“Resetting Ghana Shouldn’t Be About New Taxes”-Sulemana Braimah Charges Prez Mahama

Sulemana Braimah, executive director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), has advised the Mahama administration to prioritize reducing energy sector waste over taxing Ghanaians.

This comes after the parliament of Ghana approved the Energy Sector Levies (Amendent) Bill, 2025 in their chambers on Tuesday, June 3, 2025, with the goal of generating more money to pay off the country’s crippling energy sector debt and guarantee a steady supply of electricity.

The overall debt of the energy sector as of March 2025 is US$3.1 billion, according to Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, who laid the measure under a certificate of urgency.

He added that in order to pay off this debt in full, at least US$3.7 billion will be needed, and an extra US$1.2 billion will be needed to buy the fuel that thermal power plants need to run throughout 2025.

Consumers would not immediately see a price increase as the Minister promised Parliament that the effects of the new charge on ex-pump prices would be “absorbed by the gains made from the strong performance of the Ghana Cedi.”

In reaction to that, Sulemana has opined to the President of Ghana, H.E. John Dramani Mahama, that the newly introduced tax will only enrich elite looters.

Taking to his X platform, he stated that the NDC administration should focus on cutting down waste within the energy sector rather than imposing new taxes on Ghanaians.

“Resetting Ghana shouldn’t be about new taxes to continue to enrich elite looters. It should be about curbing the waste and looting in all sectors. If you know very well about the looting and waste at NPA, why such a new levy? The scandal at NPA is far bigger than the NSS Scandal,” he wrote on X.

Check his post below;

In other news, the former Vice President of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has expressed his deepest dissatisfaction with the ruling NDC’s move to introduce the fuel levy, which aims to address issues in the energy sector.