Franklin Cudjoe draws critique from President Akufo-Addo’s 2024 SONA

President of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, has made a critical assessment of President Akufo-Addo’s 2024 State of the Nation Address (SONA) highlighting both areas of concern and rare points of praise.

In a short missive on the SONA, Mr Cudjoe expressed dissatisfaction with the President’s portrayal of economic achievements, criticizing the comparison of data within Akufo-Addo’s own tenure rather than against the opposition NDC’s tenure.

He emphasized the alarming economic figures during the current administration, including high inflation rates, lending rates, and increased taxes, despite some recent improvements in certain economic metrics.

Mr Cudjoe argued that the government’s actions, such as the debt exchange program, which resulted in significant financial losses, warrant criticism rather than praise.

He, however, acknowledged the commendable efforts of the new Agriculture Minister, Hon. Byrne Acheampong, in addressing challenges within the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative. Additionally, Mr Cudjoe welcomed the government’s commitment to supporting the film industry through favorable tax policies and infrastructure development.

Nonetheless, he cautioned against the potential abuse of tax exemptions and urged proper implementation of these policies to benefit the film sector without circumventing existing regulations.

Read below the missive by Franklin Cudjoe

I liked the confidence with which President Nana Addo told us that his government has paid billions in coupons to bondholders. He also compared economic data not with the opposition NDC’s tenure, but during his own tenure, when all the macro economic numbers reached astromically dizzying heights of 54% inflation, nearly 40 % lending rate and innumerable killer taxes, to what certainly does look like a respite now with inflation around 23% , although taxes have increased in number and value with the highest unemployment rate in a generation with 75 % of Ghanaians financially stressed ( Old Mutual study).

The president and his government deserve no praise in both scenarios. The government supervised debt exchange program occasioned the suspension of coupon payments with most debts restructured amidst wicked financial haircuts. If you deliberately kill your mother and later make a billion dollar contribution towards her funeral, you don’t deserve praise but outright indignation and opprobrium.

In offering rare praise, however, l have to say I do agree with the President’s verdict on the new Agric Minister, Hon. Byrne Acheampong for his dedication and focus on fixing the challenges with the Planting for Food and Jobs. I hope his interventions further reduce food inflation drastically.

Something else caught my attention for rare praise. It was this statement, “
Mr Speaker, Government, through the National Film Authority, is committed to supporting the production of world class content and films, as well as increasing the cinema infrastructure in Ghana and, by extension, on the continent. To this end, a favourable fiscal (tax) regime for cinema projects, including income tax and VAT incentives, import duty exemptions on film production equipment, twenty percent (20%) tax rebate for strategic film productions and film financing reliefs, is being elaborated by Cabinet, which should be out-doored very soon, and should provide another tangible reason for the choice of Ghana as a film production country”

Good tax policy if implemented right, in addition to a general low cost of production. This shouldn’t lead to the National Film Authority circumventing and abusing the Tax Exemptions Act as we have seen the government do in the 2024 budget with suspicious tax exemptions totaling 12.5bn cedis while everyone gets harrased for 11bn cedis in additional taxes.

This undoubtedly will make our film making industry finally come close to what our brothers in Nigeria are enjoying, for which most of their productions are simply fantastically produced and truly world class, like the latest Netflix produced political drama series I watched a few hours ago- “War: Wrath and Revenge”. Everyone must see the series – with not your usual Naija stars. But the cast, in Mofe Duncan, Rahama Sadau, Yakubu Mohammed, Patrick Doyle, Ayoola Ayolola, Ifeanyi Kalu, Theresa Edem, Bikiya Graham Douglas, Daniel Okosun, Maikudi “Cashman”, Mickey Odeh and Sophia Muhammed, are just amazing!!

Franklin Cudjoe,
Lolobi-Kumasi Kumasi
SALL ‘Republic’