body-container-line-1

NDC Forum For Setting The Records Straight: What Mills has done with the Economy

By Myjoyonline.com | Isaac Yeboah
NDC NDC Forum For Setting The Records Straight: What Mills has done with the Economy
MAR 1, 2012 LISTEN

The NDC Forum For Setting The Records Straight which featured prominently in the run-up to Elections 2008, on Wednesday bounced back with an extensive exposé on what it says are massive achievements of the Mills-led Administration on the Ghanaian Economy.

The entire presentation, addressed by Deputy Finance Minister Fifi Kwetey, is available in text (without accompanying illustrations) or in pdf format (complete with illustrations.

He was supported by Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, Deputy Local Government and Rural Development Minister, Deputy Interior Minister Kobby Acheampong, Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Dr. Omane Boamah, National Democratic Congress Propaganda Secretary Richard Quashigah and NDC Communication Team member, Felix Kwakye Ofosu.

The Forum concluded that President Mills and his team have delivered the following 12 cardinal accomplishments among others.

- an unprecedented low inflation rate.
- an unprecedented stability of the currency.
- an unprecedented gross external reserves.
- an unprecedented single spine salary scheme.
- an unprecedented low budget deficit.
- an unprecedented GDP growth.
- an unprecedented one million metric tons of cocoa.

- an unprecedented revenue to GDP feat ever chalked in a year.

- an unprecedented feat in the Convergence Criteria of the WAMZ.

- an unprecedented Petroleum Price Hedging Program.

- an unprecedented rise in FDIs and Portfolio investments.

- an unprecedented transparent scheme for the management of the petroleum revenues.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, if the Mills led government has done all these in three short years, despite the crisis left behind by the NPP, how much more shall President Mills and his team not do when given a second mandate that will be not be characterized by the Elephant-Size Mess NPP left behind for Prof Mills."

Straightening The Distortions and Telling Prez Mills' Story Fully

Thank you very much Ladies and gentlemen of the media for honouring our invitation.

The NDC Forum For Setting The Records Straight wishes to extend to all Ghanaians the wishes of a blissful and fulfilling year 2012.

Over the last three years, The Forum has observed with some amusement frantic efforts by the NPP and its apologists to create the impression that the Mills' government has failed to perform and to live up to expectation.

The Forum wishes to applaud the brilliant efforts that continue to be deployed by various government and party spokespersons to straighten these many distortions. Starting from today, the NDC Forum For Setting The Records Straight will start lending its full support to the many efforts that have been made to date to correct the many deliberate distortions of the NPP. We will also embark on a journey of comprehensively telling the story of the Mills' government's accomplishments.

We will touch the broad spectrum of President Mills' achievements over the last three years- from rural development, through Agriculture, Social and Economic Infrastructure, to restoring Honour and Dignity to the highest office among others. We are confident that by the time we are through, the people of Ghana will be left in no doubt that Ghana over the last three years has been far better with President Mills at the helm of affairs rather than the candidate of the NPP.

We will set the ball rolling today by taking a comprehensive look at what has been done by President Mills as far as the Management of the national economy is concerned.

The Crisis The NPP Left Behind For Mills
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, it is not an exaggeration when we state that there has been no government in the history of our 4th Republic that has faced the Economic Mess and Crisis President Mills inherited from the NPP upon taking the reins of power on January 7, 2009.


In addition to the global financial and economic crisis that ushered President Mills into office, the Mills led government also had to face an unprecedented budget deficit of about 15 percent on cash basis and about 22 percent on commitment basis. President Mills thus encountered astronomical arrears never heard of before in the history of Ghana and a badly mismanaged economy that brought in its wake a currency that was in free fall, inflation that had started galloping at a fast rate, a banking sector virtually strangulated with huge Non Performing loan ratios, contractors who were in disarray because they were deceived into getting their bankers to pre-finance contracts when the NPP had not provided a dime in the 2008 budget to cover most of those payments; major road contracts such as the Accra-Nsawam project were awarded without even securing a source of financing, TOR was virtually at a standstill due to crippling debts; debts which threatened to collapse the nation's largest commercial bank, the Ghana Commercial Bank.

