President courts Caribbean investors

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Tuesday, assured the business community of the security of their investments in Ghana, and asked the private sector to harness the opportunities inherent in the business climate.

He said with his Administration’s policies geared towards facilitating business and industrial growth, and positioning Ghana as the most business and people-friendly economy on the continent, a formidable public-private partnership was the most viable way of building a competitive economy.

This transformed economy, he said, would drive sustained growth and prosperity for Ghanaians.

Addressing a Caribbean Trade Mission, which called on him at the Flagstaff House, in Accra, he said: “We are trying to build a strong economy with a strong emphasis on the private sector that can help us deliver a divinities standard of living for the mass of our people.

The Trade Mission is in Ghana to participate in the three-day Trade Summit that runs from September 26 to September 28, 2017.

The Summit, aimed at facilitating and deepening trade links between Ghana and the Caribbean, is under the theme: “Promoting Trade and Investment- Ghana and the Caribbean”.

President Akufo-Addo said his Government was focused on creating a stable and competitive fiscal regime to make Ghanaian businesses competitive, strengthening the private sector to ensure it played a major role in the rapid development of Ghana and instituting the required policy framework to facilitate the structural transformation of the country.

“And in this scenario we think that there are two things that are critical. Firstly, strengthening[G1] the private sector by creating a micro economy that is stable with low interest rates, low rate of inflation, stable currency and a competitive fiscal regime that will enable Ghanaian enterprises and those operating from here to be competitive within Ghana, competitive within West Africa and within the world,” he added.

“And then secondly putting in place a policy framework that will enable us to facilitate a structural transformation of our economy,” he stated.

President Akufo-Addo expressed his resolve to ensure that Ghana obtained optimum benefits from its rich natural through value-addition, saying that Ghana had no future continuing the export of raw materials.

He said that resolving the country’s infrastructural deficit and achieving the long-term development plan of the country called for value addition and an increase in the literacy rate in Ghana.

The implementation of the Free Senior High School by his Government, he said, would afford every Ghanaian the opportunity to attain at least high school education fully funded by the state.

“We are making a bold attempt to make sure that everybody in Ghana can have access to education at least to the level of secondary school.”

President Akufo-Addo also stated that his Government’s commitment to clearing the outstanding debts of the National Health Insurance Scheme [G2] to enable that critical social intervention to function effectively.

The Government, he said, had settled about GH¢560 million out of the total GH¢1.2 billion debt it owed the scheme, assuring that within the next twelve months, the outstanding balance would be cleared to make way for the smooth operation of the scheme.

Mr Anthony Jordan, the Acting Managing Director of HFC Bank, who led the delegation, commended the President for his commitment to ensuring a friendly business environment.

He said the Trade Mission was committed to the Government’s agenda for rapid development of the Ghana.

“Our main objective is to support your agenda of a private sector driven economy by using our presence both in the Caribbean and in Ghana to facilitate long-term trade and investments,” he said, noting that the business summit in Ghana offered a unique opportunity to expose investment avenues for Caribbean business people.