Matthew Opoku Prempeh
Minister of Education, Dr Mathew Opoku-Prempeh, popularly known as Napo, has indicated that Ghana and Africa in general have no excuse whatsoever to continue to depend on foreign aid for national development.
The award-winning education minister disclosed this while answering a question posed by DAILY GUIDE on the sidelines of the World Innovation Summit on Education (WISE) held on Wednesday, May 9, 2018, in Accra.
Dr Opoku-Prempeh, who read a speech on behalf of President Akufo-Addo at the summit, reiterated the call to move Ghana and Africa Beyond Aid.
Napo indicated that there was no excuse for African countries not to move beyond the aid.
According to him, “Africa is living as a beggar continent, and Ghana cannot remain a beggar nation forever.”
He pointed out that considering Ghana’s vast natural and human resources, the country has no excuse to depend on foreign assistance to meet its developmental needs.
According to him, President Akufo-Addo’s ‘Africa Beyond Aid’ vision is intended to inspire the people of the continent to begin to take their destinies into their own hands rather than relying on foreign assistance.
“A leader is supposed to inspire and lead his people with a vision, and that is what President Akufo-Addo is doing by focusing on desire to see a Ghana Beyond Aid, because we cannot remain a beggar nation dependent on the charity of others,” he told DAILY GUIDE.
He noted that fundamentally, Ghana must aspire to grow its economy in order to generate revenue to create the fiscal space for investment in education and skills training.
Making reference to the President’s speech, he stated that Ghana cannot create economic growth and decent jobs without investing in quality education, because education is the lifeblood of development and prosperity.
Dr Opoku-Prempeh observed that with a robust economy, it would be possible to wean Ghana off foreign aid and rely on internally generated funds to drive the development agenda.
Calling on Ghanaians to buy into the President’s vision, Dr Opoku-Prempeh declared that “We cannot build a country on cynicism and pessimism.”
By Melvin Tarlue