Ghana's parliament passes provisional budget, averts government shutdown

Ghana's parliament approves a $4.65 billion provisional budget, averting a shutdown as John Mahama prepares to take office amid economic and energy sector challenges.

Ghana's parliament has passed a provisional budget that allows the government to spend 68.1 billion Ghanaian cedis ($4.65 billion) through March, the chamber's speaker said, narrowly averting an unprecedented government shutdown.

Parliamentary Speaker Alban Bagbin said the parliament had approved the provisional budget in a sitting that stretched deep into Thursday night.

John Dramani Mahama is set to take office as the West African country's president next week after winning a Dec. 7 election, staging a political comeback after serving as Ghana's president from 2012 to 2016.

Outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo was due to present his last state of the nation address later on Friday after eight years leading the gold- and oil-exporting nation.

A provisional budget is typically passed in November during election years to cover the gap until the president-elect takes office.

But the presentation of the provisional budget had dragged this time after an impasse over whether the outgoing New Patriotic Party (NPP) or the incoming National Democratic Congress (NDC) party has a majority of seats in the House.

Finance Minister Mohammed Amin Adam told the joint business and finance committees the late passage of the provisional budget would not affect government business.

"It averts a government shutdown and (the) likelihood of worsening Ghana's ongoing debt default saga," Seth Terkper, a former finance minister, told Reuters.

Almost a third of the approved amount is earmarked for payments to energy-sector service providers, according to the provisional budget.

Mahama, the president-elect, said last month that Ghana was going to face a critical situation in the energy sector, adding that preliminary estimates showed that arrears exceeded $2.5 billion at a time when the power supply was erratic.

Mahama, who contested the election as the main opposition leader, is returning to power amid an economic resurgence from Ghana’s worst crisis in a generation.

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