As if these were not enough, foreign portfolio investors, upon realizing the astronomical mess the NPP left behind and how that was affecting the value of the cedi, started liquidating their investments with lightning speed which brought the cedi under even more unbearable pressure. Confidence of domestic and international investors and financial markets reached an all time low. We have not even mentioned the recklessness with which the NPP announced in the final hours of its mandate an incredible Increase in salaries as part of a Single Spine Salary Program completely oblivious of the fact that the arrears alone they had left behind virtually equaled the 35 trillion cedis, which was almost the whole debt of Ghana from 1957 to 2000- a recklessness that fortunately was realized by organized labour which rightly denounced the move. The people of Ghana will be eternally grateful to organized labour for that show of patriotism.

In a nutshell, the NPP had so badly messed up the economy and left it in a state of suspended animation, barely alive in the Intensive Care Unit.

Yet The NPP Had Inherited a Recovering Economy From The NDC

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, when the NPP came into office in 2001 they claimed they inherited a collapsed economy. They cited the year 2000 end period inflation which stood at 40 percent as one of the main evidences. They also cited the depreciation of the cedi in the year 2000 and capped it all by saying that they had inherited a HIPC economy.

We have in the past explained that if the NPP had faced a fraction of the economic crisis the Rawlings led NDC faced in the second half of 1999 and 2000, the deficit they would have left for Ghana and the arrears they would have bequeathed upon leaving office would have been impossible to compute. NPP's so called 2008 crisis was by comparison a mini crisis. In 1999-2000, the then NDC faced a collapse in both cocoa and gold prices and a simultaneous skyrocketing increase in crude oil price (which at its height reached 153%, compared with the 100% the NPP faced in 2008). Even with the minute crisis they faced in 2008, they left behind an unprecedented 14.5 percent deficit and astronomical arrears of 35 trillion cedis. So can we begin to imagine the magnitude of the mess the NPP would have left if they had faced the Mega crisis the NDC2 faced in the year 2000.

Besides, when NPP talks about 40 percent end period inflation in the year 2000, what they conveniently fail to add is that average inflation in the year 2000 in spite of the Mega crisis stood at 25 percent. Average inflation in 2003, two clear years after the NPP took over, stood at 27 percent worse than the crisis year 2000 figure.

NPPs Lies About Inheriting A Fast Falling Currency in 2001

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, NPP's claim that they inherited in 2001 a currency that was fast losing value as a result of depreciation is again another example of NPP's superlative ability to distort the truth.

The truth is that whereas the second half of 1999 and the first eight months of 2000 saw a rapid depreciation of the cedi because of the Mega Crisis Ghana's economy faced at the time, the Rawlings' government economic management team which was led by then Vice President Mills, through astute management, weathered the storm considerably in the last four months of the year 2000 and achieved a remarkable slowing of the currency depreciation; which feat continued well into the first six months of 2001 when the incoming NPP was finding its feet in office.

Whereas the first 8 months of the year 2000 saw an average 19 percent monthly depreciation of the cedi, the last four months of the year 2000 saw only a 2 percent monthly depreciation. Incidentally, even though in 2008, the NPP did not face the mega crisis the NDC faced in the year 2000, the last four months of the NPP in power saw the same monthly depreciation of 2 percent just as the Rawlings NDC achieved in spite of the massive external shock without resorting to selling Ghana Telecom and without any external support from either the World Bank or other Development partners.

To further accentuate the point, one needs to just compare the performance of the cedi in the first few months of the NPP in 2001 (which largely shows the effects of the last months of the preceding government's economic policy) with the first few months of the Mills' government in 2009.

In the very first month of 2001 when President Kufuor had not even formed his cabinet yet, the cedi saw an appreciation in value consistent with the relatively strong performance of the currency in the last four months of the year 2000. The next five months whilst the NPP was finding its feet, the relative strong performance of the cedi continued with monthly depreciation averaging just 0.4 percent.

Compare that with the first 6 months of President Mills which largely reflect the policies put in place in the final months of the NPP in 2008. The very first month of January 2009, when President Mills had not even appointed one Minister of State, saw the cedi losing value by as much as 5.12 percent. The last time such a monthly depreciation exceeding 5 percent had occurred was in August 2000. This goes to show the scale of the economic mess the NPP had caused in the last months of 2008. February to June 2009 saw a similar trend with the average depreciation standing at 3.1 percent.

By the turn of the first half of 2009, the policies of President Mills started taking hold. These savvy and astute economic policies completely alien to the NPP, enabled a slowing down of the monthly depreciation of over 3 percent down to less than 1 percent in the last five months of 2009. The month of September was to see the start of the phenomenal performance by President Mills and his team. August 2009 saw the cedi appreciating in value by as much as 1.74 percent. In eight long years of the NPP the highest monthly appreciation of 0.87 percent occurred in July 2001 and incidentally that happened while Dr Kwabena Duffuor the current Finance Minister was the Governor of the Central Bank.

