HEALTH
Improving and maintaining a good health status of all Ghanaians is the surest way of building a healthy and prosperous nation. My government will thus continue to provide improved facilities and implement programs to improve the health status of all Ghanaians especially, at the primary care level. In this respect, we will expand the coverage and scope of immunization program for children. An intensified effort, activities and programs will be undertaken to contain the spread of HIV/AIDS. A more sustained, aggressive and efforts would be embarked upon and more resources channeled to fight and eliminate malaria and burreli ulcer from our country within a four-year period. We will work to expand the coverage of the national health insurance scheme program, especially in the rural areas to help reduce maternal mortality and other sicknesses.
Education Our primary objective will be to improve access to education as well as improve the quality of education for all Ghanaians. In pursuit of this, a thorough and comprehensive review of curriculum and co-curricular activities will be undertaken to ensure that our educational programmes provide (at the lowest level) a strong foundation for the development of core competencies and is relevant to our changing needs.
The teacher training curriculum will also be reviewed, to among others, improve subject content, enhance pedagogical skills and enable greater application of ICT in education. A major initiative will be decentralization of education to ensure greater control over curriculum and financing of education at the local level. District Assembly, traditional authority and parents involvement in all educational programmes will be enhanced. The first step in this process will be regional control over education at the pre-tertiary level.
At the tertiary level, to better respond to market and labour requirements and reduced skills mismatch, collaboration between industry and institutions if higher learning will be improved. New courses will be introduced in line with changing requirements of labour market. To improve employability of local graduates, the requirements for internship and industrial attachments would be made mandatory for all tertiary students.
Internship and attachment programmes would be redesigned inline with changing industrial requirements. A special presidential Advisory Council on Education and Training will be established to help guide policies and strategies relating to education and industrial training. Access to pre-school education will be expanded with the provision of more pre-school classes, particularly in rural areas.
Better facilities will be provided in the rural areas for primary and secondary education. More classrooms will be built to ensure the achievements of universal primary education. In addition, special programmes and incentives would be instituted to enhance the capacity of rural students to enroll and to acquire university education and enhanced skill training. To significantly improve the quality of our schools across the board we will undertake a major program that will ensure that y 2015 all teachers in all training colleges, secondary schools and at least 20 per cent of all teachers in primary schools would have first degree qualifications. At the regional level, we will work to ensure that within a year period each region has one well-financial, well-staffed university that will meet all international standards. In education, Ghana is increasingly being recognized within Africa especially, as a regional centre of excellence for tertiary education. Measures would be put in place to intensify our attractiveness as a regional centre for excellence in education. A major issue to wrestle with is the issue of financing tertiary education. While we are committed to a continuous yearly increase in of funding to the sector, additional source of funding would be required to provide resources to meet increasing and necessary demands of the sector. District Assemblies, traditional authorities, students, parents, the business community and NGOs in particular would all be encouraged to mobilize additional resources for the sector. Housing students will continue to be of concern to government. In this respect, we will work closely with the private sector and the traditional authorities by offering financial incentives to invest in construction of students housing and apartment.
Education has always been one of the highest priority sectors in our national development agenda. Yet education has not delivered on its promise as the prime mover of social-economic development and wealth creation. This is primarily because while the focus has been on increasing access, the emphasis on quality education has been minimal. Yet, the world has become a global village. The global knowledge economy is transforming the demands of the labour market and hence the type of education required in this age. We can only survive in this global village and its digital age by equipping our students with requisite skills to participate in the global knowledge economy. This means improving quality of education and the number of technical students. The number one cause of poor performance in the basic education is poor supervision. One of the first measures I will take as President will be to revamp and resource the Inspectorate division of the Ghana Education Service to enable them to properly supervise teachers. Administrative bottlenecks that delay sanctioning and dismissals of non-performing and problem teachers will be immediately removed. Latest statistics show that only 55% of those leaving in Junior High Schools are able to continue on in Senior Secondary Schools. And less than 30% percent of these are able to enter Tertiary Institutions. This is a massive waste of human resources. In order to increase access to Senior Secondary School, more schools would be constructed with particular attention paid to females and children from poor and rural backgrounds. The establishment of more private schools would be encouraged and supported. Ghana?s Senior Secondary School system is skewed towards grammar education and not technical education. This results in inadequate production of technical skills for industry.
