Nana Akufo-Addo addressing Ghanaians from the Jubilee House in Accra on Sunday evening, October 30, 2022
Fellow Ghanaians, good night.
Back in 2020, on the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, I began a daily dialog with you that got here to be popularly referred to as Fellow Ghanaians.
It was a time of nice concern of the unknown, and your entire world felt in danger. I got here into your houses often to inform you what the consultants have been discovering in regards to the virus, and what we must always do.
Now that we’ve seen the worst of COVID-19, I can inform you that there have been moments throughout these occasions once I was distraught, there have been moments once I was in despair in regards to the obvious inadequacy of our well being services, and there have been moments once I questioned if the dire predictions made about lifeless our bodies on our streets would actually occur.
But I knew that I owed it to all of us that, as your president, I had to maintain my nerve, present management and take us out of the disaster. With your assist and assist, and the good mercies of the Almighty, we will say that we emerged from the ravages of the pandemic with one of many lowest mortality charges globally. In reality, Ghana’s dealing with of the pandemic gained common acclaim.
We might all see in real-time the devastation that was being wreaked on economies in the course of the pandemic, however I doubt that anybody imagined the extent of the injury. Our economy, right here in Ghana, like many, many others across the globe, was thrown into turmoil.
When I stated, on the peak of the COVID pandemic, that we knew what to do to carry the economy again to life, however not how to carry folks again to life, it was not stated in jest. We had performed it earlier than, and we have been on course to do it once more. Ghana’s economy grew by a exceptional 5.4% in 2021, signifying a robust restoration from the 0.5% progress recorded the earlier yr due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In reality, within the final quarter of 2021, our economy grew by seven per cent (7%), just for the Russian invasion of Ukraine within the first quarter of this yr to worsen the consequences of COVID-19, and plunge the worldwide economy into even larger turmoil from which it has not but recovered.
The entire world has been bowled over by the velocity with which inflation has eaten away folks’s incomes. Economies, large and small, have skilled, over this yr alone, the very best rise in the price of dwelling over a technology; the very best rise in authorities borrowing in over 50 years; the very best rise in inflation for 40 years; the steepest depreciation of their currencies to the US greenback during the last thirty (30) years; the quickest peak in rates of interest for over 20 years; and the best menace of unemployment in peacetime; with over 100 million folks being pushed into excessive poverty.
Between the tip of 2019 and now, inflation in Ghana has elevated by five-fold, in Togo by sixteen-fold, by eleven-fold in Senegal, and by seven-fold in Cote d’Ivoire. In fact, nonetheless, the truth that there are petrol queues in France doesn’t make it extra tolerable that the trotro worth from Kasoa to Circle has doubled previously yr, nor does it make it any extra tolerable that the worth of cooking oil goes up each different week.
It is necessary to state that mentioning the will increase in costs worldwide just isn’t meant to belittle the scope of suffering right here, however merely to assist us put issues into some perspective, and, hopefully, be taught some helpful classes about how different individuals are coping.
Fellow Ghanaians, because of this I’m again in your houses this night to ask to your assist, as we work collectively to get our economy again into good condition.
In April, after the Cabinet retreat of the primary quarter, and recognising the deteriorating macroeconomy, my authorities introduced a 30 per cent minimize in budgeted discretionary expenditures, and a 30 per cent minimize in salaries of the President, Vice President, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, MMDCEs and political workplace holders, amongst different measures.
And, since July, when the Government took the tough choice to go to the IMF to search assist, I’ve been talking publicly at totally different fora on the topic of the financial difficulties we face, particularly throughout my latest excursions, to date, of 9 areas, and interacting instantly with you, the Ghanaian folks. It can be true that lots of you’ve gotten felt the necessity for me to come again to the Fellow Ghanaians format, that brings us all collectively.
For us, in Ghana, our actuality is that our economy is in nice problem. The price range drawn for the 2022 fiscal yr has been thrown out of drugs, disrupting our stability of funds and debt sustainability, and additional exposing the structural weaknesses of our economy.