HIPC- Another Flawed NPP Excuse
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, Ghana going into HIPC is another thing the NPP throws about to justify their claim that they inherited a collapsed economy. This was just another convenient lie. The one-size-fit-all debt sustainability ratios were determined by the World Bank and IMF and on the basis of those ratios, virtually all developing countries became classified as HIPC. Some of the countries that fell into the HIPC categorization were admittedly poorly managed economically; but others such as Ghana that had consistently posted positive growth rates of about 4 percent from 1984 to 2000 did not fall into that category because of economic mismanagement but rather by virtue of the unjust economic order that ensured that prices of exports from developing countries were comparatively cheaper.

Besides, as mentioned earlier, despite the crisis faced by Ghana in the year 2000, the economy was in a good state of recovery in the final months compared with the debilitating economic crises the NPP left behind at the close of 2008. Of the two situations, if one needed truly to be described as precarious and badly in need of help then it was the Intensive Care Unit economy the NPP left behind rather than the recovering economy left behind in 2000.

Moreover what's the point of NPP taking the nation through the whole debt write off exercise and as soon as HIPC was completed, rush to borrow almost 1 billion dollar and virtually waste it down the drain with not one single major infrastructure to show for it? Again, what was the point of all the HIPC journey only for the NPP to land the economy on rocks as it did in 2008? So you see the whole HIPC excuse was just another attempt by the NPP to create the impression that the previous NDC had mismanaged the economy.

Why have we taken the time to remind the nation about the shocking depths to which NPP plunged this dear country? It's because many times, it is difficult for people to appreciate the heights that have been reached unless they understand fully the depths from which they had to climb out.

From Crisis To Hope - The Mills Economic Story

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, the formidable effort needed to rescue the shattered economy the NPP left behind would have overwhelmed most leaders- but not President Mills.

Through a combination of prudent and astute fiscal and monetary policies, the Mills Economic team set about restoring sanity and consolidation into the economy. Arduous though it was, the results started showing by July of 2009. Both inflation and the rate of depreciation which from January to June had shown negative trends turned the corner in July for the first time. Inflation which by June 2009 had reached a peak of 20.74, inched down to 20.5 percent. The cedi, which from January to June 2009 had suffered a rapid monthly depreciation of about 3 percent, slowed down considerably to 0.9 percent in July.

Mills' Inflation Feat
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, many scoffed those early signs and claimed they were just a nine day wonder. President Mills and his Economic team knew better. The Inflation figure far from being a flash in the pan, continued its consistent downward trajectory and by the middle of 2010, made a historic entry into single digit. Inflation continued to drop consistently for a period of 18 long months, a feat never recorded in the history of Ghana. That's not all, inflation has remained in single digit from June 2010 to the end of January 2012, another unprecedented 19 month long spell, a feat dreamed of by the NPP, but which in 8 long years they never achieved.

President Mills' determination to bring inflation down and keep it low has been informed by the need to keep increases in cost of living below the growth in income levels within the economy. The same sentiments have been behind the effort to secure the stability of the cedi bearing in mind how a rapid depreciation of the cedi causes prices of imported goods to increase at an alarming rate. In no economy of the world, is it possible for prices of all goods and services to remain at the same levels over the period of three years. Even in countries with very low inflation rates, prices do still show upward movement.

Though it is the truth that prices of goods and services have seen some upward movement in the past three years, the great success chalked in the battle against inflation and the depreciation of the cedi have made the situation far better than it would have been if the alarming 18 percent inflation NPP handed over at the end of 2008 had not been contained and brought down considerably coupled with the halting of the rapid depreciation of the cedi.

Moreover, the phenomenal effort made to boost the remuneration of public sector employees through the Single Spine Salary Scheme and the effects of this on their households and near and far dependants, have in many ways brought real improvement in the standard of living of the workers and their families and a positive spill over into the broader economy as well.

