Congrats on the economy, Mr President but pay all outstanding pending payments to grow the local economy

Congratulations to President John Dramani Mahama and his government for the prudent management of the economy since taking office.               

The numbers are speaking. Inflation is easing, the cedi has found some stability, and investor confidence is slowly returning. For a country that has been through the turbulence of debt restructuring and austerity, those green shoots matter. They restore hope. They tell Ghanaians that competent hands are back at the wheel.

Add to that the exiting from the IMF by your government in this short term. That was also an achievement. Coming out of an IMF programme early signals that Ghana has regained policy space and credibility. It tells the world we can manage our own affairs without external crutches. That is political and economic courage, and Ghanaians must applaud it.

But an economy is not just GDP, reserves, and credit ratings. An economy is people. It is the contractor who poured concrete for that classroom block. It is the supplier who delivered hospital beds on credit. It is the service provider who kept the streetlights on for six months without a pesewa. It is the family whose farmland was acquired for a road, a dam, a school, a clinic, with a promise that compensation would come.

Mr President, your Finance Minister is taking too long to pay them.

A good government that truly has the citizens’ welfare at heart must not wait for demonstrations, court summons, or judgment debts before it honors its debts to its own people. Especially when it comes to land compensation. Delaying compensation for land compulsorily acquired from individuals, families, and communities is not just poor administration. It is a direct violation of Article 20 of the 1992 Constitution and the Land Act, 1036 of 2020. And the price Ghana pays for that negligence is measured not just in cedis, but in broken trust.

This is not an attack on your government. It is a call from a citizen who wants your good work on the macro economy to translate into cash flow for the micro economy. Because the private sector is the largest employer in Ghana. Contractors, suppliers, service providers, and landowners are not “the opposition”. They are the engine room.

If they collapse from unpaid bills, the jobs they provide collapse too. A critical examination of the judgment debts with huge interest that have been swallowing the bank accounts of ministries and state agencies in recent times shows one painful truth: most of these were avoidable. They are the cost of government’s own negligence. And they can be stopped if government becomes responsive to the very people who voted it into office and who employ Ghanaians daily.

1. The good news: Prudent management + IMF exit deserve praise

Let us be fair and say it first. Managing Ghana’s economy after 2022 was not easy work. Debt had to be restructured. Expenditure had to be cut. Confidence had to be rebuilt brick by brick. Yet under President Mahama’s leadership, the fiscal discipline is visible. Inflation is trending down. The exchange rate is more predictable. Businesses are breathing a little easier. Development partners are returning to the table.

The icing on the cake is the exiting from the IMF in this short term. That move deserves recognition. IMF programs come with discipline, but also with conditions that squeeze domestic space. Exiting early means your government has convinced markets and rating agencies that Ghana can stay the course without external supervision. It is a vote of confidence in your fiscal management. It also means the savings and policy flexibility from that exit should now be felt by the ordinary Ghanaian and the private businesses that drive employment.

But prudence in macroeconomics must not become paralysis in micro justice. A balanced budget means nothing if the private sector that employs 80% of Ghanaians cannot meet payroll. A stable cedi means little to the small business owner whose working capital is locked in government arrears. Exiting the IMF means we now control our purse strings. So the question is: who benefits from that control? It must be the Ghanaian worker and the Ghanaian employer, not just the ledger at the Ministry of Finance.

2. The long wait: Contractors, suppliers, and service providers in limbo

Across the country, there is a quiet crisis. It does not make headlines like a coup or a scandal. But it is destroying lives and businesses daily. Contractors who built roads, schools, hospitals, and markets are owed. Suppliers who delivered cement, desks, drugs, and vehicles are owed. Service providers who cleaned offices, guarded facilities, and maintained systems are owed. Some of these debts are from years back. Some accumulated under the previous government. But they are now the responsibility of the state, and the state is you, Mr President.

Here is what makes this more painful: although most of these pending payments have been validated and are due for payment, including those sitting at the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, the cheques are not being released. Validation means the work was done, the invoice checked, the amount confirmed. Due for payment means there is no legal or procedural excuse left. The only thing missing is the political will to sign and release funds.

Mr President and Hon. Finance Minister, we cannot continue to be losing our businesses, owing banks, relatives and friends as our hunger, suffering and some of our colleagues lose their lives when our own government owes us monies. This is the human cost behind every unpaid voucher. It is not statistics. It is broken homes, closed shops, and funeral bills.

