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There are exciting times ahead of the nation because the economy is on the cusp of substantial growth, said Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
He said that despite all the challenges Ghana faced this year, prudent management of resources by the government had ensured that it remained afloat and that it was taking giant steps to take its rightful place in the global economy.
Speaking at a conference on the future of Ghana’s economy at the Cedi Conference Center of the Department of Economics at the University of Ghana in Accra last night, Dr Bawumia said that the transformation that had occurred in the past four years was due to that “we were clear in our mind what to do and we had a plan to do it, starting first with the restoration of the economy.”
The conference, titled: “The Case for Four More Years to Do More for You,” saw the Vice President systematically leading his audience through the economy the Akufo-Addo administration had inherited and how he had worked assiduously to position the country with strength in all facets.
Policy impact
By painting a broad picture of what the government led by Nana Akufo-Addo had tried to do for the past four years and how each of them connected to a central theme, Dr. Bawumia said that everything that had been done was designed to impact the lives and livelihoods of all Ghanaians.
“Our administration for the past four years means nothing if we have not impacted the lives and livelihoods of the great mass of Ghanaians,” he added.
“The leadership we elect on December 7 is not just about what they can guide us to accomplish over the next four years, but it will seize the opportunities that arise from the challenges this year to forge new partnerships, access new markets, and grow. national markets, ”he said.
Economy
Delving into the economy, Vice President Bawumia said that before the NPP came to power, the economy was bleeding profusely from poor governance from the Mahama-led NDC government and the hardships for Ghanaians were enormous.
The strategy adopted by the new government when it took office on January 7, 2017, therefore, was to come up with a master plan, which included reducing the human cost of economic mismanagement and laying the foundation for an inclusive and prosperous Ghana. Help.
Based on the plan, he said, seven objectives were executed, including stabilizing and growing the economy, transforming the economy, generating employment, especially for young people, as well as modernizing, digitizing and formalizing the country’s economy.
Dr. Bawumia said that despite the COVID-19 pandemic that had affected every economy in the world, the government was able to stabilize the economy, reduce inflation, and record double-digit economic growth in its first three years.
“We reduced the exchange rate depreciation rate, stabilized the exchange rate depreciation, with the country registering the lowest rate of depreciation in the last 28 years, and we reduced the rate of debt accumulation,” he said.
He said that the relatively strong performance of the economy, among other things, had led to Ghana becoming the preferred destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) in West Africa.
He said that 15 taxes had been abolished or reduced in the first term of government, which is unprecedented in the country’s history.
Financial services
While noting that the financial services sector that the Akufo-Addo administration met was in dire straits, the Vice President indicated that steps had been taken to salvage the situation.
“We have cleaned up the mess in the financial sector that we inherited. We made decisive decisions to avoid the collapse of the financial sector, save the deposits of 4.6 million depositors and save jobs, “he said.
So far, he said, the government had spent GH ¢ 21 billion to clean up the sector and ensured that all depositors would receive their money.
Inclusivity
While Dr. Bawumia said that President Akufo-Addo had largely delivered on these promises over the past four years, he added that the President had also shown that he cared for each and every one of us, especially the poor, the vulnerable. and the underprivileged.
That had been shown in the way the president had worked, in four years, to significantly reduce the human cost of inherited economic mismanagement, he said.
He said the government had stabilized the economy, created more than two million jobs in the formal sector alone, maintained power to power homes, businesses and industries, invested in massive infrastructure.
development at the local and national level and the implementation of far-reaching social protection programs.
Brilliant Future
For that reason, Ghanaians could expect accelerated industrialization, jobs and infrastructure development over the next four years, he said to applause from the meeting.
Vice President Bawumia said the government’s digitization agenda was to eliminate the chronic problems of the highly informal economy, along with the manual, bureaucratic and cumbersome processes involved in delivering government services.
“Today, the results of our digitization campaign are paying off and Ghana is clearly on track to become one of the most digitized economies in Africa in the next two years.
“We have registered and issued national biometric identification cards, which the NDC government has not been able to do in eight years, and so far, 15.5 million people have enrolled and the process will be completed in the first half of 2021.” said.
He said the government had identified and provided unique addresses for all properties in Ghana, while the Spatial Planning and Spatial Planning Authority (LUSPA) had also provided street names and house numbers for all streets without Ghana name.
The vice president further said that discussions had been held with Google and he expected the 7.5 million addresses to be uploaded to Google maps by early 2021.
He said the country was currently the fastest growing mobile money market in Africa, with 36.9 million registered mobile money accounts.
He said the government intended to integrate the national identification card with passports, SSNIT card, Tax Identification Numbers (TIN), DVLA, bank accounts and SIM cards / mobile money accounts to make Ghana a functional digital economy. .
Power and education
Tracing the hardships Ghanaians faced prior to assuming the post of PNP administration, Dr. Bawumia said: “You are living witnesses to the several thousand fellow citizens who lost their jobs under the relentless four-year burden of ‘dumsor ‘, exacerbated by onerous electricity rates and taxes, as businesses collapsed. “
All this was a thing of the past due to the good policies of the government, led by Nana Akufo-Addo.
In education, the vice president said that so far ¢ 3.2 billion GH had been spent on free upper secondary school.
“This is the money that we have put in people’s pockets,” he added.
Agriculture and health
Dr. Bawumia also delved into health, agriculture and related areas and said that in all of that, the government had performed very well.
In agriculture, for example, he mentioned how the Plant Food and Jobs initiative had revived the ailing agricultural sector and today farmers are enjoying the fruits of their labor, while the nation also reaps the benefits.
In the health sector, he said that the NHIS had been rescued from its cash and carry situation with the payment of arrears owed to service providers by the government, while the National Ambulance Service had been rescued with 307 ambulances and additional staff.
“More than 92,000 healthcare personnel have been recruited for our hospitals and we have introduced drones to deliver critical medicines and blood to people in remote areas of the country. Ghana now has the largest medical drone delivery service in the world, ”he said.
He said 107 factories were being built under the One District, One Factory initiative, adding that all districts would be covered in due course.
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