My government will change this Over a period of four years, I will establish at least one Technical Institute in each district. Teaching in Ghanaian schools put emphasis on remembering facts and basic data. We will replace it with education that stimulates thinking, creativity and analytical skills geared towards problem solving. To ensure equitable access and regional balance, new first class Universities will be built in regions without public Universities by the end of my first term of office. The teacher training curriculum will be reviewed to among others improve subject, content, and to enable greater application of ICT in education. We will also undertake a major program to improve quality of education. In this respect, we will work to ensure that by 2015 all teachers in all Training Colleges, Senior Secondary Schools, and at least 20% of all teachers in Primary Schools would have first year University degree. My government will expand Distance Education to increase access to quality education. Special programs and incentives would be instituted to enhance the capacity of rural students to enroll and to acquire Tertiary Education and enhance skills training. In education, Ghana is increasingly being recognized within Africa, as a regional center of excellence for tertiary education. Measures would be put in place to intensify our attractiveness as a regional center for excellence in education. Finally, accommodation for students will continue to be of concern to government. In this respect, we will work closely with the private sector and the traditional authorities by offering financial incentives to invest in construction of more students housing and apartments.
YOUTH EMPLOYMENT
With respect to youth employment, we will specifically put in place programs to create job opportunities for the unskilled and the poorly educated youth who are usually left behind even in a period of general economic boom. My government will expand the National Youth Employment Program that is in place today. Under this expanded program, the youth will be mobilized for training and deployed to all parts of the country to engage in both private and public sector employment, especially in agriculture and reforestation, road construction, public health, teaching, national parks, and museums employ local sanitation and drainage as information officers, community police officers and agricultural extension officers. My government will also as a matter of great priority develop special youth development programs aimed at equipping youths with the necessary knowledge, training, and acquisition of employable skills that would enable them to succeed.Our youth development programs would not merely focus on job creation alone but would have an added dimension in empowering our youth to develop good leadership qualities as well as equipping them with entrepreneurial skills and knowledge, inculcating discipline and self-reliance, capacity building, social integration and political awareness and community leadership. It would be my government policy to mould a new generation of dynamic youths, imbued with positive values and qualities such as discipline, good moral, ethics, strong character, hard work, commitment to excellence and high achievement. Ladies and Gentlemen, I have developed a comprehensive program to empower our women, to house our people, to ensure the safety and security of all Ghanaians and a foreign policy based on economic and commercial diplomacy. All of these cannot be discussed here today.
EMPOWERING WOMEN
To ensure fuller contribution of women in our national development and further advancement of women, more education and training opportunities will be provided to women to enhance their job prospects. Women are good businesspersons but are increasingly constrained from effective business activity by inadequate access to financing, rights to acquire land and other properties. Measures will be undertaken to provide greater access to affordable credit too new technology and opportunities to acquire land property. Training programs to help women acquire general management skills, and financial and accounting skills, marketing development skills would be supported. Greater efforts would be made to reduce the incidence of poverty among women, especially among women heads of households through special incentives provided for that purpose by government. In terms of gender justice, we shall fully implement all women?s rights bills. In addition, all other existing laws and regulations that potentially could discriminate against women would be reviewed and repelled. Violent acts against women, including sexual abuses, and all traditionally based discrimination against women would be addressed with appropriate measures. Women would be trained with requisite skills to become better entrepreneurs and move beyond the service sector into industry.
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) My government will be committed to creating an information processing platform and software and hardware development for rapid and highly paid employment creation for our youths and as a new source of growth and wealth generation. Ghanaian ICT experts abroad will be encouraged to help the development of the ICT sector. Our long-term goal is to make Ghana as the ICT Excellence Centre in West Africa and eventually in Africa. Private-Public Partnership Model will be used to accomplish this project. My government will establish ICT Technology Park and equip it with state of the art infrastructure and utilities to attract world-class ICT firms such as Microsoft, Intel, HP and others to set up in Ghana Special incentives will be provided to both domestic and foreign ICT firms to relocate in this park. Greater access to ICT will be made available to our Universities, Polytechnics and Technical School to enable them to produce the requisite manpower to support the sector. Technical assistance especially