President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
PRESIDENT Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has wholeheartedly accepted the ‘4 More 4 Nana’ agenda by his New Patriotic Party (NPP) as he prepares for re-election in December.
He said he would need another four-year term to continue with the good initiatives and projects he has implemented in his first term.
The President, who was speaking at the opening of the maiden Results Fair organized by the Ministry of Monitoring & Evaluation at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) on Tuesday, said much had been achieved since he took office three years ago but many more needs to be done.
“Having achieved all these significant milestones, even in the midst of the difficulties we met, I am hopeful that the Ghanaian people would reward my party with another resounding victory in 2020,” he said when he opened the fair.
No Complacency
The President said, “We will not be complacent and we will work hard for victory regardless of the fact that ‘One Good Term Deserves Another’. We need four more years to do more!”
Narrating some challenges he inherited, he said the macroeconomic situation in 2017 was terrible, evidenced by a GDP growth of 3.6%, fiscal deficit of 9.3%, inflation at 15.4% per cent, and a weak external reserves position.
“The banking sector was weighed down by a plethora of poorly capitalised, weak and insolvent institutions, with potentially grave consequences for the entire financial system. Agricultural and industrial activities were down. Unemployment, especially of the youth, was widespread, against a background of low incomes and high prices,” he said.
The President continued that the state of the economy then was such that it was a recipe “enough to undermine the pledges we made in the 2016 Manifesto, the platform on which we won the election of 2016.”
Talking of developments so far, he said the programmes and policies his administration had kick-started were so far helping to revive the Ghanaian economy, improve the health and social well-being of citizens, create a society of opportunities for all, and help put Ghana onto the path of progress and prosperity.
“Many were those who made disparaging remarks about our policies, and went as far as describing them as election gimmicks. However, by dint of hard work, we have implemented these flagship programmes, and we have begun to see their impacts throughout the country, with the overarching vision being to realise our vision of moving Ghana to a situation beyond aid,” he further noted.
“We are determined to use our resources to build a robust economy that would propel us into the ranks of the developed nations of the world, take our fate in our own hands, and work to bring us to where we do not look for or expect charity,” President Akufo-Addo said.
Ghana Cards
The President added that assurances from the Executive Secretary of the NIA indicated that the remaining cards would be issued soon, adding that “as of Wednesday, 8th January 2020, some 6.3 million Ghanaians had been registered since the mass registration exercise commenced on 29th April 2019, with 3.7 million cards issued.”