Ghana's public sector wage bill is "extraordinarily high" compared with regional peers, economist and political risk specialist Dr Theo Acheampong has said, according to JoyBusiness.
Speaking on Joy News' PM Express on Monday, he said employee compensation last year was about GHS79 billion out of total government spending of about GHS233.8 billion. On those figures, wages took about 33.8% of spending.
He said data going back to 2008 shows employee compensation has taken between 25% and about 35% to 36% of spending, averaging around 30%, so its share has stayed fairly stable even as the amount in cedis has grown.
His larger worry was the combined weight of wages, interest payments and transfers to statutory funds. "There's actually nothing left to pay for capital expenditure," he said.
Dr Acheampong said the government had signalled a focus on growth, productivity and jobs in the 2027 budget, and called for a wider discussion on wages and productivity in both the public and private sectors.
He did not name the regional peers he compared Ghana with or give their wage bill figures.