The “Reset Agenda,” spearheaded by John Dramani Mahama, represents the most significant economic pivot in Ghana’s modern history. It is a surgical strike against the structural rot that once choked our potential, moving us from the “hard road” of necessary correction to the high ground of systemic recovery.
To suggest that nothing has changed is not merely an oversight; it is a denial of the very stability that has saved the working capital of every trader in this country.
To claim that a 41% appreciation of the Cedi is a “macro abstraction” is to speak the language of the blind while standing in the light. Stability is not a ghost; it is the foundation upon which every Ghanaian business either stands or crumbles. As we have often noted, the belly does not lie, and the markets do not operate on political sentiment.
Let us address the “nothing has changed” narrative directly. To claim stagnation is to ignore the surgical reform of the Value Added Tax system. On 1 January 2026, the VAT registration threshold was raised from GH¢200,000 to a staggering GH¢750,000.
This single policy has legally extricated thousands of micro and small businesses from the administrative and financial burden of the VAT net. It allows them to retain capital that would have otherwise been consumed by compliance costs.
Furthermore, the effective VAT rate has been cut by decoupling the NHIL and GETFund levies, which are now fully claimable as input credits for the first time.
In the competitive theatre of West Africa, where the waves of inflation often swallow the small trader whole, Ghana has moved from a cautionary tale to a regional vanguard. While Nigeria continues to wrestle with the ghosts of triple-digit food inflation, the Ghanaian cedi has become the second-best performing currency globally.
The Accra trader who bought stock in late 2024 saw their purchasing power effectively preserved and then strengthened throughout 2025. Their working capital is no longer being incinerated by the fires of depreciation; it is being protected by a currency that has become a regional shield.
Context remains the enemy of the propagandist. Critics fixate on a 10% utility adjustment while ignoring a 22.9 percentage point drop in food inflation. In December 2024, the Ghanaian household was being incinerated by food inflation at 27.8%; today, that figure has plummeted to 4.9%.
At the Achimota and Makola markets, the “lived reality” is evidenced by the falling prices of cooking oil, rice, and tomatoes. When headline inflation drops to 5.4%, the lowest since 2021, the pressure on the Ghanaian purse does not just stabilise; it reflects a genuine relief.
The Reset is equally about the dismantling of the “nuisance tax” regime. The repeal of the 1% E-Levy and the 10% betting tax has returned approximately GH¢6.4 billion to the pockets of the youth and the poor.
When the state stops reaching into the phone of a car washer or a student to tax their mobile money transfers, that is a humanised gain. By removing the E-Levy, Ghana has created a zero-friction zone for digital commerce, incentivising the informal-to-digital transition in a way that our regional peers have yet to dare.
Beyond the ledger of today lies the architecture of the future. The “No Academic Fee” policy has already allowed over 120,000 first-year students to enter university without the crushing burden of tuition.
By producing a surplus of debt-free graduates, Ghana is engineering a labour force that can innovate at a lower cost of entry than our peers in East Africa. We are not just training people to follow instructions; we are subsidising them to lead.
The digital posters of dissent may be well-funded, but they are intellectually bankrupt. They cannot rewrite the bank statements of the small trader now exempt from VAT, nor can they hide the fact that the cedi is no longer in freefall.
The Reset is not a miracle; it is the result of fiscal discipline and the courageous removal of taxes that once bound us. The ledger of reality is open, and it shows a nation that is finally breathing again.
Ghana is no longer the sick man of the region; we are the blueprint for what happens when a nation chooses discipline over populism.
By Raymond Ablorh