The battle to make cost of living go down even further however is not solely within the control of the government. There are certain attitudes, beliefs and mindset that must change if we are to see improvement in this important area. The mindset that makes the micro/small/medium or large business unit in Ghana want to make a kill through higher pricing at the least opportunity remains a big cultural obstacle. In many places where economies thrive, the principal strategy is to place less premium on profit through constant price increase and rather put more importance on making higher profits on the back of greater volumes of transaction. The strong predisposition of the Ghanaian towards the former is one of the principal drivers of relatively higher prices within our economy. A case in point is the difficulty our banks continue to have in bringing the price of credit (i.e. lending rates) down significantly in response to the significant drop in inflation and The risk free rate (i.e. T-bill rate). Profit levels of banks would have been far enhanced if they had had the courage to reduce those prices which would have in turn spurred greater output and higher volume of banking transactions; but because of the age-old mindset of focusing on prices rather than on volumes, cost of lending continues to be high which in turn translates into higher prices of goods and services, a situation which is clearly avoidable.

Mills' Cedi Stability Accomplishment
Those who thought the July 2009 relatively good performance of the cedi was a fluke had a shock when August saw a remarkable appreciation in the value of the cedi followed by another feat not recorded in Ghana's history for several decades. The Cedi Continued back to back appreciation in value for 8 long months. Despite sporadic difficulties, this relative stability of the currency has remained from July 2009 to December 2011. And in spite of transient difficulties in first few weeks of 2012, the recent massive oversubscription of the Bank of Ghana's 3 three year bonds by foreign investors bringing in its wake a resumption of the appreciation of the cedi, underscores the continued high confidence in the cedi and shows that over the medium term the currency stability is set to continue especially as the nation produces bigger and bigger volumes of Oil.

Single Spine Salary Challenge- Mills Met It and Managed It

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, despite the remarkable turnaround that President Mills and his team had achieved in the management of the economy, one hurdle remained and that hurdle was the obstacle that prophets of doom were certain was going to be the undoing of all the good work President Mills had achieved. It was not just the cynics that thought so but many development partners were apprehensive as well.

Navigating through the incredibly expensive and potentially destabilizing Single Spine Salary scheme would prove to be arguably one of the toughest challenges President Mills and his team had to confront. In spite of the scale of the resources that had to be found to make the exercise successful, President Mills and his team, working harmoniously with organized labour reached critical agreements not only about the new levels that each public sector organization was to be migrated to, but also the critical time period within which the full migration could be done and the astronomical arrears settled.

As a result of the brilliant manner this difficult assignment was handled, it can be safely said that public sector employees have seen an appreciable improvement in their remunerations, taking the pay envelope from about 2.5 billion cedis to about 5 billion cedis.

It is to the credit of the great leadership of Prof Mills and a salutation of the nationalistic spirit of organized labour that the nation at the close of 2011 successfully achieved the migration of nearly 100 percent of all public sector workers. It was arguably the toughest challenge President Mills faced but what a remarkable success he made of it despite the astronomical mess he inherited from the ever reckless NPP.

Ever Growing International Reserves
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, underpinning the stability of the currency has been the consistent growth in the nation's Gross International Reserves and Ghana's capacity to provide comfortably for the import of goods and services in the event of a force majeure. Gross International reserves which stood at 1.8 billion dollars at the close of 2008, have grown considerably and hit almost 5 billion dollars by the close of 2011, another significant testament of the remarkable job Prof Mills had done in three years.

Containing the Runaway Budget Deficit
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, no government in the constitutional history of Ghana before the coming into office of the NPP has ever posted a budget deficit about 15 percent of GDP. The NPP will forever be in our record books as being the group that scored that unenviable feat. While economies like Greece, Ireland etc were virtually grinding to a halt due to budget deficits in the region of 12 and 13 percent, President Mills and his team quietly set about navigating through the turbulence caused by the huge deficit left behind by the NPP. In 2009 in particular, President Mills and his team had to be on the path of consolidation which largely meant curtailing non priority expenditures especially given that revenue growth was relatively constrained by the Global economic crisis. By the close of 2009, the budget deficit was brought down to about 9.6 percent.

By dink of hardwork and competent management, the Mills-led government by 2011 achieved a remarkable containment of the huge deficit. At the time of the presentation of the 2012 budget, the budget deficit stood at 2 percent- a feat that has not been achieved in several decades.

Mills Confounding the Cynics With Record GDP Growth

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, in 2009, owing to the effects of the global crisis and the need to restore sanity through macro-economic consolidation, Ghana's GDP grew by 4.1 percent. In 2010 one clear year before the commercial production of crude oil, growth gathered pace reaching an impressive 7.7 percent. In 2011, this strong growth in the non oil sector continued; the additional impetus brought about by the production of oil led to Ghana posting a record growth of 13.6 percent, one of the highest growth rates in the world; this was anchored on a still very vibrant non oil growth. The significant difference with these high growth patterns being chalked by President Mills is that these growth levels are not just high but very healthy. Completely different from the very unhealthy growth achieved by the NPP in 2008- a growth which first and foremost was accomplished through a dangerously high deficit plus financing, which on cash basis stood at nearly 15% and on commitment basis was a staggering 22 percent plus.

