The New Patriotic Party assumed power under a challenging period when the exiting National Democratic Congress had gotten our economy wobbly and comatose.
The only hope for the nation then, after John Mahama’s bungling up till 2012, had been to opt for an International Monetary Fund Programme.
Industry had collapsed under the weight of dumsor, with the only opportunities left – in the estimation of NDC apparatchiks – being import of generators for sale to state and non-state institutions to keep public and private businesses in lifeline business.
Agriculture was scoring zero and the only job creating opportunities were the security agencies and other public sector openings, which were reserved for NDC apparatchiks and relatives of political functionaries.
The banks had collapsed owing to insider trade in which one had to be a director or politically connected to access credit to do modest business.
Teeming hundreds and thousands of graduate nurses and teachers who were needed in the health and education sectors to breathe a semblance of life into the two vital sectors could not be engaged.
Restructuring
By the time Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo kicked out John Mahama from office, the nation was in dire economic straits and development deficiency, compelling a rethinking and engineering of strategies and initiatives to clear the mess and begin afresh to tackle basic developmental issues, including sanitizing the financial sector to play their traditional roles in supporting economic activity as indispensable partners.
With agriculture employing over 40 per cent of the working population, the new government was compelled to initiate extraordinary reforms and investments to help put lives and livelihoods on track.
Free SHS
Any Ghanaian who can claim not to have a feel of these initiatives certainly cannot ignore the fact of family members or close relatives having benefitted from the Free SHS programme or about to.
And the people who are beneficiaries of this great programme are in the hundreds of thousands across the country, without discrimination.
NHIS
It is the same with regard to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), first developed under the John Kufuor administration and enhanced under the Nana Akufo-Addo administration. Again, under this social intervention initiative, millions of Ghanaians are beneficiaries, having become a global attraction for a nation just coming out of an IMF programme.
Interestingly, the coverage and scope of benefits widen with each budget, positively impacting the elderly, pensioners and disabled in the vulnerable communities in districts and regions, rural communities and hamlets.
Livelihoods
Where Mahama had put the blame on the IMF programme, President Nana Akufo-Addo had thought outside the box and engineered diverse strategies and programmes in creating livelihoods in the respective sectors of the economy, particularly in the agricultural sector. Here, away from the cocoa industry, the government is now promoting mango, cashew, palm, coconut, shea and rubber under the Tree Crop Development Authority.
That is aside of several other initiatives in traditional livestock in supporting citizens to take their economic destinies into their own hands and be part of the national development effort.
Apart from the IMF programme the NPP government was saddled with, it was also confronted with the COVID-19 global pandemic, which it has surmounted, coming out as a global leader in economic growth as well as investment destination.
We don’t change a winning team
When in 2012 and 2016, Ghanaians unanimously called for change in leadership, that cry was based on the incompetence of the NDC and its leader John Mahama. After being blessed with a competent, caring and compassionate leader, all we must do, in our opinion, is to support him to do more in the next four years he has ahead of him to fulfill his exciting mandate.
That is why we agree with Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta when he says we cannot afford ‘to turn to Egypt’.
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