Ghana’s economy among the fastest growing in the world according to President Akufo-Addo

President Akufo-Addo believes the Ghanaian economy is doing better than what they inherited.
He was speaking as part of a panel at the African Investment Forum’s in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The president said his government will do its best to ensure that the economy does not go back to what it inherited.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says his government has turned the economic fundamentals of the country around from what they inherited from the erstwhile Mahama administration.

Speaking as part of a panel at the African Investment Forum’s President Akufo-Addo said “we inherited a situation with a large fiscal deficit, which has been turned around now; considerable imbalances in the way in which our economy was being run have also been turned around; a 15.4% inflation is today at 7.6%, the lowest in two decades. These are the building blocks for us.”

“In these three years, we have had one of the fastest growing economies not just on the continent, but also in the world, with this year being a 7.6% growth. It has been consistent over these last three years.”

The members of the panel included President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda.

The President said he is determined to maintain fiscal discipline, in the management of Ghana’s public finances, arguing that “this has been our major objective, and so far so good we are realizing this.”

He promised that even though previous election years have been characterized by excessive budgetary overruns “we are resisting the temptation, in an election year, to turn on the tap, hoping that the work we have done will take us through, without having to do that.”

He added that infrastructure development is very important to the government.

“In fact, last year, an important initiative launched, which is bearing fruit, is the Accra SkyTrain project in which South African investors are taking a very keen interest. We are hoping that we would be able to advance that concept this year.”

“Planting for Food and Jobs has proven to be a spectacular success. First of all, in the way it is addressing the availability of foodstuffs. We are now in the position, for the first time in over a decade, of exporting foodstuffs to our neighbours. We are very keen on developing private sector interest because Ghanaian agriculture is largely smallholder,” he added.