Economy on path of recovery following critical interventions - President

After six months in office, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday gave account of his stewardship, saying a number of critical interventions instituted by the government had succeeded in helping the economy recover from the mess in which it was when his government took over.

The President subjected himself to intense media scrutiny at a media engagement at the Flagstaff House in Accra and answered questions bordering on security, corruption, the economy, agriculture, energy, power supply, the controversial issue of the sale of contaminated fuel by the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company Limited.

Describing the economy he inherited as one in “desperation”, he said: “Our desperate economic situation meant that we had to take some unorthodox but brave measures.”

He said there was no chance that the government, voted into office with a mandate for change, would dare do things in the business-as-usual manner.

The President said the Asempa Budget that the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, presented in March this year had set the tone for new ways of doing things that would transform the economy.

Delivering on campaign promises

That budget, he said, also provided the opportunity to deliver on some of the promises made during the electioneering.

Listing some of the measures instituted by the government, he said nursing and teacher training allowances had been restored to take effect at the start of the new school year, nuisance taxes had been abolished, while other measures had been taken to shift the focus of the economy from taxation to production.

“The macroeconomic indices are beginning to show a turn for the better. The monetary policy rate (MPR) of the Bank of Ghana has been cut from 25.5 per cent to 22.5 per cent in the first half of the year. Inflation has gone down from 15.4 per cent in December 2016 to 12.1 per cent in June 2017, that is, a period of six months, the lowest in four years,” he said.

He said the benchmark 91-day Treasury Bill (T-bill) rate which was 22.8 per cent in January last year had been narrowed to 11.9 per cent in June 2017, the lowest in five years.

The government, he said, was encouraged by the gradual decline in the cost of borrowing and the increase in banks’ credit to the private sector by nearly six per cent in the first quarter of 2017, compared to a decline of about seven per cent in the same period in 2016.

“But we have to continue to work to bring down the cost of borrowing to enable businesses to have access to much needed credit. It is my hope and expectation that these statistics will soon translate into tangible benefits in the lives of Ghanaians,” he added.

In addition, he said, a number of interim innovative packages to help particularly new entrepreneurs had been introduced.

Job creation

“I do not need to repeat that the greatest challenge we face is the creation of jobs. Young people are very anxious about not finding jobs and their parents are even more anxious about the future of their children after seeing them through school. I am well aware that the success or otherwise of my administration will be judged largely on job creation,” he said.

Towards that end, he said, the recent launch of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovations Plan (NEIP), an innovative scheme under the Business Development Ministry, was meant to help start-ups and the difficult early stages of setting up businesses.

“We have committed $10 million of public funds, which we hope to leverage to $100 million from private sources to back the plan,” he added.

The President said the Asempa Budget had allocated $100 million as the government’s contribution, either as equity or in kind support for the establishment of the district enterprises — one-district, one-factory — saying an additional $340 million had been leveraged from local financial institutions for the programme.

He said the government, in collaboration with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), had also arranged a supplier’s credit facility for $2 billion from China to provide equipment, machinery and other facilities in support of the programme, noting with optimism that “it is now clear that this programme is destined to succeed”.

“The Asempa Budget also provided a $50 million stimulus package for the revival of distressed companies. At the end of June 2017, 285 applications had been received. So far, 118 of these applications have been screened, of which 80 have been adjudged eligible for various stimulus packages. In addition to the government's contribution, $20 million has been earmarked by local financial institutions as part of the stimulus package. This will definitely help in the revival of our industrial sector,” the President said.

Agriculture

On the agricultural front, he said, extension officers were being employed, for the first time in many years, to provide hands-on support for farmers, and that the government was generally paying extra attention to every stage of farming.

He reported that the one-village, one-dam scheme was taking off in the three northern regions with the rehabilitation of existing dams that were in a sad state of disrepair.

President Akufo-Addo said the Planting for Food and Jobs programme, one of the administration’s flagship initiatives, had also started with increasing enthusiasm.

“The programme has registered 185,000 farmers out of the 200,000 targeted; the government is bearing 50 per cent of the cost of fertiliser for farmers; and to date 80,037 tonnes of fertiliser has been distributed to farmers enrolled on the programme. A total of 35,747 metric tonnes of seedlings have also been supplied to farmers,” he said.

He said it was noteworthy that many of the suggestions for the one-district, one-factory initiative were agriculture based, adding that his policies on agriculture and food processing as the basis for industrial take-off were convincing and attainable.

Galamsey

On illegal mining, the President intimated that since God had blessed the land with mineral resources, “we cannot do without mining, and we have the right to exploit the minerals in our land. But we cannot and should not destroy our lands, water bodies and environment in the search for gold and other minerals”.

