President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has weighed in on the national budget, emphasizing the need for policies that directly improve citizens’ lives.
He pointed to tax adjustments, including relief on the e-levy, as measures that could ease financial burdens and boost disposable income.
“If we are providing relief for taxes like e-levy… substantially, you’re putting some money back into people’s hands, more or less disposable income,” he noted on TV3’s Keypoint.
Cudjoe also highlighted how such relief could benefit small-scale traders and low-income earners, particularly women looking to start small businesses.
“If those women who probably require maybe 100 cedis to start a little business or 200 cedis to start a little business… it would have seen some appreciable increase in some of the savings because they don’t have to now expend so much whenever they transfer money,” he explained.
Despite acknowledging these financial adjustments, the IMANI Africa boss stressed that the budget should go beyond taxation and address broader economic hardships.
“Where we are right now, the challenges we’ve been through, the difficulties we’ve been through, I’ll be more interested in seeing the budget that addresses the larger problems of people. I mean, the needs of people. I don’t know, probably even their wants.”
Cudjoe further questioned the overall effectiveness of the budget, emphasizing the importance of policies that make a real difference in people’s daily lives. “What is the essence of the budget if it is not going to affect positively people’s livelihoods—from healthcare to education to hardcore poverty?” he asked.
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