Mustapha Hamid
Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid, has revealed that a strategy to stimulate support for the President’s vision of a ‘Ghana beyond aid’ is in the offing.
“In the next couple weeks, we are going to roll out a programme that basically galvanises sections of the population and get them to understand this vision of ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ and how every section of our population can plug into it,” he announced on Tuesday evening.
President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is hoping to build a “Ghana beyond aid” through the use of the country’s own resources for development.
“We want to build an economy that is not dependent on charity and handouts, but an economy that will look at the proper management of its resources as the way to engineer social and economic growth in our country,” the President had said in March last year.
However, the vision of a ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ has been criticised as an amorphous and without timelines or an action plan.
But Mustapha Hamid explained Tuesday on PM Express, a current affairs programme on the Joy News channel (MultiTV) that the vision of a ‘Ghana beyond aid’ is similar to the ‘American Dream’, which although did not have concrete action plans, represents a nationwide vision.
The Minister also said because countries like Malaysia and Singapore achieved economic transformation between 20 to 25 years, it is possible for Ghana to achieve economic transformation — which is the ultimate goal of ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ — within the same period.
“We are going to roll out a comprehensive programme that will get the Ghanaian people to understand …all the salient elements of this vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid and for every segment of the population to try and buy into it,” Mr Hamid said.
He acknowledges that key to the realisation of the vision is for the current government and those that will come subsequently to back it with the right economic policies.
-Myjoyonline