An unhealthy growth which brought in its wake a rapid depletion of the nation's foreign reserves, high inflation, high interest rates, high non performing loan ratios for banks, a rapid depreciation of the cedi, shattered the confidence of portfolio investors and imperiled local contractors, their bankers and the economy as a whole. Not so the high and healthy growth rates being chalked by President Mills and his team. While NPPs growth rate was toxic and sent the economy into Intensive Care Unit, President Mills' High and healthy growth is inspiring widespread local and international confidence in Ghana, setting the stage for even more accelerated future growth, across all the productive sectors. To cap it all, is the fact that this healthy, high, sustained inclusive growth is being achieved in the midst of unprecedented sound macro- economic fundamentals.

Phenomenal Rise In Foreign Direct Investment

The healthy and high growth rates have brought in their wake, unprecedented inflows in Foreign Direct Investments and portfolio investments. The year 2011 saw the FDI inflow into Ghana reaching a staggering 6.8 billion dollars. The figure for 2010 stood at 1.28 billion dollars.

Rebasing of Ghana's GDP
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, the rebasing of Ghana's GDP which was done in the last quarter of 2010 is largely a credit to the economic turnaround achieved by the PNDC/NDC, halting the years of negative economic growth, setting into motion a far-reaching economic/financial recovery and extensive reform program, followed by a painful process of reconstructing the nation's completely shattered social and economic infrastructure. This was what smoothed Ghana into a successful era of sustainable political stability and 17 years of continuous positive growth rates of the economy, spanning 1984 to 2000.

The durable and solid infrastructural and institutional foundations that were laid coupled with the far reaching reform processes undertaken provided the strong anchor that irreversibly prepared the stage for the continuation of the growth of the economy from 2001 to date.

NPP's Spurious Claims That We Attained Low Inflation Only Due To Low

Expenditure
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, confounded by the impressive performance of the economy under President Mills, especially the record breaking continuous reduction in Inflation, the NPP has over the last several months tried hard to create the blatantly false impression that the macro-economic stability was on account of lower expenditure on the part of government. The evidence however shows the contrary. Even in the year 2009, when it became critical to hold down expenditure in order to restore economic sanity following the utter recklessness of the NPP in 2008, government's expenditure exceeded the 2008 expenditure. In the year 2010, expenditure went even higher because of the introduction of the Single Spine Salary Scheme and the need to start paying a huge part of the 35,000,000,000,000 old cedis arrears.

Containing expenditure in 2010 was a tough challenge, hence the comparatively higher budget deficit that year. Yet, the NPP conveniently closes its eyes to these naked truths and claims that it is because government has not been spending that inflation and the cedi have been very stable. The 2011 expenditure patterns again confirm that government expenditure over the three years of President Mills has been buoyant. Records at the Ministry of Finance show that the total budget allocation to the Ministry of Defense covering the period 2009 to 2012 stands at a little over 600m cedis compared with the total of 481m cedis which represents the total resource envelope allocated to the same ministry during the eight long years of the NPP. This shows that President Mills in his first term alone has allocated far more to the Ministry of defense than NPP did in 8 years. Similar trends exist in many other sectors as well. Yet the NPP continues to throw dust in the eyes of Ghanaians with Spurious claims that President Mills is not spending. Incredible!

Debt Stock- Sustainable & Invested Into Productive Sectors

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, the rising debt stock of Ghana under President Mills has been one of the issues that the NPP has been making a lot of noise about. The truth however is that Ghana's total debt when viewed against our GDP is very sustainable and poses no threat at all to our country. This view is completely supported not just by the IMF and the World Bank but by virtually all international credit rating agencies and the international financial markets. The recent massive vote of confidence from the IMF, when it corroborated Ghana's need for a non-concessional borrowing threshold of up to 3.4 billion dollars, is yet another massive endorsement of President Mills. It shows that at even at the global level there is consensus that the President and his team have been savvy in the management of the nation's debt just as they have been astute in other areas of the economy like inflation, currency stability, growth, budget deficit etc.

