Jobs For The Unemployed To Determine Success Of My Presidency- President Akufo-Addo

"The greatest challenge we face is the creation of jobs. Young people are very anxious about not finding jobs and their parents are even much more anxious about the future of their children after seeing them through school.” That's according to President Nana Akufo-Addo.

“I am well aware that the success or otherwise of my administration will be judged largely on the job creation.”

In his opening address at a media encounter on Tuesday, the president said the greatest challenge of his six-month old administration is job creation.

According to the president, his administration is making efforts including the launch of a National Entrepreneurship and Innovations Plan (NEIP), an innovative scheme under the Business Development Authority, which aims to assist business startups.

He disclosed that $10 million of public funds has been committed to the NEIP project which will assist owners to navigate their way in the early stages of business.

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

President Akufo-Addo re-counted the rather weak economic foundation he inherited and how his government has worked towards stability.

According to him, key on his agenda when he was sworn into office was how to stabilize the economy which had been ravaged by debts, high inflation and depreciating cedi.

President Akufo-Addo said, even though he was aware of the enormity of the economic challenges at hand, he was "shocked" at the state of affairs he found in office.

He said the depth of the problem required an awful lot of tough decisions by his team of “competent” economic managers headed by the Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

Having been suffocated by what he referred to as "nuisance taxes", the president said they had to review the policy direction from taxation to production.

He said a government voted for change could not afford to do business usual and the "Asempa budget" which is fully in gear is solving some of the challenges.

The president said the macro- economic indices are “beginning to show a turn for the better.”

“The monetary policy rate of the Bank of Ghana has been cut from 25.5% to 22.5% in the first half of the year; inflation has gone down from 15.4% in December 2016 to 12.1% in June from a period of six months, the lowest in four years.

The benchmark 91-day Treasury bill rate was 22.8% in January 2016 and it is narrowed to 11.9% in June this year, the lowest in five years,” he touted.

For a government that promised to use a vehicle of One-District-One-Factory policy to employ an army of unemployed youth, the president said the policy is destined to succeed given what has been done so far.

The One-District-One-Factory policy was one of the campaign mantras of the NPP with the hope of creating factories in each of the 216 districts of the country.

The policy is expected to harness the raw materials and resources within each district and set up factories for purposes of value addition which will create jobs.

The challenge was how to raise the necessary funding for such an ambitious policy but the president said there is no cause for alarm.

He said a total of $100 million has been invested for district enterprises under the one district, one factory policy.

Together with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) the president said they have secured an amount of $2 billion from the Chinese government for the supply of equipment.

The president also touched on a number of issues including galamsey, restoration of the teacher and nursing training allowances.

On Energy, President Nana Akufo-Addo said although there has been a significant improvement in supply, the country is still not where he envisages it to be.

He estimated the development has been a great threat to businesses and the cost of living in the country.

President Akufo-Addo said he is hopeful that the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta in collaboration with the Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, is at an advanced stage floating the $2.5 million bond to retire the $2.4 million energy debt overhead on the energy sector.

One of the country's paramount constraints to economic growth is its unreliable and inadequate supply of electric power, he said.
 
He believes "this development will attract more investment into the sector and reduce the cost of energy." 

GBC