We are in a disaster, I don’t exaggerate once I say so. I can not discover an instance in historical past when so many malevolent forces have come collectively on the similar time. But, as we’ve proven in different circumstances, we will flip this disaster into a possibility to resolve not simply the short-term, pressing issues, however the long-term structural issues which have bedevilled our economy.
I urge us all to see the choice to go to the International Monetary Fund on this gentle. We have gone to the Fund to restore, within the quick time period, our public funds, and restore our stability of funds, while we proceed to work on the medium to long-term structural modifications which are on the coronary heart of our purpose of developing a resilient, strong Ghanaian economy, and constructing a Ghana Beyond Aid.
I’m ready to report to you, my fellow Ghanaians, that the negotiations to safe a robust IMF Programme, which can assist the implementation of our Post COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth and extra funding to assist the 2023 Budget and improvement programme, are at superior levels, and are going effectively.
We are decided to safe these preparations shortly to carry again confidence and reduction to Ghanaians. We are working in direction of reaching a cope with the IMF by the tip of the yr. This will give additional credence to the measures the Government is taking to stabilize and develop the economy, in addition to shore up our forex.
I do know that the rising price of dwelling is the primary concern for all of us. It is pushed by quick escalating gasoline costs on the pumps, which is brought on by excessive crude oil costs on the world market and our depreciated forex. I do know that that is placing insupportable strain on households and companies. I do know that individuals are being pushed to make decisions they need to not have to make, and I do know that it has led to the devaluation of capital of merchants and painfully accrued financial savings.
Furthermore, Government is working to safe dependable and common sources of inexpensive petroleum merchandise for the Ghanaian market. It is predicted that this association, when profitable, coupled with a secure forex will halt the escalation of gasoline costs and convey reduction to us all.
I hear from the market queens additionally that one other issue fueling the excessive costs is the excessive margins that some merchants are slapping on items, for concern of future increased prices. I say to our merchants, we’re all on this collectively. Please allow us to be measured within the margins we search. I’ve nice respect and admiration for the ingenuity and exhausting work of our merchants, particularly people who take on the distribution of foodstuffs across the nation, and I’d hesitate to take part calling them names. I do make a heartfelt attraction that all of us preserve an eye fixed out for the larger good, and never strive to make the utmost earnings out of the present difficulties.
In language that each market girl and, certainly, each dealer in our nation understands, let me say that the essential downside we face is that we don’t make as a lot cash as we want to spend, and what little cash we do make goes to pay for the money owed we’ve contracted to fund the event initiatives we will need to have. Not sufficient of us are paying our taxes, and never sufficient of us are producing to generate the revenues that we want.
Nevertheless, my ambitions for Ghana stay excessive. All our kids must be educated and skilled with abilities that may allow us to be aggressive on the earth. We want to shut quickly the infrastructure hole, we want to construct a world-class healthcare system, and we want to construct confidence in ourselves to make ours the joyful and affluent place it deserves to be.
I consider we will and can discover the means to obtain these objectives, even when the speedy measures we’ve to take are painful.
At the just-ended Cabinet Retreat at Peduase Lodge, my authorities agreed on the framework for the Post COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth and the IMF assist for its implementation, in addition to the work being performed by the Ministry of Finance in preparation for the 2023 price range. At the Cabinet Retreat, we took some agency choices that ought to put us on the trail that may take our nation out of the present financial difficulties. Let me try to offer you an overview of the principle choices with out moving into the technical language that baffles many people.
To restore and maintain debt sustainability, we plan to scale back our whole public debt to GDP ratio to some 55% in current worth phrases by 2028, with the servicing of our exterior debt pegged at no more than 18% of our annual income additionally by 2028.
We are dedicated to enhancing the income assortment effort, from the present tax-revenue to GDP ratio of 13 (13%) to between 18-20%, to be aggressive with our friends within the West Africa Region. The GRA is rolling out an in depth set of measures to assist this enhanced income mobilisation. All of us should do our patriotic responsibility, and assist the GRA on this train.
We are aiming to restore and maintain macroeconomic stability throughout the subsequent three (3) to six (6) years, with a spotlight on making certain debt sustainability to promote sturdy and inclusive progress whereas defending the poor.