NPP has out of desperation resorted to playing to the gallery, screaming out the quantum of the domestic and external debt stock, hoping against hope that the mere mention of the total debt will frighten Ghanaians and make them think the economy is being mismanaged. What they have conveniently glossed over is the fact that what matters most is the efficient utilization of the monies borrowed; and on that score, President Mills and his NDC are light years ahead of the NPP.

A case in point is how the NPP utilized the very expensive almost one billion dollar Eurobond money it obtained at the close of 2007. For a bond that Ghana has to retire in the next five years and whose interest rate is a high 8.5 percent, the NPP cannot today point to one major infrastructure that the money was used for. They should point us just a single road, or bridge, or housing facility, or water system, or energy infrastructure, or school, or hospital that the money was used for. In line with their obsession for kickback induced procurement politics, they ignored real long term infrastructure investment and rather spent these enormous resources into procuring locomotives (at the time the railway tracks were not existent), prepaid meters, Anglogold shares and used part of the money to pay salaries among others. How very sad!

Compare NPPs Use of $750m Vrs Our Plan For The $3b

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, let's compare this inexcusable expenditure of the NPP with the plan President Mills has detailed for the 3 billion dollar facility. Another massive difference is the fact that whereas NPP did not even bother to get detailed feasibility studies in place before rushing to borrow the almost 1 billion dollar facility and therefore proceeded without any proper plan to wantonly dissipate it, President Mills has ensured that every single project to be financed by the 3 billion dollar facility has detailed feasibility studies to ensure that the nation derives maximum economic returns from the facility. So for instance the detailed feasibility of the Gas Infrastructure alone indicates that the return on investment from that alone can pay off the whole 3 billion dollar facility in a few years. That's the difference President Mills brings.

President Mills is therefore pushing for the critical investments that will provide accelerated and sustainable economic growth and transformation going forward. Besides, it is quite an irony for the NPP, a party that at the close of 2008 left arrears alone amounting to 35 trillion cedis (almost close to the total debt stock of Ghana from 1957 to 2000) to want to even pontificate over huge debt stock. NPP should be the last group to speak about huge debt stock. They simply do not have the moral authority.

What has the Debt Stock Accumulated To Date Been Used For?

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, another familiar refrain these days has been: “Show us what all those debts approved have been used for.” And this request is coming from a political party that spent 8 long years in government and whose leading members were in both the executive and the legislature. In the first place, though they very well know that a loan approved in parliament does not mean a loan disbursed, they deliberately mislead the people of Ghana by throwing about the total loans approved in parliament and asking where the projects are even though they are aware that even as at 2012 there are still loans contracted way back in 2006 that have still not been fully disbursed and therefore completed projects from such undisbursed loans could not be shown.

They also deliberately ask to see the projects even though they know that not every loan approved goes into visible infrastructural projects like roads- this is because many loans go largely into building the critical institutional and systemic capacity needed to achieve optimum returns for the country. They also do know that many projects do take years to complete as can be seen from example of the recently commissioned N1 Highway that took almost four years to complete.

But the proof of some of the things we used the loans for abounds. Huge part of the loans we borrowed domestically have been used to among others, pay off the hydra headed TOR debt the NPP left behind, pay the huge road and non-road arrears left behind by the NPP and notably cover the shame of the NPP in starting major road projects, aka the Gang of four roads without even having the presence of mind to secure a stable source of financing for the projects.

We will also before long at a future press conference that will deal with social and economic infrastructure, give extensive information on many of the physical projects that other loans contracted are being used for.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, in addition to all this has been the astute debt management that has been deployed under President Mills' leadership that has made cost of domestic borrowing become cheaper with the 91 day T- Bill dropping to a historic 9.1 percent by the close of 2011. There has also been a systematic program to de-emphasize shorter dated government paper and shift more towards the 3 and 5 year bonds, which give the nation some vital savings. This correction of the yield curve has also prepared the nation towards the successful future floatation of 7 year and possibly 10 year government bonds and the establishment of the critical benchmark that will make the corporate sector float similar long term bonds; which development holds transformational promise for Ghana because the raising of long term capital to power the long term needs of our country remains one of the key challenges to overcome.

Other Remarkable Feats Chalked By President Mills

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, within the space of three years, President Mills and his economic team have chalked other significant feats a few of which are worth mentioning here briefly:

Cocoa Volume Record
President Mills in 2011 achieved the enviable record of one million metric tons of cocoa one whole year ahead of the target- another first. Significantly also, cocoa production under President Mills is growing in leaps and bounds in so many different regions at the same time showing desirable geographical diversification. For instance, cocoa production in the central region has increased tremendously from 37,000 metric tons in 2007 to 80,000 in 2011. Measures include using approved chemicals, supplying of hybrid cocoa seedlings, and constant education of farmers and replacement of aged cocoa trees.

