President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stated that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government has turned around the ailing economy he inherited and Ghana is ready for the final economic take off because all the fundamentals are pointing the right way.
According to him, the NPP administration inherited an economy with massive fiscal deficit and considerable imbalances in how it was managed.
Government, he said, has turned around the situation however and provided the right building blocks for the economy to prosper.
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President Akufo-Addo stated these as part of a panel discussion at the African Investment Forum’s Invest in Africa’s Space event in Johannesburg South Africa on Monday 11th November 2019.
The panel included President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda.
He noted that his government has managed inflation reducing it from 15.4% to 7.6% currently, the lowest in two decades.
“In these three years, we have had one of the fastest-growing economies not just on the continent, but also in the world, with this year being a 7.6% growth. It has been consistent over these last three years,” he explained.
President Akufo-Addo stressed the government’s determination to maintain fiscal discipline in the management of Ghana’s public finances and indicated this has been a major objective for the administration.
“We are resisting the temptation, in an election year, to turn on the tap, hoping that the work we have done will take us through, without having to do that,” he told the Forum made up of investors from across the world.
He stated that government is committed to the development of the country’s roads, railways, and airport infrastructure and stressed, “In fact, last year, an important initiative launched, which is bearing fruit, is the Accra SkyTrain project in which South African investors are taking a very keen interest.”
“We are hoping that we would be able to advance that concept this year,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo averred that transformation of Ghana’s agriculture is one his government has been focused on since assuming office in January 2017, resulting in the institution of the programme for Planting for Food and Jobs, which has seen a revival of Ghanaian agriculture.
He said, “Planting for Food and Jobs has proven to be a spectacular success in the way it is addressing the availability of foodstuffs.”
“We are now in the position, for the first time in over a decade, of exporting foodstuffs to our neighbours.”
“We are very keen in developing private sector interest because Ghanaian agriculture is largely smallholder.”