We have determined to evaluation the reforms within the power sector, capping of statutory funds, implementation of the exemptions Act and a brand new property fee regime. We have determined additionally to proceed with the coverage of 30% minimize within the salaries of political workplace holders together with the President, Vice President, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, MMDCEs, and SOE appointees in 2023, simply as we’ll proceed with the 30% minimize in discretionary expenditures of Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
My fellow Ghanaians, the success of our efforts at diversifying the construction of the Ghanaian economy from an import-based one to a value-added exporting one is what’s going to, in the long run, assist strengthen our economy. We are making some progress with the 1D1F however our present scenario requires that we take some extra stringent measures to discourage the importation of products that we will and do produce right here.
To this finish, we’ll evaluation the requirements required for imports into the nation, prioritise the imports, in addition to evaluation the administration of our overseas trade reserves, in relation to imports of merchandise equivalent to rice, poultry, vegetable oil, toothpicks, pasta, fruit juice, bottled water and ceramic tiles, and others which, with intensified authorities assist and that of the banking sector, could be manufactured and produced in ample portions in Ghana.
Government will, in May 2023, that’s six months from now, evaluation the scenario. We should, as a matter of pressing nationwide safety, scale back our dependence on imported items, and improve our self-reliance, as demanded by our overarching purpose of making a Ghana Beyond Aid.
Much as we consider in free commerce, we should work to guarantee that almost all of products in our retailers and marketplaces are these we produce and develop right here in Ghana. That is why we’ve to assist our farmers and home industries, together with these created beneath the 1-District-1-Factory initiative, to assist scale back our dependence on imports, and permit us the chance to export an increasing number of of our merchandise and assure a secure forex that may current a excessive degree of predictability for residents and the enterprise neighborhood. Exports, not imports, have to be our mantra! Accra, in spite of everything, hosts the headquarters of the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Fellow Ghanaians, because the French would say, l’argent n’aime pas le bruit, to wit, cash doesn’t like noise, sika mpɛ dede. Where there’s chaos, the place there’s noise, the place there’s unrest, you’ll not discover the cash. If you speak down your cash, it can go down. If you permit some unidentifiable individual to speak down your cash, it can go down.
The latest turbulence within the monetary markets was brought on by low inflows of overseas trade and was made worse within the final two to three weeks, particularly, by the actions of speculators and the Black Market. An nameless two-minute audio message on a WhatsApp platform predicting a so-called haircut on Government bonds despatched all of us into banks and foreign exchange bureaus to dump our cedis, and, earlier than we knew it, the cedi had depreciated additional. All of us can play a component in serving to to strengthen the cedi by having confidence within the forex and avoiding hypothesis. Let us preserve our cedi as the nice retailer of worth it’s. To those that make it a behavior of publishing falsehoods, which lead to panic within the system, I say to them that the related state businesses will act in opposition to such individuals.
Indeed, some steps have been taken to restore order within the foreign exchange markets and we’re already starting to see some calm returning. We is not going to relent till the order is totally restored. The following actions have been taken to this point:
enhanced supervisory motion by the Bank of Ghana within the foreign exchange bureau markets and the black market to flush out unlawful operators, in addition to making certain that these permitted to function legally abide by the market guidelines. Already some foreign exchange bureaus have had their licenses revoked, and this train will proceed till full order is restored within the sector;
Fresh inflows of {dollars} are offering liquidity to the overseas trade market, and addressing the pipeline demand;
the Bank of Ghana has given its full dedication to the business banks to present liquidity to make sure the wheels of the economy proceed to run in a stabilized method, until the IMF Programme kicks in and the financing assurances anticipated from different companions additionally are available in;
Government is working with the Bank of Ghana and the oil-producing and mining corporations to introduce a brand new authorized and regulatory framework to make sure that all overseas trade earned from operations in Ghana are, initially, paid to banks domiciled in Ghana to assist increase the home overseas trade market; and
the Bank of Ghana will improve its gold buy programme.
I’m assured that these speedy measures designed to change the construction of our stability of cost flows, sanitise the overseas trade market to make sure that the banks and foreign exchange bureaus function alongside worldwide finest practices, along with strengthened supervision, will go a good distance to sanitize our overseas trade market, and make it extra resilient in opposition to exterior vulnerabilities going ahead.
