Member of Parliament (MP) for Akuapim North , Hon. Samuel Awuku, has called the Government’s 2026 Mid-Year Budget Review a “list of inventories,” saying it lacks a record of impact meant for growth and sustainable development, citing youth unemployment as its major failure.
Addressing Parliament as part of the debate on the 2026 Mid-Year Budget Review, the former National Lottery Authority boss asked the Deputy Finance Minister who is also MP for Asuogyaman whether the budget read by the Finance Minister addressed the issue of unemployment.
“Six months into 2026, is it easier to find decent work in Ghana as a young person, learn a useful skill, or build a business that survives, in Asuogyaman?” he asked.
Answering his own question, he said “on the evidence, the answer is no,” adding that the review reads like an “inventory of activity and not a record of impact.”
“Inventories, Mr. Speaker, do not pay rent in Accra,” he added.
Government has put together a list of policies including the 24-hour economy and backyard poultry production (nkoko nketenkete), among others as part of efforts to curb unemployment in the country.
But the MP, and by extension the minority, say government’s policies have failed, arguing that the evidence in its own Budget Review does not reflect growth.
He said the Review read by the Minister did not reflect change, but instead reflected only a list of items government has paid for.
“Mid-Year Review should be a report card, not a register of activities, as presented by Mr. Forson,” he said.
“It must show what has changed in the lives of our young people, not what Government started or also paid for,” he added, saying the review does not show improvement in the youth labour market.
The MP also cited a report by the Ghana Statistical Service, which pegged national unemployment at 12.8% over the first three quarters of 2025.
“Among those aged between 15 and 35, at 21.9%, some 1.95 million are outside education or training. That is a population the size of Kumasi sitting idle and doing nothing,” he said.