President John Mahama has marked his administration highly in relation to their performance in the first 120 days in office.
He said many of the promises made in his 120-day social contract have been fulfilled.
“We made promises and we have delivered them,” he said in a national broadcast on May 7.
The President proceeded to itemise the promises and provided update.
“As promised, I compiled the list of my ministers within the first 14 days of my administration. They have since been vetted and have hit the ground running, ” President Mahama recounted.
On lean government, he noted that his administration has the smallest number of ministers so far,
” I have appointed only 56 ministers and deputies so far – the smallest number of ministers and deputies appointed by any government in the Fourth Republic. We have also nominated Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives, and they are going through various phases of confirmation to complete the formation of our governance team at the local level,” he said.
“Building on my previous efforts, we have reworked and finalised a significantly improved version of the Code of Conduct for government appointees. This comprehensive document, launched last Monday, addresses new areas, including a prohibition on purchasing state property directly or indirectly, regulations regarding hampers, and clear monetary limits for official gigs. I have left my appointees in no doubt that I will bring down the hammer swiftly and strongly if they breach any of its provisions,” the President stated.
He said recommendations made at the National Economic Dialogue have been implemented.
“The implementation of these recommendations has begun to yield results. The currency is becoming fairly stable, inflation is inching downward, and we have reduced the excessive borrowing that had become the trademark of past governments. The report also provided valuable advice on promoting industrialised agriculture and aligning skills development with national priorities. We have taken this advice seriously, and implementation is underway, guiding our economic policy decisions,” he cited.
According to President Mahama, “Following the recommendations of the Dialogue, we have amended the Public Financial Management Act 2016 (Act 921) to introduce a debt rule that aims to reduce the ratio to 45% by 2034. We have also established an operational rule to post an annual primary surplus of at least 1.5% of GDP on a commitment basis. The amendment also allows for the establishment of an independent fiscal council to monitor the government’s adherence to the fiscal rules. This reform was executed in April 2025, before the September 2025 deadline under the IMF-supported Programme.
Explaining why the COVID-19 levy has not been scrapped as promised, the President said “The COVID levy has intricate linkages to the existing IMF programme. As a value-added tax, we have agreed with our multilateral partners to include it in our overall VAT rationalization exercise scheduled for September of this year.”
“We have significantly exceeded our 120-day promises regarding overall tax reform by enacting other critical bills, such as the Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, Income Tax Amendment Bill, the removal of VAT on motor vehicles, the Public Financial Management Bill, the Growth and
Sustainability Levy Act, the Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment Bill, the Gold Board Bill, the Energy Sector Levy Bill, and the Petroleum Revenue Amendment Bill,” he added.
