The Finance-Agriculture Funding Dispute: A Word of Advise

Let me start by saying something plainly: Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson is one of the most competent, transparent and fiscally disciplined Finance Ministers this country has had in a long time. He came into office inheriting a broken economy debt restructured, reserves depleted, credit rating in the gutter and has systematically rebuilt confidence, brought inflation down from 23.8% to 3.4%, reduced borrowing costs dramatically, and returned Ghana to a debt sustainability path that the IMF originally projected would take until 2034. He has earned his credibility the hard way. That matters in this conversation.

So when his Ministry announces that GH¢1.677 billion — 85% of the Agriculture Ministry’s approved budget — has been released, backed by GIFMIS records, requisition dates, journal numbers, approval dates and warrant numbers, that is not propaganda. That is a paper trail. And it deserves to be engaged seriously, not dismissed with a press statement calling it “infantile propaganda.”

Now, delays in fund releases to Ministries, Departments and Agencies are not new in Ghana. This has happened under every administration. The tension between commitment authorisations and actual cash allotments is a known and technical feature of our public financial management system. It is real, it is consequential, and it is worth resolving but it should be resolved internally, not on the front pages.

What is also not new is discrepancies between what the Finance Ministry announces and what spending Ministries actually receive and are authorised to use. The difference between a commitment authorisation and a quarterly allotment ceiling is a legitimate technical question. But the answer to a technical question is a technical conversation not a media war.

Here is my concern: the Ministry of Food and Agriculture should not have taken this dispute public. If the Agric Ministry genuinely believe the figures do not add up, the right and responsible channel was a firm, quiet conversation at Cabinet level through the Chief of Staff if necessary. That is what Cabinet solidarity demands. That is what governing as a team requires. A press statement titled “Stop the Infantile Propaganda Before It Explodes” is not the language of a government that speaks with one voice. It is the language of a faction.

And the timing could not be worse. Coming on the heels of tensions involving the Education Minister and the NDC National Chairman, and with political watchers already speculating about early NDC succession jostling, this public clash between two capable ministers feeds a dangerous narrative — that the Mahama administration is more preoccupied with internal positioning than with delivery. The opposition does not need to manufacture that story. We are writing it for them.

Agriculture is too important for this. The AgriConnect Compact, rice self-sufficiency, the Nkoko Nkitinkiti poultry programme, Farmer Service Centres — these are real, transformative initiatives that Ghanaians are waiting on. They cannot afford to be hostage to a public dispute between the two Ministries that are supposed to be delivering them together.

Cool heads must prevail. The power struggle — if that is what this is — must stop now. Resolve the numbers internally. Let the Controller and Accountant-General’s records sit on the table. And get back to work.

History will be kind to Dr. Ato Forson. When he took the reins of Ghana’s finances, the country was on its knees. He did not flinch. He took the bitter decisions, absorbed the political heat, held the fiscal line, and delivered results that speak for themselves. Ghana’s economy crossing the $100 billion threshold for the first time, ranked 8th largest in Africa, with debt now at moderate risk after years of distress — that is not luck. That is leadership.

Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson deserves the full backing of his colleagues in government, not public challenges that undermine the very confidence he has worked so hard to rebuild. Ghana is lucky to have him at the Finance Ministry at this moment in our economic history. Let his work speak — and let his colleagues have the grace to support rather than subvert it.

One government. One agenda. One Ghana