Ghana’s Political Stability To Endure For Next 5 Years – EIU

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has said, despite the “highly acrimonious party-political landscape” of the country, it expects the sector to be stable.

The London-based analysts made these projections on Ghana's political landscape in its five-year forecast for Ghana released on April 13.

“The fierce rivalry between the two major parties—the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC)—will remain the core feature of the political scene,” the EIU report stated.

The EIU further observed that reaching a consensus on certain policies, particularly, taxes and reforms will be very tumultuous for the governing party.

Using the controversial Electronic Transfer Levy (E-levy) as an example, EIU recounted, “in November 2021 the minority government rejected the proposed 2022 budget bill over the introduction of an electronic-transaction levy (e-levy); this was later reversed, and the 2022 budget bill was passed by an NPP-led majority, albeit without the e-levy clause.”

E-Levy

Parliament on Tuesday, March 29, passed the Electronic Transfer Levy, E-Levy, bill.

This was after nearly three months of back and forth, including fisticuffs among the Parliamentarians.

Before the bill was passed, the levy was reduced to a 1.5% levy from the initial 1.75% amid a Minority walkout.

E-levy was first mentioned by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, when he was presenting the 2022 budget in November 2021.

He explained that the “innovative” tax will broaden the government’s revenue generation basket.