Ghana’s 2027 budget lands tomorrow evening: five things to watch
Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson presents Ghana’s 2027 budget to Parliament tomorrow, Thursday 12 November, at 6pm. The reading was moved to the evening at his request. Speaker Alban Bagbin said the minister “gave good reasons why he wants it to be presented in the evening”, GhanaWeb reported.
Forson has promised a budget about jobs. “Next week, I will show how the New Economy will turn the gains we have made together into jobs and prosperity for all,” he wrote on 3 November, Citi Newsroom reported. The opposition Minority says it wants answers first. Here are five things to watch.
1. How the New Economy will be paid for
Forson told the National House of Chiefs on 9 November that the New Economy is “the Government of Ghana’s four-year programme to transform the structure of the Ghanaian economy”, 3News reported. It has been described as a US$10 billion plan.
The Minority’s finance spokesman, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, wants a costed plan that shows how much will come from the budget, private investors, public-private partnerships and borrowing. “Until these questions are answered with a costed, published financing plan, the New Economy is a slogan, not a policy,” he said on 10 November, according to MyJoyOnline. He pointed to the earlier 24-Hour Economy programme, which was meant to receive US$300 million to US$400 million in government seed money but got GH¢110 million in the 2026 budget.
2. The targets
Growth of about 5 percent and an inflation target of 8 percent, with a band of 2 points either side, are expected, GhanaWeb reported. Neither has been confirmed. Total spending is expected to stay broadly in line with 2026, with a possible easing of the primary surplus target to make room for priority spending. Amin Adam warned that this extra room “is revenue that has to be generated and collected from Ghanaians”, Citi Newsroom reported.
3. The cost of living
Inflation was 5.5 percent in October. The Minority says that figure understates what households pay. “The 5.5 per cent is held down by food,” Amin Adam said, pointing to higher water tariffs in January and an 8 percent rise in transport fares in September. Food has been cheaper partly because of a tomato glut, as our readers told us this week.
4. Public-sector pay
Judicial Service staff suspended an eight-day strike on Monday over revised salaries. Their arrears are due in two payments, in November and December. Watch for how the wage bill fits into next year’s spending plans.
5. Farmers and young people
Vegetable farmers in Anloga, in the Volta Region, want a tomato-processing factory in the budget. “The absence of a reliable processing facility continued to expose us to some significant financial losses,” farmer Emmanuel Gbede told the Ghana News Agency. The President of the National House of Chiefs, Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyebi II, said he hoped the budget would address youth unemployment.
Sources: GhanaWeb, 11 November 2026; Citi Newsroom, 3 November 2026; 3News, 9 November 2026; MyJoyOnline, 10 November 2026; Citi Newsroom, 10 November 2026; MyJoyOnline, 10 November 2026; GhanaWeb, 29 October 2026; GhanaWeb/Ghana News Agency, 11 November 2026.
Top photo: The entrance to Parliament House in Accra, with the Job 600 office block behind (file photo, 2017). Photo: Fkoku, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
