President Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo was greeted with cheers on Wednesday when he laid down his strategy to make gender and youth the business of the private sector.
This was when he delivered a speech at the opening of this year’s European Development Day Conference held in Brussels, Belgium, under the theme, ‘Making Gender and the Youth the Private Sector’s Business,’ as part of measures to combat global poverty.
While he appreciated the fact that number 5 of the United Nation’s (UN’s) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) talks about achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, he indicated that number 9 also aims at building resilient infrastructure, promoting sustainable industrialisation and fostering innovation.
He therefore stressed the belief that these two Goals have specific demographics of women and the youth in mind.
As leader of a country [Ghana] with 51% of its population being females and about 73% below the age of 35, President Akufo-Addo said, “The empowerment of our women and youth constitute fundamental challenges for our development.”
To this end, he was of the conviction that the empowerment of women and the youth “is the surest way of rooting out poverty and guaranteeing the progress and prosperity of our country and continent,” whiles noting with emphasis that “this so-called youth bulge provides immense opportunities for rapid economic development.”
Bane
Like most economies of Africa, President Akufo-Addo indicated that Ghana’s economy has remained structurally rigid since the colonial days, depending largely on the exports of primary commodities such as gold, cocoa, bauxite and timber.
“There can be no future prosperity in the short, medium or long term, if we continue to maintain this economic structure. Unless we industrialise, with the goal of adding significant value to our primary products, we cannot create the necessary numbers of high-paying jobs that will enhance the living standards of the masses of our country – our women and youth,” he stated.
Decision
According to the president, “It is for this reason that government’s priority is to build the most business-friendly and people-friendly economy in Africa which will create jobs and prosperity for Ghanaians; and this we intend to do through private sector empowerment.”
Since assuming power five months ago, President Akufo-Addo said, “We have introduced measures to stimulate the private sector, through the introduction of a monetary policy that will stabilise the currency and reduce significantly the cost of borrowing, in addition to a raft of tax cuts to bring relief to and encourage businesses.”
These interventions, he indicated, would shift the focus of Ghana’s economy from taxation to production, and hopefully, make Ghanaian businesses very competitive in West Africa, Africa and beyond.
Conviction
President Akufo-Addo underscored, “It is the competitiveness of our enterprises, in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors, that will determine our capacity to create wealth for our youth and women, and wealth in our society. The competitiveness of Ghana’s private sector is key to addressing issues of inclusion, economic development and growth of Ghana.”
For him, “That is the only way we can build a Ghana beyond aid; that is, freeing our people from a mindset of dependence, aid, charity and handouts and building a self-reliant economy which will mobilise the immense resources of Ghana, material and human, with women and youth in the forefront, to resolve Ghana’s problems.”
While empowering the private sector to create jobs and wealth, he stated, “My government, recognizing the benefits of the digital revolution, has instituted measures to keep the youth in touch with global trends and also equip them with the skills, which, together with their sense of enterprise and innovation, will be necessary in Ghana’s economic transformation. That is the focus of my government.”
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Brussels, Belgium