President Akufo-Addo (inset) addressing the diplomats and their spouses at the Jubilee House, Accra. Picures By Gifty Ama Lawson
President Akufo-Addo has pledged that Ghana will not go cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to literally beg for alms.
If anything at all, he said, it would be under a different government.
This was during the annual ‘Diplomatic New Year Greeting Ceremony’ held at the Jubilee House on Tuesday evening.
“It’s time that the disarray in our public finances that has led us on 17 separate occasions to the IMF, beginning in the year of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the most recent one in March 2015 under President John Dramani Mahama, be brought to an end so that we do not have to resort to the IMF for aid. We are determined not to go back to IMF tutelage again. We will manage our affairs properly. That is the true import of moving ‘Ghana Beyond Aid,’ he affirmed.
President Akufo-Addo averred that his administration would meticulously manage the affairs of the nation to avoid any form of retrogression as happened in recent past.
He added that his administration would pursue policies that would make Ghana a modern and prosperous nation.
The President pointed out that “the two decade-old chieftaincy crisis in Dagbon in the Northern Region of our country which threatened the peace and stability of the area and of the nation has now happily been brought to a resolution by the enskinment of a new overlord of Dagbon, Ya Na Mahama Abukari II, an experienced and a mature man who, I am confident, will succeed in promoting the reconciliation of the people of Dagbon. This should be the harbinger of accelerated growth and development for the area and our nation.”
The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, on her part, declared that in 2019 her ministry would work closer with the diplomatic community in order to strengthen relations between their respective countries and Ghana.
She assured the diplomats that the Foreign Ministry would leave no stone unturned in supporting their work and activities in Ghana.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent