President Akufo-Addo met the leadership of Civil Society Organisations Friday evening to discuss measures being taken by the government to resolve the current economic issues facing the country.
In his introductory remarks before they went into closed doors, President Akufo-Addo indicated that he invited the CSOs to get their inputs as an important constituency in the governance process on steps his administration is taking to resolve the current economic crisis.
“All of us are aware of the difficulties that our economy finds itself and the efforts that are being made by this government to address these difficulties.
“I don’t think that, that effort will succeed unless it is guided and influenced by a broad a consultative process as possible” President Akufo-Addo said.
That, he said was because “it will be difficult after you meet the economic operators, private sector people [not to meet] those of you [CSOs] who are guarding the morality and public governance of our country,” Akufo-Addo added.
Sources said the CSOs were briefed by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, on the ongoing International Monetary Fund (IMF) negotiations, budget 2023 and other economic management related issues.
Other Ministers present at the meeting were also allowed by the President to brief the CSOs on steps being taken to restore confidence in the country’s economy.
The CSOs also shared their thoughts and suggestions with President Akufo-Addo and his team on economic indicators and what they believe is the way forward with regard to rapid steps that needs to be taken to arrest the depreciation of the cedi, rising cost of living, among others.
The CSOs and their representatives who attended the meeting are; Dr. Alex Ampaabeng, The Economic Governance Platform /OXFAM, Benedict Doh, Finance Manager at Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII),Beauty Emefa Narteh, Executive Secretary for Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), Dr. Kojo Asante, Director, Advocacy and Policy Engagement at Ghana Center for Democratic Development, Dr. Emmanuel Akwetey, Executive Director, Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), Ato Bonful, member, Citizen Movement Ghana (CMG) and Edem Senanu, Co-chair, Citizen Movement Against Corruption (CMaC).
The rest were Patricia Akakpo, Programmes Manager for NETRIGHT, Dr Emmanuel Ayifah, Deputy Country Director for SEND Ghana, Kofi Asare, Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Bright Amissah, President of the Coalition of NGOs in Health, Mohammed-Anwar Sadat Adam, Head of Programs at Oxfam in Ghana and Levlyn K. Asiedu, National Coordinator, Ghana CSO Platform on SDGs.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent