Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, Minister of Finance
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has detailed the government’s budgetary allocations for key policy initiatives and interventions.
Presenting the 2025 Budget in Parliament on March 11, 2025, he highlighted the funds allocated to various sectors, including education, agriculture, and relief efforts for victims of the Akosombo Dam spillage.
He outlined the allocations as follows:
1. Mr. Speaker, we will provide a Cedi equivalent of US$279 million as a revolving fund for the Ghana Gold Board (GOLDBOD) to be able to purchase and export at least 3 tonnes of gold per week from small-scale miners.
2. Mr. Speaker, we have allocated GH¢13.85 billion for the Big Push Programme.
3. Mr. Speaker, an amount of GH¢499.8 million has been allocated for the No Academic-Fee policy for all first-year students in public tertiary institutions under the ‘No-Fees-Stress’ initiative.
4. Mr. Speaker, we have allocated GH¢292.4 million to commence the distribution of free sanitary pads to female students in primary and secondary schools.
5. Mr. Speaker, we have allocated GH¢242.5 million to support victims of the Akosombo dam spillage;
6. We have also allocated an amount of GH¢200 million to support the victims of the tidal wave disaster that recently displaced residents of Agavedzi and surrounding communities in the Ketu South constituency;
7. In 2025, the Government will continue to implement reforms and increase budgetary allocations to enhance the implementation of the four targeted social protection programmes, namely NHIS, the LEAP Programme, the School Feeding Programme, and the Capitation Grant.
8. Mr. Speaker, under the LEAP programme, benefits have been indexed to inflation, and the number of beneficiary households will be increased from 350,000 to 400,000 from July 2025.
9. The allocation for LEAP benefits has also been increased by 30.8% from GH¢728.8 million to GH¢953.5 million in 2025. Additionally, the budget for the School Feeding Programme, as well as the cost of feeding per pupil per day, has been increased by 33%.
10. Similarly, the allocation to the Capitation Grant has been increased from GH¢84 million in 2024 to GH¢145.5 million in 2025, representing an increase of 73.2%.
11. Mr. Speaker, we have also uncapped the Road Fund. An amount of GH¢2.81 billion has been programmed for the Ghana Road Fund to be used solely for road maintenance. This represents an increase of 155.5% over the 2024 allocation of GH¢1.1 billion.
12. Mr. Speaker, we have allocated an amount of GH¢7.51 billion to the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF). In accordance with our decentralization policy objective, we propose to Parliament that a minimum of 80% of the funds should be sent directly to the District Assemblies to spur economic growth at the district level and deepen decentralization.
13. Mr. Speaker, it is worth noting that this is in stark contrast to what has happened to the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) in recent years, where less than 50 percent of the released amount to DACF goes to the District Assemblies, with a significant portion spent at the center.
14. Mr. Speaker, we have allocated an amount of GH¢1.5 billion for Agriculture for Economic Transformation Agenda (AETA) of which Feed Ghana Programme, Ghana Grains Development Project, Vegetable Development Project and Nkokor Nketenkete are all key components.
15. Mr. Speaker, we have also allocated GH¢51.3 million as seed funds for the establishment of the Women’s Development Bank.
16. Mr. Speaker, we have also allocated GH¢300 million to the National Apprenticeship Programme.
17. Mr. Speaker, we have also allocated GH¢100 million to the ‘Adwumawura’ Programme.
18. Mr. Speaker, for the National Coders Programme, we have allocated GH¢100 million.
19. Mr. Speaker, an amount of GH¢100 million has been allocated for the payment of monthly allowance to all Assembly Members.
20. Mr. Speaker, in response to the recent tidal wave disaster that displaced residents of Agavedzi and surrounding communities in the Ketu South
constituency, we have also allocated enough resources to the Ministry of Works and Housing to address the challenge.
SSD/MA
2025 budget has no hope – Afenyo-Markin declares