Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson says the Government has introduced about 22 laws in the past 18 months to protect Ghana’s economic reforms and prevent future administrations from reversing recent progress.
He said the measures were intended to preserve the stability achieved after the sacrifices made by Ghanaians and to avoid a return to the hardship experienced during the 2022–2024 economic crisis.
Dr Forson was speaking at a New Economy engagement at the University of Ghana, where he explained how the Government was seeking to give its policies a permanent legal basis.
His comments came in response to Prof Fred Dzanku, Head of the Economics Division at the university’s Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER). Prof Dzanku had asked how “some of these brilliant policies and agenda” could be institutionalised.
“I try to introduce a lot of laws. In the last 18 months, we have introduced about 22 laws,” Dr Forson said.
The Finance Minister said the Government’s approach included introducing new legislation, repealing existing laws and amending others, with the aim of making the reforms more difficult to reverse.
“We are trying to put these reforms into law,” he said.
Dr Forson added that the Government was also pursuing amendments that would require a two-thirds majority in Parliament to alter some of the laws. That requirement, he said, would create an additional barrier for future administrations seeking to undo the reforms.
“So we are locking in the progress,” he added.
He said his experience in Parliament and in policymaking had given him a particular understanding of how reforms could be maintained beyond the period in office of the government that introduced them.
“I am in a unique position to understand how the issue of sustainability can be tackled because of my parliamentary experience and policy experience,” he said.
Dr Forson said policies could be changed more easily when they were not supported by legislation. For that reason, he stressed the importance of converting reform commitments into legal requirements.
He pointed to the amendments under way to the Public Financial Management (PFM) Act as one example of the Government’s efforts.
The changes to the Act form part of a wider attempt to ensure that the reforms are not dependent solely on the policies or decisions of an individual administration.
“So the PFM Act is being amended. Some of the things we are doing are being institutionalised and we are putting it into law to lock in the sustainability,” he said.
