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Ghana has outgrown the status of exporting commodities in their raw state without adding value.

President of the Republic, Nana Akufo-Addo in an address to some Diplomatic corps at an event organised at the Flagstaff House yesterday, promised he wouldn’t move Ghana’s promising economic future at turtle pace.

He warned that until Ghana’s economy is moved away from the Guggisberg’s era of exporting goods in their raw state, we would struggle in developing our economy.  

“Sadly, however, the structure of our economy has not changed substantially since the era of Governor Gordon Guggisberg – an exporter of raw materials with little or no value-addition activities. This is why I have called our economy the Guggisberg economy.”

He pointed out that the nation has a large pool of educated people we can easily fall on to drive our economic development.

Over the last two decades, Ghana has seen sustained economic growth and it is based on this fact that the President noted that “Ghana, today, is facing a promising future”.

The president emphatically stated in his address that the full complement of his administration would take full shape by the middle of March and promised that his “government’s economic vision will focus on executing an integrated industrialisation programme, with a clear bias towards supporting our small and medium scale enterprises with access to science and technology, incentives and markets to make them more productive and competitive.”

Full statement below...

ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC, NANA ADDO DANKWA AKUFO-ADDO, ON THE OCCASION OF NEW YEAR GREETINGS – DIPLOMATIC RECEPTION – ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2017, AT THE PRESIDENCY.

I am honoured to have all of you present at this evening’s event and happy to see you. Some faces are familiar, as I had the privilege of meeting them during my time as leader of Ghana’s opposition, and a few others also, from the now distant days of my period as Foreign Minister.

Others I am seeing for the very first time. Nonetheless, I am happy to see you here at the seat of the presidency and I know that, over the course of my tenure of office, we will have the opportunity to meet regularly and interact often.

I am particularly touched that I have become Ghana’s President in this sixtieth year of our independence, and I hope that the remembrance of the sacrifices and efforts of our founding fathers, those who gave their lives to achieve our independence, will guide and motivate me in the discharge of this high office. I pray for God’s support. 

At the onset, let me thank Ambassador Mrs. Pavelyn Tendai Musaka of the Republic of Zimbabwe for her leadership these past years as the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps. Your Excellency, everyone I have spoken to pays glowing tribute to you, and I can only encourage you to keep it up.

As you are all aware, I am in the process of forming my government. I have been in office for some 5 weeks, and so far so good. Parliament has approved all 36 of my ministerial nominees; the 10 Regional Ministers are currently being vetted; and shortly I will announce my nominees for the positions of deputy Ministers.

The various Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives will soon be announced, and, already, a number of heads of state institutions and agencies have been appointed, albeit in acting capacities, pending the constitution of the Council of State.

Yesterday, I announced the names of 11 eminent Ghanaians whom I have appointed to the Council of State, and I have sent to Parliament for its approval the names of two distinguished former leaders of our security services for appointment to the Council of State, as required by the Constitution.


Photos below