Economy on path of recovery following critical interventions - President - Economy on path of recovery following critical interventions

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.