The dignitaries
Government has indicated that it will offer incentives to both local and foreign carmakers in Ghana to access the ECOWAS market.
Government recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with VW to establish an assembly plant in Ghana.
Yaw Osafo Maafo, Senior Minister disclosed this at the opening of the two-day Ghana Economic Forum (GEF), which started yesterday in Accra.
“We shall offer identical incentives to all such initiatives in the country whether foreign-owned or locally-owned. Thus, whatever incentives that are advanced to support VW shall be advanced to local initiatives such as Kantanka Automobile Company Limited.”
Mr Osafo Maafo, therefore, appealed to local operators to take advantage of government’s initiatives and find innovative ways of being competitive.
Fiscal responsibility council
The senior minister revealed that Ghana had experienced inconsistent growth in her development over the years, saying “We make progress at certain times but fail to consolidate the gains.”
“As a result of the fiscal slippages and inconsistencies in growth, government is working on establishing the Fiscal Responsibility Council to implement the Fiscal Responsibility Act to be enacted. The objective is to ensure that government pegs its deficit to a maximum of 5 percent of GDP. The law is also to prescribe possible sanctions for violating the provisions of the Act.”
Achievements so far
Mr Osafo Maafo trumpeted government’s achievement since coming into office. These include a reduction in the inflation to 9.6 percent in July, this year (the lowest since December 2012; cedi depreciation of 2.4 percent from January to June (the lowest in the first 18 months of every government in the fourth republic) and the first-ever positive primary balance of 0.7 percent in 2017 (the first time in a decade).
By Samuel Boadi & Nii Adjei Mensahfio