Ghana is your best option; we can and should pursue it – Ofori-Atta affirms

The Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has told businesses, and to a large extent, all Ghanaians that their best bet is investing in Ghana.

He believes Ghanaians can achieve greatness in the country.

Speaking at a meeting with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) in Accra on Thursday November 3, he said, “Just to assure you that you have a Finance Minister who has gone through all the pains and the aches, nobody can really come and say you don’t understand what we were doing,” he stressed.

He added “The questions is, what resources do we have? How we are going to deploy them in the nation that we have? How do you stand firm in very difficult circumstances by being very confident that the nation is purposed for greatness and you are blessed to have the opportunity to lead where we are going?

“Let me assure you all that your best best is still Ghana, we can do it, we should do it.”

This comes at a time Ghanaians are going through some economic challenges.

The president of the Republic, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo outlined measures to tackle the challenges when he addressed the nation on Sunday October 30.

In that address, Mr Akufo-Addo said “The following actions have been taken thus far: 1) enhanced supervisory action by the Bank of Ghana in the forex bureau markets and the black market to flush out illegal operators, as well as ensuring that those permitted to operate legally abide by the market rules.”

“Already some forex bureaus have had their licenses revoked, and this exercise will continue until complete order is restored in the sector,” he said.

The other measures are “Fresh inflows of dollars are providing liquidity to the foreign exchange market, and addressing the pipeline demand;

“The Bank of Ghana has given its full commitment to the commercial banks to provide liquidity to ensure the wheels of the economy continue to run in a stabilized manner, till the IMF Programme kicks in and the financing assurances expected from other partners also come in;

“Government is working with the Bank of Ghana and the oil producing and mining companies to introduce a new legal and regulatory framework to ensure that all foreign exchange earned from operations in Ghana are, initially, paid to banks domiciled in Ghana

“The Bank of Ghana will enhance its gold purchase programme.”

Mr Akufo-Addo further assured Ghanaians that his government cares about them hence, is working hard to ameliorate the hardships they are going through presently.

He says the government is determined to restore economic stability.

He said “It is obvious, fellow Ghanaians, that you have a government that cares. We are determined to restore stability to the economy, and provide relief.

“We are all in this together, and I am asking for your support to rescue Ghana from the throes of this economic crisis.”

He further referred to a number of initiatives the government introduced to support Ghanaians

He said “No guarantor is now required to obtain student loans. The Ghanacard is sufficient; and we have implemented free TVET as well as free senior high school education.

“We expanded School Feeding from 1.6 million children to 2.1 million children; we restored teacher and nursing training allowances; we absorbed the cost of BECE and WASSCE exam registrations for parents;

“It is for this reason that over the first five (5) years in office government reduced electricity tariffs cumulatively by 10.9%, we provided free water and electricity as well as reduced tariffs for the entire population during a whole year of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

He stressed “My government has always been cognisant of the importance of implementing policies and social interventions to relieve Ghanaians of hardships.”