Ghana’s information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has vehemently debunked rumours that President Akufo-Addo has not been addressing the Nation ever since Ghana started experiencing economic challenges.
Oppong Nkrumah was on ‘PM Express’ when he indicated that, over the period, the President has spoken to the economic issues on various platforms across the Country.
“There was this suggestion that the President was not communicating with the Country, which is not true because the President has been traveling across the Country and speaking to some of the interventions at various places. Sometimes at radio stations, sometimes at durbars at programmes.”
Oppong Nkrumah, Information Minister
The Minister conceded that Ghanaians might have been expecting the President to address them on a National platform and hence the agitation that the President was not speaking to the issue.
President Akufo-Addo’s address on Sunday, October 30th, 2022, was therefore a move by Government to reach out to large number of Ghanaians who may not have been following the President as he spoke to the economic issues on relatively ‘smaller platforms’.
“Well we concede that the fact that he wasn’t on the ‘fellow Ghanaians’ platform articulating them meant that there was a good number of people who were not even following some of those interventions.”
Oppong Nkrumah, Information Minister
The Content of The President’s Address
Oppong Nkrumah mentioned that, the summation of the President’s address was that, he outlined twelve(12) measures aimed at, mitigating “the impact of what is going on on the most vulnerable in the society.”
These measures included, Government’s desire to restore macro-economic stability through an IMF programme, tackle cost of living by working to stabilize prices of petroleum, restore debt stability by reducing debt to GDP ratio to 55% by 2028, encourage traders to tone down proliferating , tackle currency speculation to limit volatilities of the cedi.
“Yesterday, the President outlined twelve(12) measures, some of which dealt with the forex situation, some of which dealt with the most important thing which is biting our people, cost of living, some of which dealt with trying to mitigate the impact of what is going on on the most vulnerable in the society”
Oppong Nkrumah, Information Minister
The Information Minister admitted that some of the interventions the President mentioned were not so different from some interventions mentioned in previous times.
He said it appeared so because, “some of those interventions don’t change. You can bake it, twist it, they don’t change they are the very things you have to do and the important thing is how you can it done and done well to achieve the results.”
Obviously, a big question that has been in the intellectual analysis of the President’s speech since Sunday evening, has been the credibility of a Government that promises to do things it had previously motioned to do but never did.
According to the President, one way Government expects to increase revenue to GDP, which was a core part of the twelve(12) measures mentioned, is through property rates.
This same property rates and how they can help boost revenue was mentioned in the 2022 budget. But the year is ending and nothing has been done about property rates in terms of implementation.
Oppong Nkrumah revealed that the Government was on course to implementing property rates and it was because of that, that the President mentioned it as sub measure.
He said the delay was due to legal and contracting processes.
“If you look at what has been done on property rates, we have now sought to employ a new method where they are done at the National level through [the] local government ministry and the Ghana revenue authority and the contracting process and the legal maneuvering has taken sometime. My understanding is that they have come very far and are due to quick off [as soon as possible] is the reason the President has confidence to mention it as part of his sub measures that are aimed at moving revenue to GDP from 13% to about 18% to 20%.”
Oppong Nkrumah, Information Minister
The way forward according to the Minister was not to merely claim Government’s measures are not needful. He admonished Ghanaians to properly interrogate the issues as to whether they will work.
“I think the best approach is to ask yourself, issue by issue does this solution work. If it does then we go to the next step of who is responsible, what are the timelines and the specific.”
Oppong Nkrumah, Information Minister
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