The excuse is always the same: “cash flow problems”, “verification ongoing”, “awaiting budgetary allocation”. Meanwhile, the contractor has laid off workers. The supplier’s bank account is frozen. The service provider has closed shop. Many have lost their homes. Some have died waiting. In Tema, a contractor who built 3 classroom blocks in 2021 is still chasing payment while his workers have migrated. In Kumasi, a medical supplier owes banks because government owes her. These are not isolated cases. They are the norm.

This is an attack on the private sector, and the private sector is the largest employer in Ghana. When government delays payment, it is not delaying payment to “rich contractors”. It is delaying wages for masons, drivers, cleaners, welders, nurses, and market women who supply goods. Every unpaid voucher is a sack letter waiting to be issued. A government that cares about jobs must care about cash flow to the people who create jobs. When the private employer cannot pay, the unemployment queue grows longer.

Now that we have exited the IMF, there is even less excuse. The fiscal space you fought for must be used to clear the debt to your own people. You do not wait for a contractor to march to Parliament before you release funds. You do not wait for a supplier to drag you to court before you respect his invoice. That is not prudence. That is procrastination. And procrastination with private sector debt is job destruction. The IMF exit gave you room to manoeuvre. Use that room to settle domestic arrears before they metastasize.

3. The land wound: Article 20 and Act 1036 being breached daily

If contractor debt is painful, land compensation delay is criminal. Because it touches the most sacred thing a Ghanaian owns: land.

Article 20 of the 1992 Constitution is clear. Where the state compulsorily acquires land for public purpose, it must do three things: the acquisition must be in the public interest, it must be done under law, and prompt payment of fair and adequate compensation must be made. The word is “prompt”, not “eventually”. Not “after 10 years”. Not “after court judgment”.

The Land Act, 1036 of 2020 repeats the same command. Section 247 and related provisions place a legal duty on government to pay compensation before or immediately after taking possession. The law even prescribes interest for delays. Yet across Ghana, individuals, families, and entire communities are living on promises. Their farmlands have become highways. Their ancestral homes have become substations. Their children’s inheritance has become a government file with dust on it.

This is against the spirit and letter of the Constitution. You cannot preach rule of law while breaking the highest law of the land. You cannot talk about citizen welfare while the farmer whose land built the airport cannot feed his family. Delaying land compensation is not just administrative delay. It is a breach of trust between state and citizen. It is the state telling the people: “Your rights are negotiable. Your suffering is acceptable.”

And here again, the private sector suffers. Landowners are private citizens. Communities are private collective employers. When their compensation is delayed, their ability to reinvest, to farm, to start businesses dies. Government is killing private capital at the source, even after gaining the policy freedom that comes with IMF exit. A farmer paid today will buy inputs tomorrow. A chief compensated today will fund a youth apprenticeship next month. Land money is seed capital.

4. The cost of negligence: Judgment debts and the gnashing of teeth

Here is where the Finance Minister’s delay becomes a financial crime against Ghana itself. When government refuses to pay on time, citizens do what the Constitution allows: they go to court. And the courts, following the law, award judgment debts. Not just the principal, but interest. Sometimes at 25% per annum. Sometimes compounded.

The result is what we have all seen in recent years: ministries and state agencies waking up to find their bank accounts “garnisheed”. Money meant for teacher salaries, hospital drugs, or road maintenance vanishes overnight to pay a debt that should have been settled years earlier for a fraction of the cost. The Attorney General’s Department publishes lists of judgment debts running into hundreds of millions of dollars.

A critical examination shows the pattern is clear. Most of these judgment debts are due to government’s own negligence. The contract was signed. The work was done. The land was taken. But no one in the system thought to pay until a judge forced them to. That is not fiscal prudence. That is fiscal foolishness.

Every cedi paid as judgment interest is a cedi stolen from a classroom, a clinic, or a road. It is money Ghana worked for but lost because someone in a ministry did not sign a cheque on time. Worse, it is money stolen from the private sector employer who could have used it to hire three more workers. Mr President, you have exited the IMF and shown that you can manage external debt. Now manage domestic debt with the same discipline, before judgment interest destroys the gains.

5. The citizen’s point: A responsive government pays without being forced

There is a principle in governance: a responsive government does not need to be dragged. It pays because it is right, not because a court ordered it. It compensates because it is just, not because a community is protesting.

Mr President, you were voted into office by teachers, traders, farmers, contractors, and landowners. They are your people. They are also your largest employers. Their welfare should not depend on their ability to organize a demonstration or hire a lawyer. A good government anticipates its obligations and meets them. It clears arrears systematically. It creates a transparent schedule for payment. It prioritizes land compensation because it knows land is life and capital.

