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Ghana Bets $10 Billion on ‘New Economy’ Plan, Loosening Its Surplus Target to Chase 8% Growth

Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson's 2027 budget cuts the primary surplus goal to 0.5% of GDP to fund agriculture, energy and minerals processing.

By Tumisang Bogwasi November 12, 2026 3 min read

Ghana's Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson (file). Photo: Acephoto / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

ACCRA – Ghana will invest the equivalent of US$10 billion over four years in agriculture, energy, minerals processing and other job-heavy sectors, Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson said on Thursday, 12 November, as the government shifts from post-default austerity to an investment-led growth plan.

Highlights

Ghana plans to invest the equivalent of US$10 billion from 2027 to 2030 under a New Economy programme, Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson said.
The government will cut its primary surplus target from 1.5% to 0.5% of GDP to make room for the spending.
It targets real GDP growth of about 8% and unemployment below 8% by 2030.
Ghana plans to end raw manganese and bauxite exports by the end of 2030 and process all its cocoa locally by then.

Presenting the 2027 Budget Statement and Economic Policy to Parliament, Forson said the New Economy programme would run from 2027 to 2030, with GH¢30 billion, or 1.5% of GDP, invested in 2027, according to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and Graphic Online.

Looser surplus target

To pay for it, the government will reduce its primary surplus target from 1.5% of GDP to 0.5%, alongside tax reforms and compliance measures. “We will reduce the primary surplus from 1.5% of GDP to 0.5% of GDP,” Forson told lawmakers, according to Nairametrics.

He said Ghana would still keep a positive primary surplus of at least 0.5% of GDP from 2027, hold public debt consistent with 45% of GDP and preserve single-digit inflation, MyJoyOnline reported. Ghana has completed its International Monetary Fund programme.

By 2030, the government targets real GDP growth of about 8%, unemployment below 8% and a credible path to an investment-grade credit rating. “Investment grade sovereign rating cannot be conferred in a speech. It must be earned through sustained performance,” Forson said. He promised an annual investment-grade readiness report tracking fiscal performance, debt affordability, reserves and institutional quality.

The previous two budgets targeted growth of 4% and 4.8% as the government focused on fiscal consolidation after the 2022 debt default, Nairametrics reported. Under the new projections, growth is put at 5.7% in 2026 and 5.2% in 2027 before reaching 8% in 2030.

Eight pillars

The programme rests on eight pillars, according to Citi Newsroom and GhanaWeb: macroeconomic stability and affordable finance, commercial agriculture, energy infrastructure, critical minerals value addition, tourism and the creative arts, textiles and garments, pharmaceuticals and biomanufacturing, and the technology economy.

Commercial agriculture gets US$3 billion and energy infrastructure US$2.2 billion, Citi Newsroom reported. The energy plan aims to cut the cost of power generation from 16 US cents to 8 US cents or less per kilowatt-hour, and to phase out emergency power plants by 2030, according to Graphic Online.

Processing at home

Ghana, the world’s second-largest cocoa producer, plans to process at least 50% of its cocoa locally by the end of 2028 and all of it by 2030, Nairametrics reported. It intends to process all its manganese and bauxite domestically and ban raw exports of both by the end of 2030, and to halt exports of raw artisanal and small-scale gold by December 2028, according to Citi Newsroom. The budget also sets aside US$200 million for a nuclear-readiness programme.

The trade-off

The plan trades part of the fiscal cushion rebuilt since the default for public investment. Forson said every project would face rigorous appraisal and value-for-money checks, GBC reported. Inflation rose to an 11-month high of 5.5% in October and the Bank of Ghana has held its policy rate at 14% since March, according to Nairametrics.

How well that discipline holds as spending rises, and how investors respond to the export bans, will shape whether the plan earns the credit-rating upgrade the government is aiming for. Parliament will now debate the budget.

Sources

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