budget, which I am fully aware of because I am a member of the Economic Management Team, when delivered in November, when you listen and see how we put measures in place, you will clap for the Akufo-Addo government,” he said in Twi.
He admitted the current challenges of the economy, occasioned by the global pandemic, Covid-19, in 2020.
The lawmaker said true to the words of the President in the height of the pandemic, lives cannot be brought back when lost, but the economy can be restored when destroyed.
He, therefore, expressed optimism that after the 2024 budget has been implemented, the economy will fully bounce back.
He took on those who are criticising the government for going for a bail-out from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), saying the World Bank is there for every member- country.
“It is money for the whole world. Even advanced countries go for some, in large tunes, and when we go for small, it becomes a topical matter.”
KT Hammond became Trade Minister after the resignation of Alan Kyerematen from government in January this year.
He has since been part of government’s EMT.
He has promised jobs in the coming years, insisting that the economy will be expanded going into 2024.
Speaking at the Ghana Mutual Prosperity Dialogues (GMPD) in Accra last Thursday, the Minister of Trade and Industry asked Ghanaians to be patient as the economy bounces back.