Ghana’s New Economy Puts Public Investment Behind Business

Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson says Ghana’s recovery must bring jobs and higher incomes after people sacrificed to restore stability. At the University of Ghana, he told faculty and students that the New Economy should turn those sacrifices into “real benefits for the Ghanaian people.” The government makes that promise; Forson says the benefits must reach those who paid the price of stabilisation.

Who Sets the Terms

Forson described public investment as support for private enterprise, with businesses expected to invest, expand and employ more Ghanaians. In this arrangement, government investment supports business activity. The stated test is whether the wider population gains decent jobs and higher incomes. He didn’t describe those outcomes as already achieved. He called them the task ahead for the New Economy.

“Stabilisation was never the destination. It was the price of entry,” Forson said. The line casts recovery as a threshold, not an end point. He said Ghana had made progress restoring economic confidence: inflation had come down, confidence was returning, officials were managing debt pressures, and the economy was recovering. Then he added: “But recovery is not enough.”

That distinction shapes the vision he set out. The government has worked to restore stability; Forson says production, exports, investment, jobs and income must follow. The public isn’t being asked to judge the programme only by its promise of stability. Its stated purpose is to change what the economy produces and whether people can earn more from it.

From Recovery to Production

Forson said the next task was to expand production, attract investment and create opportunities to improve people’s livelihoods. He described a Ghana that produces more of what it consumes, adds value to agricultural and mineral resources, and creates decent jobs at scale. Those are the government’s stated ambitions, not results he reported as already delivered.

“Stability must now become production, exports, investment, decent jobs and higher incomes,” he said. “That is the central purpose of the New Economy.” He places employment and earnings alongside exports and investment, linking the promised benefits for Ghanaians to a programme focused on greater production and attracting capital.

The Promise and Its Measure

Forson said the transition should ensure recovery benefits reach the people whose sacrifices helped make it possible. He described them as the intended beneficiaries, while saying public investment would serve private enterprise. His account gives no further detail about how the benefits will be distributed; these are the aims he stated, not proof that households have already received them.

Forson said the vision is to add value to Ghana’s agricultural and mineral resources and create jobs at scale. He also said businesses would have opportunities to invest, expand and employ more Ghanaians. For people whose sacrifices helped restore stability, the measure is concrete: whether recovery becomes production, decent work and higher incomes.

“Recovery is not enough,” he said. The people who bore the sacrifices are waiting for the promised return.