from India, China, Thailand and Malaysia would be sought for upgrading skills in the sector. Flagship applications would be introduced to encourage the adoption and utilization of ICT in specific areas, including Electronic Government, Telemedicine and E-Business. My government will use Digital Technologies and Internet as the basis for making government responsive and citizen-centered. All MDAs of Central Government, Regional and Districts Assemblies will be computerized. Routine interactions of citizens and government will be facilitated by computer hubs for payment and document submission e.g. payment of bills, renewal of licenses etc. My government will encourage Private Enterprises to lay fibre-optic cable throughout the entire country and ensure that within 12 months of my administration all district assemblies will have Internet access. With videoconference facilities established at District Assemblies and Regional Coordinating Councils, my presidency will conduct regular videoconference meetings with DCEs and Regional Ministers and their staff personnel in one room in the full presence of the press. Various subjects on developments and performance of various unit government would be covered throughout the meetings, with the President or Vice President driving the discussions. Poverty alleviation Dr. Apraku?s have had numerous important experiences from his long service and dedication to serving The rural community where poverty is rife and an average family has to be contend with a meager earning to survive the persistent economic changes. Apraku?s leadership will create a worthy living wage, ensuring low-income students have access to the best and brightest teachers, lowering the costs of college education, and helping Ghanaians purchase their own homes without relying on greedy landlords. As president, Dr. Apraku will continue to fight for meaningful opportunities for low-income Ghanaians to join the middle class. That affordability will be a crucial penchant for everyone in the country. Employment Opportunities Dr Apraku?s desire to create employment avenues is clearly envisaged in his quest to improve human resource development for every active Ghanaian. To him people who want jobs should not only be able to gain meaningful employment, but also be able to move up the career ladder to further support their families; as well, serve as role models for their children. He will identify regions and set up industries where career corridors are not fully developed and then establish public and private partnerships to lift up those regions. He will also increase remuneration of low-wage workers. Dr. Apraku supports using the successful organized labor model of providing workers with additional skills and opportunities, and looks forward to working with organized labor to build more opportunities for low-income workers to reach economic security. Thus, Dr. Apraku contributions to debates on the floor of parliament shows this desire would be realized when he assumes the presidency. Transportation
One of the major priorities of Dr. Apraku in curbing total poverty among Ghanaians is by providing subsidizing transportation to the people. He will continue to import buses into the country which would be run by quasi-government agencies with proficient management. The buses would charge very minimal fares to the common man. With the rot in the current system a solid team made up of government appointee would monitor the operation, efficiency and effectiveness of the transport system. That the body would ensure that buses move according to time lines so worker and commuters would reach their destination on time. Thus check on lateness to work and other events. AGRICULTURE Today, more than 65% of our population work within the agricultural sector. The 65% working in the sector are unable to produce and process enough food to feed themselves, and the remaining 35% who work outside the sector. The reasons for this are not so difficult to fanthom. It is increasingly difficult to operate an agricultural sector with any degree of efficiency and productivity using hoes and cutlasses and depending on natural rainfall for growing crops. To improve agricultural productivity and thus enhance form incomes and improved livelihood of farmers and reduce poverty in general, we will modernize our agriculture and encourage more commercial farming, introduce high yielding and disease resistant crop varieties, and increase the use of tractors in farming. Building dams and increasing irrigation facilities for agricultural sector will become a major focus of the agricultural modernization program. We will embrace the crowding seeding technology currently available in the Burkina Faso, the United States of America, Israel and other countries to induce greater rainfall and increased reliability of water for farming and grazing. Accessibility to more affordable credit to farmers will be a major priority of government. In the short term more tractors would be imported with government subsidy for farmers. In the long term, Ghana will produce its own tractors for use in the agricultural sector.
TOURISM The Tourism sector will also be given a major boost. We will provide significant financial support and incentives to build Ghana into a preferred tourist destination. We will work to develop our oceanfront, rehabilitate our forts and castles and improve the attractiveness of all our tourist sites, and facilities. To accelerate private sector investment in the tourism industry, my government will set up a special fund, called the Ghana Tourism Infrastructure Development Fund (GTIDF). The fund will be used to finance projects such as resort development, renovation and refurbishment of hotels as well as provision of related infrastructure and services. The essence of our emphasis on the tourism sector is to use it as a major job-creating tool for the youth and to enhance rural development and household incomes.