He expressed gratitude to the majority of Ghanaians and the media for lending support to the campaign against galamsey, stressing that he would not relent in that struggle.

The government’s plan to find funds to deal with the dramatic deficit in the nation’s infrastructure needs, he said, had, at its heart, the exploitation of the country’s mineral wealth and that the Vice-President went to China with a plan to leverage some of the nation’s bauxite deposits to raise money to tackle the programme for industrialisation and the building of roads and other infrastructure.

“If proof were needed, this must surely be it that this government is neither against mining nor against Chinese. But we certainly are against the degradation of our lands and water bodies by whoever,” he maintained.

By the end of the year, he said, the government intended to have the ports functioning properly and that those who required the services of the ports should not feel oppressed by unnecessary and repetitive paperwork and corrupt practices.

On the prosecution of the Customs officials and clearing agents who were allegedly responsible for the unlawful loss of GH¢1.2 billion to the central treasury, the President said he expected to hear an announcement shortly from the Attorney-General about their prosecution.

The power crisis

With regard to the power crisis, he was pleased to note that things had improved quite a bit, adding, however, that “we are not yet where we should be, particularly with regard to the cost of energy. This is a great threat to the operations of business and the cost of living in the country”.

In that vein, he said, the Minister of Finance, in collaboration with the Minister of Energy, was at an advanced stage of floating a $2.5-billion energy bond to retire the $2.4 billion debt overhang on the energy sector and expressed the hope that the development would attract more investment into the sector and reduce the cost of energy.

“I am much relieved, however, that the supply and distribution have improved and we are working to bring costs down and make energy supply generally more reliable,” he stressed.

One of the tenets of his government, President Nana Akufo-Addo said, the focus was the commitment to inclusive and accountable governance.

He said inclusive governance required wider participation of Ghanaians by broadening the democratic base and that explained the government’s desire to re-organise the system of regional governance.

To that extent, he said, attention was being given to some petitions that had been received regarding the creation of new regions and had been forwarded to the Council of State for advice.

If the response from the council was positive, he said, then the next step would be the establishment of a commission to inquire into the demands and make recommendations on all the factors involved in the creation of those new regions.

“The President is further required to act in accordance with the recommendations of the commission, which would involve a referendum to be organised by the Electoral Commission (EC) in the affected areas to solicit the views of the affected people,” he explained.

BOST, ICT and sanitation

On the matter of BOST and the sale of five million litres of off-spec products, President Akufo-Addo reiterated that even though investigations had been concluded by the security agencies and the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), a nine-member committee, under the chairmanship of Dr Lawrence Darkwah, the Head of the Petroleum Engineering Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), had been set up by the Minister of Energy.

“Among other functions, the committee is tasked with making recommendations to ensure that we put the era of contaminated and off-spec products behind us by tackling issues such as the integrity of the pipeline infrastructure, improving pipeline operations and maintenance, continuous training and skills upgrade of pipeline operators and implementing improved standard operating procedures, including the controlled evacuation and disposal of products under the direct supervision of the NPA,” he said.

On Information and Communications Technology (ICT), he said: “We want every Ghanaian to have access to good and affordable connectivity. Every Ghanaian everywhere must have access to voice and data connectivity. This is the imperative of our times.”

On sanitation, he said it was important to recognise that there were huge debts owed to the service providers which were hampering their ability to deliver the needed services in a timely and regular manner.

The government, he said, had taken measures to begin to settle those obligations to facilitate the evacuation and disposal of the heaps of refuse in the cities.

“It is my understanding that meetings have been held between the ministry, led by an experienced Minister, Mr Kofi Adda, and the service providers on this matter, and the evacuation of the refuse, which has already started on a modest scale, will be aggressively pursued to rid the cities of filth,” the President said.

Security and corruption

The President also touched on security issues and made reference to the activities of the Delta and the Invincible forces, associated with the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), as well as the horrendous murder of Captain Mahama Adams.

“What I have communicated clearly to the law enforcement agencies is that the best way of dealing with such incidents is to let the law take its course without any political interference. The young men have shown remorse and the legal process is working. I hope that we all learn the required lessons from these unfortunate incidents,” he said.

On dealing with corruption, he said the bill for the creation of the Office of the Special Prosecutor had been gazetted and is in Parliament, adding: “We all, in and out of Parliament, should take an interest and help with the rapid passage of a law that will serve us well.”

On Ghanaians living abroad, the President said the government knew from the examples of several countries what fruitful collaboration between their overseas nationals and their governments had brought to their national development and prosperity, saying: “My government intends to emulate them.”