Record Feat In WAMZ Convergence Criteria
For the first time in the history of Ghana since we joined the West African Monetary Zone Ghana at the time of the budget 2012 presentation had met all four primary convergence criteria. Inflation in single digit, budget deficit less than 3 percent, three months of import cover and lastly central bank financing not exceeding 10 percent of the previous year's tax revenue. President Mills scored four over four where the NPP in 2008 scored zero out of four. President Mills thus clocked 100 percent, a feat NPP never achieved.

Petroleum Price Hedging Program- Revolutionary

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, President Mills and his economic team possess not just competence and skills but also vision and courage. In 2011, the price of crude oil exceeded the 120 dollar mark just as it did in 2008. But Ghana hardly experienced the turmoil that was experienced under NPP, even though we did not have the fortune of having the price of crude oil dropping to below $40 as NPP experienced in the latter part of 2008.

How was this done? President Mills had the vision, courage and astuteness to implement the revolutionary Petroleum Price Hedging program. Confronted with same option in 2008, the NPP Minister for finance said he would not adopt a hedging option because he might go to jail. So, there again is the difference between us the NDC and the NPP- we genuinely care about the well being of our people and would courageously explore all options and employ our utmost competencies to optimize the welfare of our people.

Oil Revenue Full Disclosure- Integrity At Work

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, the year 2011 did not see massive volumes of oil produced. The amount obtained from the first year was originally thought to at least reach the one billion dollar mark- that was not to be. But one significant feat that was achieved under the leadership of President Mills was the absolute transparency exhibited because the President in line with his utmost commitment to openness and transparency, stopped at nothing to ensure that the petroleum revenue management act was crafted in a manner that will send a message to the whole world that Ghana was truly a beacon of transparency and an inspiration to the continent. That's what obtains when a nation is led by a leader who wants to lead by example.

Busting Ghost Names On Payroll- Mills Succeeds Where NPP Failed

For decades, the issue of ghost names on the payroll system has proved impossible to resolve. The NPP in eight long years huffed and puffed about the issue and could do nothing about it. Enter President Mills and his team! The NDC had the vision and the competence to put in place a sophisticated biometric verification to start first with pensioners' payroll and then scale it up from there to cover subvented organizations and then other public sector employees. The audit of the Pensioners payroll done in several regions so far has disclosed that a sizable 38 percent of names on the pensioners' payroll are illegal names. Thus, substantial savings have been made and more significant future savings will accrue when the exercise is scaled up. This is another demonstration of President Mills' visionary and competent leadership. Attributes totally alien to the NPP in eight long years

Challenges Still Remain to Overcome
Having said all these, it will be disingenuous on our part to create the impression that Ghana has suddenly turned into a paradise within the space of three years or that every single plan or promise has been fulfilled by Prof Mills and his economic team. Even the president of the US, Barrack Obama, can't make that claim despite the wealth of America. Not even China, the world's fastest transforming economy can boast of that accomplishment. If these rich and powerful countries even have difficulty fulfilling every economic aspiration of their citizens, how much less a developing country that has just recently made a transition into the lower rank of the middle income countries and is still striving to meet all the Millennium Development Goals?

Apart from the obvious resource constraints that pose a major challenge, there are also massive institutional and attitudinal constraints that have to engage the collective attention of our people from top leadership to the lowest groups on the social ladder if we are to achieve our collective dreams faster.


Levels of Employment and Money In Peoples' Pocket

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, the recent happenings in North Africa and the Middle East have highlighted the crisis of especially youth unemployment that is sweeping across the globe and especially the developing world. Even the US and the Euro Zone have and continue to be hard hit by a wave of acute job losses. The situation in Ghana has been no different. Despite the strong growth of the economy especially in 2010 and 2011 with the attendant opportunities that this strong growth brings in the services sector, cocoa and agriculture in general, mining, construction and now oil and oil related businesses coupled with opportunities that have become more available within the informal sector, levels of unemployment admittedly continue to be relatively still high and require a lot more efforts.

There are no quick fixes though but the age-old need to continue to work hard to achieve faster expansion and growth of the economy which would open up more employment opportunities. Job opportunities are created as existing businesses, in line with growth of the national economy, also see expansion and profits. The truth however is that far more expansion and employment would have occurred if cost of credit had come down in line with the marked drop in inflation, policy and T Bill rate between 2009 and 2011.

