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Mr Boniface Abubakar Saddique, Minister of State at the Office of the Vice-President, has encouraged Ghanaians to support the ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda to help bring more people out of poverty.

He said the initiative highlights government’s desire to prudently manage the country’s natural resources in a manner that would allow Ghana’s developmental projects to be financed without recourse to external support.

He said this calls for developing strategies and aligning people to certain assignments for a cause to achieve a purpose, and even though there would obstacles, it takes a strategic leader to take bold steps to introduce such initiatives.

Mr Saddique made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra on the sidelines of a Strategic Leadership Colloquium, organised by the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) on the theme: “The Role of Strategic Leadership in the Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda”.

The annual event, which was held for final year students pursuing Masters of Business Administration (MBA)-Total Quality Management and Master of Philosophy (MPhil)/ Master of Science (MSc) Leadership; aimed at fostering discussions on what the students found out during their field visits to several companies they chose to research about.

The students made presentations on 11 companies, including Chocomac Ghana Limited, Synergy Commodities Limited, VICAB’s Shipping Limited, Entrance Pharmaceuticals and Research Centre, FOOD 101, Radiance Petroleum Limited and Emcure Pharmaceuticals.

Mr Saddique said agriculture being another prong of the initiative involved the improvement of Ghana’s agricultural capacity, and this focused on two main programmes: “One village One Dam” and “Planting for Food and Jobs”.

Mr Saddique told the GNA that in the area of education, it was realized that all the economic interventions might come to nought if the country did not have an educated workforce.

He said this assertion led to the introduction and implementation of the Free Senior High School (SHS) Programme, adding that, “the vision of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was that in some few years, Ghana would have a strong human capital to drive its own socio-economic activities.

The Minister noted that, these among other programmes, such as the National Identification Cards and One District One Factory, were all geared towards achieving the Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda.