State Of The Nation Address: Did Akufo-Addo Live Up To Expectation?

A product is worth its price if it’s well branded and well-advertised. A new Ghana is what my people have been clamoring for. My people have been appealing to our leaders to stop pan-handling,--running after the Bretton Woods institutions i.e the IMF and the World Bank for aids. They’ve been asking our government s to purge corruption, create jobs and resuscitate the ailing economy.

The expectation of my people has hit the moon. They voted for change and they want a positive change in their lives. Ghanaians be they young or old, rich or poor, Christian or Muslim are counting on the Akufo-Addo government to do just that.

Forty-five days after his historic first term investiture, President Akufo-Addo was at the Parliament House on Tuesday 21, February 2107 to deliver his maiden State of the Nation Address at the beginning of the parliament’s session and to a large crowd which was graced by two former presidents—John Rawlings and John Kufuor.

Again, it was an opportunity to paint a vivid picture of the country’s economy. He said the economy was in a bad state and his government was stunned to see what the Mahama-administration left behind. Suffice to say he was back to his roots. Back to the august House to see old and fresh faces.

The President walked his audience through or down the memory lane--- recollecting what he described as the ‘vigorous ‘debates he and his colleagues used to have and the camaraderie they shared in the yester years. He reminded the Speaker of the House and the audience that time was of the essence. And that he and his government were ready to hit the ground running.

According to him the most critical challenge inherited by the NPP government is the high unprecedented level of unemployment, particularly among the youth. “It is debilitating and confidence-sapping’ problem that affects every home,” he said.

The youth wants to work but there are no jobs and some are being driven to unacceptable behaviour. “We have a veritable time bomb on our hands,”

But all wasn’t gloom. There was a silver lining. Hope seemed to be knocking on the doors of the country .Mr. Akufo-Addo n his dream team was battle ready to find quick solutions to numerous challenges. To address this challenge, he said, the government is embarking on one of the most comprehensive programmes for industrial transformation ever to be introduced in Ghana.

The key elements of this programme include:
Restoration and maintenance of a stable macro-economy, monetary and fiscal measures which will lead to reduction in interest rates and in the reduction of the tax burden on enterprises. The programme will also provide reliable affordable power to enterprises and homes, setting up of a stimulus package to support existing Ghanaian industries, establishment of a multi-purpose industrial park for each of the ten regions, establishment of an industrial sub -contracting exchange to link large scale companies with Small Medium Enterprises and a establishment of permanent consultative forum for public-private dialogue.

The president was also hopeful that through these interventions significant job opportunities would be opened to Ghanaians across the country.

He said the starting point in turning round our fortunes must be with Agriculture. Unfortunately he said, ‘the state of agriculture in our country right now is not good. Farmers are left on their own. It is not surprising therefore that food prices are high and we are having to import almost everything we eat, including vegetables from our Sahelian neighbours.”

Mr. Akufo-Addo said there was the need to irrigate our lands and equip farmers with the skills needed to make farming a well-paying business. “We aim to popularise farming by encouraging many people to take it up as a full or part time activity.”

Consequently, the president noted a national campaign dubbed: “Planting for Food and Jobs’ would be launched to stimulate this activity. Already an amount of $125 million Canadian dollars ha d been secured from Canada.

Touching on the economy, he said Ghana’s economic growth has declined dramatically. Notwithstanding the record amount of financial resources at the disposal of the previous government, Ghana’s GDP growth in 2016 (including oil) is estimated at 3-6%. This is the lowest GDP growth in about 23b years, he revealed.

The banking sector he disclosed was suffering from similar paralysis. Bad loans in the banking sector have risen significantly.

The president said virtually all the IMF programmes as at December 2016 bad been missed. The previous administration failed all the promises it gave to Ghanaians. Fiscal discipline once again reared its head in the 2016 election year.

The reality of the state of Ghana’s public finances today is quite stark, the president noted. Today as a result of policy choices we find ourselves in a situation where Ghana’s total revenue is consumed by three main budgetary lines, wages and salaries , interest payments and authorization and statutory payments,”

These three items alone account for 99.6% of government revenue. This means that anything else that government has to do outside of these lines will have to be financed by borrowing for any additional expenditures to meet the aspirations of our people is also not sustainable,

“We cannot continue to this way with our public finances. I will not allow this economy to collapse under my watch. We will reduce significantly the fiscal deficit this year,” he said.

Mr. Akufo-Addo is on the move. He’s on the fast lane. He had heard his critics say that he was behaving like a man in a hurry. “Mr. Speaker, I am indeed, in a hurry. I am in a great hurry. The times in which we live, demand that we all be in a hurry to deal with the problems we face.”

So did the president live up to expectation?

I absolutely think he did. I will check his performance as outstanding. The speech unquestionably had all the ingredients that many had expected. Hope was the buzzword. And I think the president set the tone for that:

“We will set upon the path to build a Ghana that is not dependent on charity, Ghana that is able to look after its people through intelligent management of the resources with which it has been endowed. This Ghana will be defined by integrity, sovereignty, a common ethos, and discipline and shared values... It is one where we aim to be masters of our own destiny where we mobilise our own resources for the future, breaking the shackles of ‘Guggisberg’ colonial economy and a mind-set of dependency, bailouts and extraction. It’s Ghana beyond aid.”

And all I can say for now is that the package looks good what is left is its implementation. Action speaks louder than words, so they say. But beyond that I expect the Apostles to work diligently to meet all the target goals set by the administration to prove he sceptics wrong.