The massive infrastructural projects envisaged in 2012 are expected to generate a good number of short to long term jobs as the range of completed infrastructure provides a boost to business and attracts increased investment.

An initiative such as LESDEP aimed at providing equipment and skills to individuals to set them successfully on the journey of basic entrepreneurship is one of the main ways through which job creation opportunities are being boosted. If NPP had even a fraction of this idea and implemented it when it was confronted with massive unemployment the rate of joblessness would have been addressed.

LESDEP at the moment has provided equipment and training to 10,000 people thus setting them on the road to self-employment and productivity. Other initiatives such as Youth in Agriculture, National Forest Plantation Development, Ecobrigade, have so far employed 100,000, 20,000 and 10,000 people respectively.

NYEP has also increased the numbers under employment from 100,000 to 200,000. Add to this the thousands of recruitment by the Police, Army and other security forces, and also the civil service and the ever expanding private sector and it is obvious that efforts are afoot to find address what has become a global challenge.

In the 2012 budget, another far reaching initiative designed to leverage the entrepreneurial capacities of young people themselves and pool such into the forming of a forum for entrepreneurship, innovation and employment designed to unlock the innovation and entrepreneurial abilities of young people through peer group ideas/experience sharing and guidance, is another audacious move aimed at unleashing employment among young people and consequently put more money in the pockets of young Ghanaians and their families.

If only the NPP had a fraction of these ideas the number of unemployed youths would have been reduced in their eight long years. Employment would have been more boosted also if NPP in 8 years had the presence of mind to use precious resources to boost infrastructure. For instance had they striven to attain the nearly 20 percent rural electrification President Mills has chalked in 3 years instead of the mere 11 percent they recorded in eight years, great boost to rural employment would have resulted.

More employment would have been boosted also if instead of wasting the massive 750m dollar Eurobond money on useless stuff and dissipating several other hundreds of million cedis on a luxurious presidential palace and other such unprofitable experiences, they had instead invested in real productive infrastructure as Prof Mills is doing at the moment.

So it is a fact that challenges remain as the case is all over the world, but real smart efforts are being made to tackle them and the second mandate of Prof Mills once secured would see the flowering and fruition of a lot of the precious seeds that are being currently sown.

What NPPs Elephant Size Arrears Cost Ghana
We emphasize for the umpteenth time that much more could have been accomplished but for the monumental mess left behind by a reckless NPP regime.

Below is just a little gist of some of the things Prof Mills would have additionally done for Ghana had he not had to use a colossal 35 trillion old cedis to pay off NPP's reckless arrears.

With 35 trillion cedis President Mills would have additionally delivered any of the following:

- 12,500 (6 classroom blocks) which translates into 74 of such classroom blocks for every district

- 43,750 CHPS compounds (257 clinics per district)
- Rural electrification in 9000 communities that would have provided electricity for 4.5 million people

- 1.3 million km of feeder roads- 7625 km of feeder roads for every district

- 290,000 plus boreholes
- 200m cedis promised as seed money for SADA could have been provided 17 times over.

Conclusion
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, In conclusion, we want to say that President Mills has endeavored to achieve for Ghana within the space of three years what the NPP in eight long years dreamt about but never achieved. Despite the monstrous arrears and debilitating economy NPP left behind, President Mills and his team have delivered the following 12 cardinal accomplishments among others.

- an unprecedented low inflation rate. Yes We Have!

- an unprecedented stability of the currency. Yes We Have!

- an unprecedented gross external reserves. Yes We Have!

- an unprecedented single spine salary scheme. Yes We Have!

- an unprecedented low budget deficit. Yes We Have!

- an unprecedented GDP growth. Yes We Have!
- an unprecedented one million metric tons of cocoa. Yes We Have!

- an unprecedented revenue to GDP feat ever chalked in a year. Yes We Have!

- an unprecedented feat in the Convergence Criteria of the WAMZ. Yes We

Have!
- an unprecedented Petroleum Price Hedging Program. Yes We Have!

- an unprecedented rise in FDIs and Portfolio investments. Yes We Have!

- an unprecedented transparent scheme for the management of the petroleum revenues. Yes We Have!

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media, if the Mills led government has done all these in three short years, despite the crisis left behind by the NPP, how much more shall President Mills and his team not do when given a second mandate that will be not be characterized by the Elephant-Size Mess NPP left behind for Prof Mills.

Thank you very much and see you again soon.

body-container-line