Ghana cannot remain a beggar nation forever - Napo

The Minister for Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has stated that considering Ghana’s vast natural and human resources, this country has no excuse to depend on foreign assistance to meet her needs forever.

Dr. Prempeh made these remarks when interacting with the media after participating in the World Innovation Summit on Education (WISE) yesterday.

The summit, whose theme was ‘Unlocking the World’s Potential: Leading and Innovating for Quality Education in Africa’ was held under the patronage of the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

It was organized by the Qatar Foundation, a non-profit organization that focuses its efforts on education, research and community development. The objective of the summit was to explore the innovations in Africa that aim to overcome current limitations and pave new ways to empower youth to lead and innovate.

The Education Minister, who delivered the President’s keynote address on his behalf, noted that a leader is supposed to inspire and lead his people with a vision, and that this President Akufo-Addo is doing by focusing on desire to see a Ghana Beyond Aid, because we cannot remain a beggar nation dependent on the charity of others.

He noted that fundamentally, Ghana must aspire to grow its economy in order to generate further revenue to create the fiscal space for investment in areas such as education and skills training, and that this was what the government was focused on.

Reflecting on the President’s speech, he stated that Ghana cannot create economic growth and decent employment opportunities without investing in quality education, because education is the lifeblood of development and prosperity.

Dr. Prempeh observed that with a robust economy it would be possible to wean ourselves off foreign aid and rely more on our internally generated funds to power our development agenda.

Calling on Ghanaians to buy into the President’s vision, Dr. Prempeh declared that “We cannot build a country on cynicism and pessimism.”