Business and Economic Journalist
The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mohammed Amin Adams, also known as Amin Anta presented Ghana’s Mid-year budget on the floor of Parliament outlining the performance of the Akufo Addo government over the past eight months since the reading of the comprehensive 2024 budget.
The key elements I highlight in the mid-year budget presentation are government concentration on the efficient implementation of the social intervention programs
For instance. Dr. Amin Adam highlighted government’s significant investments in social programs and infrastructure. According to him, over GHC5.4 billion has been disbursed for various social programs, including LEAP, the School Feeding Programme, and the NHIS. Additionally, nearly GHC10 billion has been invested in the road sector since January 2024.
According to him, Education remains a priority for government, with substantial funding allocated to the Free SHS programme. In the first half of 2024, GHC1.5 billion was invested in the Free SHS programme, ensuring that the youth have access to quality education. This investment is part of the broader strategy to build a skilled and educated workforce for the future. Social interventions are programs designed to deliver social benefits and develop human capital of specific target groups (referred to as beneficiaries). In his presentation Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, said government has spent GH¢9.9 billion on the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy since its implementation in September 2017. He said 5.7 million young people had benefitted from the initiative, many of whom may not have had the opportunity. He said to complement that effort, the government had also provided facilities under the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme to empower young people with employable skills, with 168,000 students enrolled in the 2023-2024 academic year.
“Additionally, we are constructing 10 STEM Schools and 10 STEM Centres across the country, and we have distributed 900,000 tablets to secondary school students.” “Quality education has been given considerable focus. The performance of the students at WASSCE in 2023 is also the best since 2015,” he added.
Mr. Adam said government had disbursed about GH¢38 million as Capitation Grant. The NPP government seems to have implemented more social intervention programs than any government in Ghana. It began under the government of President John Agyekum Kufuor when he established the National Health Insurance Program that is still providing free maternal healthcare. He also introduced the Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty and provided the capitation grant and the Ghana School Feeding Program. He undertook pension reforms and initiated cocoa mass spraying.” “President Akufo-Addo has also continued with innovative social interventions, key among them being the Free Senior High School Education Program, the integrated agricultural initiatives towards agro-industry, “which include the One District One Factory, One District One Warehouse, One Village One Dam, and Planting for Food and Jobs.”
Analysts have explained that the objectives of any social intervention programs are socio-economic developments aimed at raising the standard of living and earning capacity of vulnerable citizen while establishing a “social floor” that protects all members of society. These programs also help in mitigating some of the socio-economic issues plaguing a developing nation, such as unemployment/underemployment, illiteracy, maternal and child mortality, malnutrition, financial exclusion, poverty, etc.
Social protection programs are instruments used to reduce poverty rates, ensure social justice and economic development. In Africa, 40 of 48 countries have active social programs and the number is projected to grow. South Africa’s Child Support Grant helped the nation drop its poverty gap by 28.3%, while self-help groups formed as part of micro-lending programs and conditional cash transfers have led to an increase in savings in Ghana and Zambia reporting increases in savings by 11% and 24%, respectively.
