The 2012 Presidential Candidate of
the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has outlined plans
for the creation of jobs which Ghanaians, especially the youth, are
yearning for, which will in turn “break the hand to mouth existence and
free our people to aspire to greater heights.”
Nana Addo, in
delivering a speech at the IEA encounter, explained that the NDC’s
much-touted economic growth has not translated into jobs and incomes for
the people beyond government’s propaganda of creating 1.7 million ghost
jobs.
According to the NPP flagbearer, the current size and
state of Ghana’s economy cannot create the necessary numbers of
high-paying jobs that will enhance the living standards of Ghanaians.
Outlining
the measures an Akufo-Addo administration will implement to create jobs
when voted into power in December, Nana Addo stated that his
administration will make a deliberate effort to transform Ghana’s raw
material-exporting economy to a new economy that can deliver prosperity
for our people.
“We will encourage importers and Ghanaians abroad to shift from bringing in finished products to bringing in the know-how, tools and capital inputs that will enable us produce finished goods right here in Ghana. The long-term solution for the stability of our cedi is industrialisation,” Nana Addo said.
The NPP flagbearer further added that his administration is also committed to making Ghana the centre of economic activity for the West African market considering the fact that the population of the region is estimated to reach some 500 million people in the next two decades.
In his bid to add value to Ghana’s economy, Nana Addo said the NPP has developed plans to add value to the Ghana’s minerals, estimated to be in excess of US$1 trillion.
“We will attract the necessary capital to mine our bauxite to build a multi-billion dollar integrated aluminium industry”, adding that his administration will also “exploit our iron ore deposits and build urgently a new iron and steel industry, which can also process West African ore currently being shipped to Europe for refining,” the NPP flagbearer added.
Nana Addo bemoaned the NDC’s attitude of ensuring the Tema Oil Refinery does not work, in favour of importing finished products. This phenomenon, Nana Addo said, will change under his administration. Presently, our oil refinery is not working.
Nana Addo pledged to use the oil and gas find to build a strong petrochemical industry in Ghana, using both private and public financing, and create linkages with other businesses to turn Ghana into a centre for light industry in our region.
Turning his attention to the private sector’s role in job creation, Nana Addo pointed out that the best instrument for achieving economic transformation is the private sector, and reiterated his readiness to “assist all our enterprises, especially small and medium scale ones, both in the formal and informal sectors, to grow – by helping them gain access to credit, technology and markets.”
Local and indigenous Ghanaian businesses were not left out of the NPP flagbearer’s plans, as he pledged a much greater attention to Ghanaian businesses to enable them expand and create jobs for Ghanaian young men and women.
Nana Addo also reiterated his commitment to restructuring Ghana’s tax and tariff systems to promote growth in the private sector.
Source: Communications Directorate, NPP/ Ghana“We will strengthen the regulatory bodies to do the job of protecting consumers and improving standards. We will empower Ghanaians to do the job of transforming Ghana. We will make Ghana the place to do business, and make businesses in Ghana globally competitive. We shall forge a strong partnership with organised labour to achieve this. This is how we will create the hundreds of thousands of jobs for which the young people of our country are yearning. This is the only way to. We can do it,” Nana Addo stressed.
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