{"id":17197,"date":"2026-07-23T12:58:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T12:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=17197"},"modified":"2026-07-23T12:58:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T12:58:00","slug":"5-pressing-gaps-in-the-mid-year-budget-according-to-prof-quartey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=17197","title":{"rendered":"5 pressing gaps in the Mid-Year Budget, according to Prof. Quartey."},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\"><span class=\"\">Ahead of today&#8217;s parliamentary presentation of the 2026 Mid-Year Budget Review, former ISSER Director Professor Peter Quartey has urged Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson to anchor the review on two interlinked pillars: strengthening domestic revenue generation and channelling strategic investment into agriculture, manufacturing, and infrastructure to foster employment and long-term growth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\"><span class=\"\">Appearing on JoyNews&#8217;\u00a0<\/span><em><span class=\"\">AM Show<\/span><\/em><span class=\"\">, Prof. Quartey acknowledged the government&#8217;s success in stabilising the macroeconomy but insisted that the next chapter of economic management must prioritise the real sector. He argued that agriculture and manufacturing\u2014the country&#8217;s largest employers\u2014deserve the bulk of public and private investment, and called for targeted incentives to unlock private capital. On agriculture, he specifically lamented Ghana&#8217;s underperformance in irrigation, pointing to Burkina Faso&#8217;s advances in tomato cultivation as a reproach, and warned that the nation&#8217;s growing reliance on imported onions and other staples undermines food security. While commending the administration&#8217;s renewed focus on poultry, he criticised the rollout as poorly executed and recommended direct engagement with large-scale farmers to correct course.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\"><span class=\"\">On infrastructure, Prof. Quartey endorsed the &#8220;Big Push&#8221; initiative but expressed impatience with its pace, urging a rapid acceleration to deliver tangible improvements in roads and public works. He also identified sanitation as a critical but neglected area, arguing that improved public services are essential to complement macroeconomic gains. The Finance Minister is expected to present the review later today, outlining first-half performance, revised fiscal targets, and policy measures to sustain stability while promoting growth, employment, and revenue mobilisation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ahead of today&#8217;s parliamentary presentation of the 2026 Mid-Year Budget Review, former ISSER Director Professor Peter Quartey has urged Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson to anchor the review on two interlinked pillars: strengthening domestic revenue generation and channelling strategic investment into agriculture, manufacturing, and infrastructure to foster employment and long-term growth. Appearing on JoyNews&#8217;\u00a0AM [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123457,"featured_media":17198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[5405],"class_list":["post-17197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","tag-mid-year-budget"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17199,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17197\/revisions\/17199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}