President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has appealed for the unflinching support of Ghanaians, particularly the private sector, as government begins the implementation phase of its programme of industrial transformation of the country.
According to him, government’s industrial agenda is anchored on building the competitiveness of existing local industries by facilitating access to medium and long term financing at low interest rates, and the implementation of the “One District One Factory” (1D1F) initiative, designed to bring industrialisation to the doorsteps of the people.
Additionally, government will be introducing strategic anchor industrial initiatives which will create new growth poles for the Ghanaian economy, as well as the establishment of industrial parks and special economic zones, at least one in each of the ten regions.
President Akufo-Addo made this known on Monday, 14th August, 2017, when he delivered a speech at the 2nd National Policy Summit, held at the Accra International Conference Centre, on the theme “The Industrial Transformation of Ghana.”
He indicated further that government will promote small and medium scale enterprise development, and establish an industrial sub-contracting exchange that will link SMEs to the supply chain of large scale enterprises.
After introducing a number of far reaching reforms, designed to reduce the cost of doing business for the private sector, and shift government economic policy away from a fixation on taxation to an emphasis on production, the President noted that the policy measures are already bearing fruit.
With industry recording growth of 0.8% in 2014, -0.3% in 2015, and further down to -1.4% in 2016, President Akufo-Addo noted that four years of DUMSOR also cumulatively led to a loss of more than $3 billion in economic activity, and, in the process, thousands and thousands of Ghanaians lost their jobs.
President Akufo-Addo noted, however, that prudent measures put in place by his government have resulted in industry growing at 11.5% in the first half of 2017.
“Amongst other measures, government announced tax cuts amounting to over one billion Ghana cedis. These reforms are designed to make Ghana the most business friendly nation in Africa, if not in the world. That is our goal. We recognise that macroeconomic stability is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for economic transformation,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo assured participants and Ghanaians of his personal commitment to “ensure the success of what I believe will be one of the most significant contributions of my administration to the transformation of our nation.”