Industry Dr. Apraku believes that an effective implementation of an integrated industrial policy will improve the performance of existing industry for increased productivity and competitiveness and will create a driving force for investment and export promotion as well as generate economic growth, create employment opportunities an eventually reduce poverty. He will in the process of his stewardship outline the challenges that the industrial sector faces, and more specifically, the manufacturing sector is currently embroiled in and provide workable solution and the types of government intervention that can annihilate those challenges. The manufacturing sector contributes more than 30% of the output of the industrial sector. Unfortunately, it is the sector that is under pressure to be internationally competition. Dr. Apraku?s industrial development policy is aimed at identifying growth sectors, fostering development of certain industrial structures and industrial clusters to exploit potential future advantages and prevent future bottlenecks in growth, improving competition of domestic firms on world markets and to prevent one-sided technological dependencies. Complementing our industrial policy will be an effective trade policy that will provide a member of policy instruments to promote international trade, such as tariffs, quotas, subsidies, bilateral and multilateral trade agreements and government intervention in currency and money markets. As a renowned Economist and Financial guru, Dr. Apraku?s policies is geered towards the consolidation of the economic reforms began in 1983 which have led to a significant degree of trade liberalization taking place over the last two or more decades; as a result, Ghanaian manufacturing enterprises are today exposed to an increasing degree of competition. To him, for trade liberalization to succeed, the policy must be complemented by macro-economic stability, improved governance, increased domestic investment, skill and technology upgrading, better access to ICT and policy complementarily. He accents to the fact that, following the increased globalization of the world economy industrial policy, unlike in the past where state intervention was the major instrument, industrial policy is struggling to more appropriate industrial ?competitiveness? policies, aimed at strengthening markets and providing the micro and structural support to complement incentives provided by government. Ghana requires an industrial competitiveness strategy that will provide the necessary structural and institutional reforms to allow private manufacturing firms to adjust more and this Dr. Apraku has antidote to that effect. The manufacturing sector is dominated by petroleum, food and textiles sub-sectors combined the three account for almost half (47%) of total manufacturing output. ? Petroleum sector accounts for 19% of manufacturing output and mainly produces gasoline, diesel and kerosene and aviation oil. ? The food processing group of industries account for 15% of manufacturing output. They engage in such activities as vegetable oil extraction, fish and meat processing, grain mill products, milk and mills products, cocoa processing and root crop processing, such as cassava and yam. The textiles industry engages in weaving, spinning, printing and finishing. Problems in industry
However, Dr Apraku has identified the teaming problems impeding the progress of industrial and manufacturing sectors. A recent survey of Ghana manufacturing sector by the Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF) identified some of the problem as under-investment in physical capacity and in human capital, obsolete machinery and equipment, high production cost and administrative bottlenecks. He will therefore gang up all the resource available to solve these challenges which includes transportation, telecommunications, health of workers, raw industrial capacities ? raw material and financial resources as well as financial policies. There is also lack of competitiveness of domestic industries. The need to improve transport infrastructure, logistical and supply chain services is underscored by the huge geographical, disadvantages, high transport cost. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is important in a global manufacturing. A major focus on science and technology is required to establish the platform for future competitiveness. This is related not only to existing technology in manufacturing but also to export standards, ISO-standards as well as improved human resource development programs. To achieve this, we need to produce more science and technology students, especially at the university level. In addition, it is proposed that government expand the establishment Science Resource Centers (SRC) and unsure that there are adequate facilities to stimulate teaching in Science and Technology. Dr. Apraku will institute policies that would make industries competitive and meet international standards. In industry, the priority will be the development of Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs). To support SMEs to grow, to adopt new technology and produce competitive and quality products, my government will facilitate the establishment of an SMEs Bank that would combine all existing public loans and credit schemes such as the poverty alleviation fund, the women?s fund, Micro Finance and Small Loans Scheme (MASLOC) and others to provide a strong and well capitalized Bank whose resources will be targeted at financing the activities of SMEs alone. Working with the private sector, my government will support the concept of regional growth centers and growth corridors to ensure and enhance balanced industrial development across the country. The SMEs bank will also provide funds to rehabilitate, recapitalized and re-structure distressed industries across the country. My government will pass a legislation to enact a domestic content law that will require major firms to use a specified percentage of domestic raw materials in their production process. This I believe will boost agricultural production, especially corn, sorghum, sugar cane, cotton, and spur the use of other domestic raw materials, such as limestone in the production of cement.
Energy To support economic growth, the government will continue to ensure sufficiency, security, reliability, quality and cost effectiveness of energy supply. To achieve this, electricity generation and transmission network will be further developed. Rural electrification project will also be intensified, especially in the poorest regions of the country.
However greater priority will be given to energy diversification and efficiency. Ghana?s high dependence on imported petroleum products will be reduced by promoting the use of alternative non-fossil fuels and aggressive exploration and development of fossil fuels deposits. The use of bio fuel will be aggressive promoted while significant efforts would be devoted to the production of bio diesel. Other removable energy resources such as solar power will continue to be developed.
Energy efficiency measures will be intensified in the industrial, transport and commercial sectors. Punitive measures would be taken against agencies that are found to be wasting energy. Efforts would be made to ascertain the unique energy needs and resources available to each region and the basics of this dedicated power and energy resources would be developed for each region. The national dependency on the Akosombo hydro electric plant will be a thing of the past.
If Ghana is thus looking for a leader who understands the complex nature and the decisive effect and influence of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, (IMF) the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU) and ECOWAS, then the answer is APRAKU. Ladies and gentlemen, if the NPP is looking for a leader who combines the boldness, the courage, the vision and the decisiveness of the late Professor Adu Boahen, and the tenacity, humility and diplomacy of President John Agyekum Kufuor, then, the answer is Kofi Konadu Apraku.