Your Finance Minister must understand this. Cash flow management is important, but justice cannot be placed at the end of the queue. Now that Ghana has exited the IMF, the savings and flexibility from that exit must be channelled into a special window, a sinking fund, a dedicated budget line for clearing all outstanding pending payments to citizens and for paying land compensation. The money is there. The policy space is there. What is missing is urgency and political will.

Remember: the private sector is the largest employer in Ghana. When you pay them, you are not doing them a favour. You are fuelling the engine that employs Ghanaians. You are growing the local economy from the ground up. Unpaid government debt is the biggest brake on private sector growth today. IMF exit gives you room. Use it for the people.

6. What should happen now: Five steps to fix it and grow jobs

If the government truly wants to match its economic prudence and IMF exit with citizen justice and job growth, here are five practical steps:

First, publish the debt. Let the Ministry of Finance release a verified list of all outstanding pending payments to contractors, suppliers, service providers, and land compensation claimants. Amount, date owed, ministry responsible. Transparency kills excuses and restores private sector confidence. Businesses cannot plan when they do not know if payment is coming in three months or three years.

Second, create a payment calendar. Don’t pay everyone tomorrow. But give each private employer a date. “Your payment is scheduled for March 2026”. Then stick to it. A known date reduces anxiety, reduces court cases, and allows businesses to plan payroll. Even partial payments on schedule build trust faster than full promises with no date.

Third, prioritise land compensation. Article 20 is not negotiable. Set aside funds monthly to pay families whose land was acquired. Even if you pay in phases, start now. Prompt payment is constitutional command, not charity. Paid landowners reinvest in farming, housing, and small businesses. That is direct economic stimulus with zero import leakage.

Fourth, punish delay. Make it an offense for a public officer to sit on a verified payment voucher for more than 60 days without reason. Negligence that leads to judgment debt should attract sanctions, including surcharge. Protect the private sector from bureaucratic sabotage. When officials know their salary can be docked for delay, files will move.

Fifth, talk to the private sector. The President should address contractors, suppliers, and landowners directly. Acknowledge the debt. Apologise for delays. Promise a timeline. Citizens and employers are patient when they are respected. They become angry and stop hiring when they are ignored. Use the goodwill from IMF exit to speak to your people. Town hall with the Association of Road Contractors will do more for jobs than another press conference on macro indicators.

Mr. President, let me end where I started. Congratulations. Your government’s prudent management of the economy is giving Ghana a second chance. The exiting from the IMF by your government in this short term was also an achievement. That must be protected and celebrated. But economic statistics and international credibility mean nothing if they do not translate into cash flow for the private sector that employs most Ghanaians.

Your Finance Minister is taking too long to pay all outstanding pending payments to contractors, suppliers, service providers, and land compensation claimants. The situation is worse because although most of these pending payments have been validated and are due for payment, including those at the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, they remain unpaid. Validation without payment is cruelty. It tells the private employer: “We agree we owe you, but we will not pay you.”

Mr President and Hon. Finance Minister, we cannot continue to be losing our businesses, owing banks, relatives and friends as our hunger, suffering and some of our colleagues lose their lives when our own government owes us monies. This cannot be the legacy of an administration that has shown discipline with external debt.

A good government with the people’s welfare at heart does not wait for demonstrations or court summons before it does what is right. Especially on land compensation. Delaying payment to individuals, families, and communities is a direct breach of Article 20 of the 1992 Constitution and the Land Act 1036 of 2020.

The judgment debts with huge interest that are gnashing at the bank accounts of ministries and state agencies are not acts of God. They are the bill for government negligence. And the tragedy is that most of them could have been avoided if government was simply responsive to its own people who voted it into office.

You have shown that you can manage external debt by exiting the IMF. Now show that you can manage domestic justice and grow jobs. Pay all outstanding pending payments to grow the local economy, since the private sector is the largest employer in Ghana. Clear the land compensation before the courts clear your accounts. Because a government that is prudent with foreign creditors but negligent with private employers has not finished its work.

Ghanaians do not just want a stable economy. They want a just economy that pays its bills and keeps its people employed. Give them both, Mr President. That is how prudent management + IMF exit becomes lasting legacy. That is how congratulations become gratitude.

BY DZABAKU KUDIABOR OCANSEY 

The writer is the Executive Director, Centre for National Interest and Research – CNIR-GH 

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