President Akufo-Addo
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has given the assurance that the Free Senior High School policy programme and other pro-poor policies will not be affected by the assistance Government is seeking from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He said the pro-poor policies his government had initiated since 2017 remain non-negotiable items of the country’s public expenditure, reiterating “it will not be affected by Ghana’s re-engagement with the IMF”.
The President also referred to the statement by the IMF Country Director, who had indicated that an initiative like the Free SHS programme cannot be sacrificed on the altar of a programme with the IMF.
President Akufo-Addo gave the assurance during an interview on UAR Radio in Bolgatanga, at the start of his working visit to the Upper East Region.
“So, all our minds are going in the same direction, and I’m very, very confident that these programmes, especially the Free SHS, Free TVET programme, will emerge from the programme with the Fund intact. I think there is something that a lot of people are forgetting.
“When we came into office, we were into an IMF programme in 2017. In fact, before we exited the IMF, Free SHS was introduced in the September of my first term in office, a whole nine months of my coming under an IMF Programme. So, it is already being accommodated within the thinking of the Fund programme for Ghana,” the President stated
He added: “It is not as if it is something that we had to wait to exit the programme before we brought it. We brought it at the time we were under an IMF Programme”.
Economic restructuring
The President said the structural transformation of the economy from its current dependence on the production and export of raw materials to one of value addition and industrialisation would help make the country self-reliant.
“That is why we’ve had this emphasis on industrial transformation coming out of the 1D1F programme. And I’m also certain that other targeted industrial transformation measures that we’ve taken in the automotive industry will enhance the value addition our strategic mineral resources like our bauxite, iron ore, among others,” he mentioned.
According to him, these are the real keys to a future robust Ghanaian economy to enable the country realise self-sufficiency.
He said, in that regard, the country “…will have an economy that is self-sufficient in the sense that the basic needs of the people are produced by Ghanaian production. So, it is important that we, in Ghana, we keep our eyes on two factors. To continue the process of structural transformation of our economy that will give us more independence, more robust and a more resilient Ghanaian economy, and make provisions for these exogenous interferences that every now and then are just bound to happen,” he recommended.
The President further reiterated that the measures being put in place currently to strengthen the economy “would make it more and more difficult for us to have that dependency and need for reliance in future”.
Border intrusion
President Akufo-Addo also appealed to residents of the Upper East region to assist Government and the security agencies in the country to curb the incidence of border infiltration in the area.
He stressed the need for “the active cooperation of the population for us to make the security response as effective as possible, and that’s why the National Security Ministry has proposed this slogan ‘See Something, Say Something’, which is basically about involving the community, the population in the work of the security and intelligence agencies,” he said.
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