Oppong Nkrumah addressing journalists at the launch
Government is set to hold the second edition of the National Policy Summit (NPS), which will mainly focus on the country’s economy.
This year’s summit is slated from 23-24 July at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional Capital.
Speaking at the launch of the 2018 edition of NPS, Deputy Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said the summit would provide the platform for government, corporate Ghana, citizens and other key stakeholders to deliberate on issues affecting the country’s economy.
The summit comes on the back of the mid-year government’s economic policies review, and is under the theme: “Assessing the growth and jobs agenda.
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah indicated that it would afford key economic sector ministries the opportunity to discuss the implementation of the programmes in the first half of the year.
He added that “stakeholders will get an opportunity to also make inputs into the implementation of these policies and programmes for the second half of the year.”
The Ministry of Information began the National Policy Summit in 2017 with the goal of creating a platform for citizens, civil society groups, business community and the government to discuss policies and programmes of the Akufo-Addo administration.
Impressed by last year’s successful event, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said “the level of participation and the quality of the policy feedback received prove that Ghanaians have fully taken their place as citizens and not spectators under this administration and are eager to contribute ideas to shape and move this country forward.”
Activities
Giving a breakdown of the various activities for the summit, he said the opening ceremony shall be led by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, with the first panel discussion focusing on agriculture where the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto is expected to be scrutinized by experts on his sector’s achievements so far.
On the first day of the summit, there shall be another panel discussion, which shall focus on the government’s flagship industrialization initiative, the One District, One Factory.
The summit shall also feature discussions on how to improve trade in Ghana; tourism development; improve small-scale mining and digitization and the changing face of banking in Ghana.
Managing Director of Universal Merchant Bank (UMB), sponsors of this year’s summit, urged all citizens and stakeholders to take keen interest in the summit.
According to him, government and key stakeholders would engage in healthy debate about national policies during the summit.
By Will Tierney & Melvin Tarlue