President Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has, once again, assured the people of Ghana that his
government is determined to bring relief to the Ghanaian people, and return the
economy back to the high rates of growth that characterised the management of
the economy in the three years preceding the COVID outbreak in 2020.
According to President Akufo-Addo, “in recent times, we have been witnessing
significant difficulties in the management of the national economy, largely as
a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy, which
has been exacerbated by the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
He stated, however, that “the basic commitment to resolving these challenges,
within the framework of due process and democratic institutions, must remain
unshaken. And, I am confident that, God-willing, we will overcome these
challenges.”
The President made this known on Monday, 12th September 2022, when he delivered
the keynote address at this year’s Bar Conference of the Ghana Bar Association.
Recounting the resolution, decisive action and correct policy that saw to
Government winning the war against COVID-19, he was confident that “we will
overcome our current economic challenges with the same mixture of
determination, energy and appropriate policy.”
President Akufo-Addo recounted how his administration came into office at the
time of an ongoing IMF-supported economic programme, and was able not only to
steer the country successfully out of the programme, but also to build, in the
three years of his first mandate, one of the fastest growing economies in the
world then, prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, at an annual average GDP growth
rate of seven percent (7%) in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
“We will do so again. In fact, in the last quarter of 2021, the recovery from
COVID-19 appeared to be on course, when our economy grew at seven percent (7%),
only for the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the first quarter of this year to
exacerbate our challenges. We will overcome them,” he added.
Relief To Ghanaians
It will be recalled that at the 22nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church, President Akufo-Addo noted that the approach to the IMF is a major
step, in the short-run, towards the goal of bringing relief to Presbyterian
Church.
“Other steps will be taken, in particular, to deal with the unacceptable
depreciation of the cedi. Reining in inflation, by bringing down food prices,
is a major preoccupation of the Government, and, hopefully, this season’s
emerging, successful harvest will assist us in this regard. Arrangements are
being made with market women, the market queens of popular parlance, to provide
trucks to evacuate foodstuffs from rural markets to urban centres to help
reduce food prices in the cities,” the President said.
He continued, “We are encouraging companies engaged in the manufacture of
inorganic fertilisers to scale-up production to reduce the impact of the high
cost and unavailability of fertilisers, whilst we advance rapidly our plans to
establish an organic fertilizer plant in Ghana.”
In furtherance of this, the President noted that the GH¢100 billion Ghana Cares
“Obaatampa” Programme, the programme for post-COVID economic recovery and
revitalisation, which is being implemented, anchors on bright prospects for the
medium-term.
“I continue to have an abiding faith in God to help turn the fortunes of our
nation around, especially with appropriate policy, determination and hard work
on our part, and I urge all of you gathered here to have that same belief that
the fortunes of Ghana under the Presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will
be restored,” he added.
Source: dailyguidenetwork.com