Over the course of this week, I’ve held a number of fruitful engagements with the Trades Union Congress and Organised Labour, the Ghana Employers’ Association, the Association of Ghana Industries, the Ghana Association of Banks, the Private Enterprise Federation, the Association of Forex Bureau Operators, the Association of Market Queens and Women, all of whom symbolize necessary stakeholders of the Ghanaian economy. They expressed their issues and proposed options on how finest to remedy our issues. I’ve been inspired by the passion of those curiosity teams to assist Government address these challenges, and I intend to proceed these engagements with different teams.
I additionally need to guarantee all Ghanaians that no particular person or institutional investor, together with pension funds, in Government treasury payments or devices will lose their cash, because of our ongoing IMF negotiations. There will probably be no “haircuts”, so I urge all of you to ignore the false rumours, simply as, within the banking sector clean-up, Government ensured that the 4.6 million depositors affected by the train didn’t lose their deposits.
Anuanom, menim sɛɛ asetenamu ayɛ din. Nanso, ma obiaa empa aba, monkͻso enya gyidie ɛwͻ mabam mu. Nhyehyɛ yɛ aa ɛtumi maa Free SHS ɛni 1-District-1-Factory ɛbaa mu nu; nhyehyɛ yɛ aa ɛboaa ma yetumi pam corona yariɛ no efri oman ni mu; saa ɛnso na maban ɛ toto niemayie saa mereyi ama ahotͻ aba oman nimu, efri sɛɛ mewͻ gydie sɛɛ ɛko no yɛ Awurade Nyankopͻn ni ko.
Anyɛmimɛi, mile akɛ nibii ewa, shi nyɛ ka shia gbeye. Nyɛ yaanͻ ni nyɛ naa hemͻ kɛ yeli akɛ gbɛjianͻto ni hani free SHS ba min, gbɛjia nͻto ni hani 1-District-1-Factory ba min, gbɛjianͻto ni hani wͻ nyɛ wͻ shwe Corona hela kɛshi wͻ man nɛ min; nakai nͻͻ ni mi amlalo ba to gbɛjianͻ koni hejͻlɛ aba maa min, ejaakɛ, miyɛ hemͻ kɛ yeli ak3, ta, Nyͻnmͻ ta lɛ ni.
My authorities has all the time been cognisant of the significance of implementing insurance policies and social interventions to relieve Ghanaians of hardships. It is for that reason that over the primary 5 years in workplace authorities lowered electrical energy tariffs cumulatively by 10.9%, we supplied free water and electrical energy in addition to lowered tariffs for your entire inhabitants throughout an entire yr of the COVID-19 pandemic; we elevated the share of the District Assemblies Common Fund to individuals with disabilities by 50%; we exempted Kayayei from market tolls; we expanded the LEAP by 100 and fifty thousand (150,000) beneficiaries; we expanded School Feeding from 1.6 million kids to 2.1 million kids; we restored instructor and nursing coaching allowances; we absorbed the price of BECE and WASSCE examination registrations for folks; no guarantor is now required to get hold of scholar loans. The Ghana Card is ample, and we’ve carried out free TVET in addition to free senior highschool training.
It is apparent, fellow Ghanaians, that you’ve a authorities that cares. We are decided to restore stability to the economy and supply reduction. We are all on this collectively, and I’m asking to your assist to rescue Ghana from the throes of this financial disaster.
I’ve whole confidence in our skill to work our means out of our present difficulties. We should not afraid of exhausting work. We will triumph, as we’ve triumphed many occasions earlier than. Let us unite, and rally round our Republic, its establishments and its democratic values, and demand that, beneath God, we’ll emerge victorious from our present difficulties. For this too shall cross, because the Battle is the Lord’s.
I will probably be coming often to preserve you up to date in regards to the measures your authorities is making to transfer our nation ahead, and sort out our financial challenges.
God bless us all and our homeland Ghana and make her nice and powerful.
I thanks to your consideration and have an excellent night.
