President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has indicated that his government will continue to put measures in place in order to put the nation on its path of sustainable progress and prosperity despite the shocks of the global pandemic.
The President made this known in an address at the 72nd Annual New Year School and Conference – a 2-day event organized at the Great Hall of the University of Ghana.
Under Akufo Addo’s led administration, Ghana has become a net exporter of food stuffs, the largest recipient of FDI’s in West Africa and one of the fastest growing economies in the world, according to World Bank.
Speaking at the opening of the 72nd New Year School and Conference on the theme: “Building Ghana in the face of global health crises”, President Akufo-Addo provided details of the direction his government has taken towards the realization of this year’s School and Conference theme. He further disclosed that the Committee formed to recommend appropriate decision on the deployment of a safe Covid-19 vaccine in Ghana has concluded its work enabling the government to begin discussions with vaccine manufacturing companies.
“Through the advances of science, we now have vaccines that are already being administered in some countries that could help control and eventually end the pandemic. The Committee formed by government to recommend the appropriate decision on COVID-19 vaccines has completed its work, enabling government to begin discussions with vaccine-manufacturing companies with the goal of ordering the suitable doses of the vaccine for use in Ghana. Details of this will be announced very soon”.
Touching on the detailed steps his government has taken to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic, particularly the deflationary shocks of COVID-19 on the Ghanaian economy, President Akufo Addo mentioned that some measures taken, which has helped to ensure that the economy rebounds at a much faster rate than originally anticipated, include: the reduction of the monetary policy rate to 14.5% ; the reduction of the cash reserve requirements from 10% to 8% for banks, to make liquidity available for banks to on-lend to critical sectors of the economy; extension of the deadline for new capital requirements for specialized deposit-taking institutions to December 2021 from the Feb, 2020 deadline, to provide temporary reliefs to SDI’s.
“Businesses have been supported with soft loans and grants amounting to 600 million cedis for MSME’s through the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme Business Support Scheme. 200 billion cedis guarantee facility to support large and other businesses has been provided to private schools and pharmaceutical companies affected by COVID-19. The establishment of the National Unemployment Insurance Scheme, to provide temporary income support to workers that are laid off, has also been set-off.”
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo further intimated that the proactive decision taken by his government to fight the pandemic as well as revitalizing and transforming the economy, with the 100 billion cedis Ghana’s Obaatampa Programme, anchors bright prospects for the medium term, adding that Ghana is currently in the revitalization and transformation phase of Ghana Cares Obaatampa Programme which entails the reduction in the cost of basic services, ensuring food security, strengthening the health system, supporting commercial farming, building of Ghana’s manufacturing sector, establishment of the National Development Bank, amongst others.
To quicken the pace of development of all sector, President Akufo-Addo believes continuous attention paid to quality education, is the transformational step to be taken for the transition from a lower middle-income country to a modernize high-income country. The government, therefore has decided that the minimum education to be obtained by all school-going children is SHS education. He charged the audience to adhere to the hygiene and safety protocols particularly as the COVID-19 cases in Ghana upsurges so that all the work being undertaken by the government to build Ghana in the face of the global health crises do not fail.
Highlighting the significant contributions University of Ghana has made towards the national case management of COVID-19 led by MOH and GHS, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu apprised the audience of the units involved in making advances in the fight of the pandemic, i.e., Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), School of Pharmacy, amongst other. NMIMR continues to play a lead role as Ghana’s biggest COVID-19 testing centre; strengthening the testing capacity of the centre nationwide by providing guidance and support and evaluating their preparedness for testing.
He reiterated that scientist from WACCIP and NMIMR has successful sequenced genomes sequenced genomes of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the global COVID-19 pandemic – a significant milestone in Ghana’s response to the pandemic, which will strengthen surveillance for tracking mutations of the virus and aid in the tracing of the sources of community with the School of Pharmacy developing alcohol-based sanitizers in line with WHO recommended which is approved by FDA. He mentioned that the theme for this year’s School and Conference is timely given the collateral consequences of the COVID- 19 pandemic in all sectors of the economy.
The Chair of the Program and Chancellor of UG, Professor Mary Chinery-Hesse, charged participants of the New Year School and Conference not to forget to apply a gender lens to the deliberations such that the special concerns of women will be factored in policy making.
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