Features
Hope for Ghana’s economy
President Akufo-Addo
There is no doubt that the economy of the world, including that of Ghana, is in turmoil and needs to be rescued to ensure that economic recovery is experienced within the shortest possible time. For this reason, the government of Ghana is pursuing some policies that will make it possible to see growth in the various sectors of the economy.
Currently, Ghana is pursuing many policies to ensure that there is economic growth in the next two to five years. The impact of these programmes would be felt by the people from about 2024 onwards.
IMF SUPPORT
Already, the government has successfully managed and completed the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) and has received the approval of the International Monetary Fund for its support. This took effect in May of this year. In spite of this, the Ministry of Finance is also seeking negotiations with China to cancel some of her debt. It shows how serious and committed the government is as far as debt management is concerned.
A few years ago, the government screened the banking sector, and all fraudulent institutions were disapproved while others were merged. This measure will ensure greater efficiency in the banking sector. An efficient banking sector is what we need to run Ghana’s economy.
MANPOWER NEEDS
Apart from cleaning the banking sector, the free Senior High School system is also running successfully, and this has been done together with the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme to develop the manpower needs of this country. The most important asset in this country is its manpower needs, so if it is properly developed, it will make it possible for an efficient labour force to manage the affairs of the country when it comes to issues in all the sectors of the economy.
DIGITISATION
The government has adopted digitisation as a key policy objective and has recently introduced a number of programmes designed to develop a more digitally accessible public sector and encourage transparency and efficiency in order to drive growth in all aspects of the country’s economy.
STRONG INDUSTRIAL BASE
Again, the One District One Factory (1D1F) is growing in various parts of the country. This is in support of building a strong industrial base for the country. These will help reduce our dependence on imports when it comes to industrial products that can be processed locally. It is a good programme that must be continued at all cost.
What is more, the Planting For Food and Jobs programme has helped the country get enough food for its citizens even when the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected the country. All these are indications that the country is on the right course.
Other programmes, such as One District One Dam, are all meant to produce useful results in the agricultural sector. It is expected that these and other programmes will make the needed positive impact and move the country forward.
IMPROVED SECURITY
In addition, security is very important, and the government is doing what it can to strengthen all security agencies. The police have just been given 100 pickup vehicles and over 500 motorbikes, as well as other gadgets to operate more efficiently. Many of these gadgets have been provided for the police since 2019, and it goes to show that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo values security in this country.
Apart from this, the military has also been given their fair share of what they need since 2018. The support includes vehicles, equipment and accommodation for officers and men in the Armed Forces.
Other forms of support in the form of accommodation and equipment have also gone to the Fire Service and Prisons Service, among others.
In addition, many personnel have also been recruited for training. The recruitment has been done to beef up men and women in all the security agencies.
Training for them is also ongoing. The training is meant to make them more efficient.
HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
One thing that cannot be forgotten is the health sector. Apart from the 307 ambulances dispatched to operate in all constituencies in the country, drones and other health equipment have also been made to operate throughout the country to improve the healthcare system.
Additionally, district and regional hospitals have been built in all parts of the country. This is under the programme known as Agenda 111. All these and many others show that the government is very focused on its progamme and will not be distracted by its political opponents.
Ghanaians must be grateful that we have a government that is looking into the future to meet the needs of its people. What the government needs is support to enable it to continue to improve the economic welfare of all Ghanaians.
If we all do this, the sky will be the limit.
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Pradmat201@gmail.com (0553318911)
By Dr. Kofi Amponsah-Bediako
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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