The convener of the Fixing The Country Movement Mr. Ernest Kofi Owusu Bempah has stated that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led government is on course in fixing the country.
“Ghanaians have glimpsed with unflattering development under the Akufo- Addo- Bawumia government just to mention a few One District, One Factory(1D 1F), Planting for Food and Jobs, Establishment of the Zongo Development Fund, the Creation of the six new regions among others”.
Below Is The Full Press Statement:
STATEMENT BY FIXING THE COUNTRY MOVEMENT AT A PRESS CONFERENCE HELD ON 16TH AUGUST, 2021 IN ACCRA ON HOW PRESIDENT AKUFO-ADDO IS FIXING THE COUNTRY
Ladies and Gentlemen of the print and electronic media, we are honoured for your promptness to this press conference. We are seizing this opportunity to salute all Ghanaians for their resoluteness and determination in bracing all the odds in this global Covid-19 pandemic to put food on the table and attack the daunting task to achieve meaningful lives.
Ladies and Gentlemen here gathered! Who are we? What is our locus when it comes to transpiration in Ghana’s political space?
The Fixing The Country Movement is an amalgamated umbrella body of all right-thinking Ghana first activists, patriots of the political divide, and other progressives forces. We are proud to state without any scintilla of doubt that the struggles, toils, sacrifices and sweat of our members are partly responsible for President Akufo-Addo’s landmark 2016 and 2020 elections victory and we deem it prudent to highlight his success stories to the people of Ghana.
The Patriotic spirit to lift our dear country from poverty and deprivation has resulted in a conscious effort to pass down the lofty ideals of good governance, social justice and transparency to the younger people of today. We are proud to say that Fixing The Country Movement has hundreds of thousands of patriots dotted in every constituency, region and entire county.
It is trite at this point to go on a considered herculean task of canvassing an argument in favour of why any attack on President Akufo-Addo should attract our attention and worry.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the media! We have summoned you today as stakeholders in Ghana’s democracy to address few issues of concern and how President Akufo-Addo is fixing the country.
The first tenure of President Akufo-Addo started from January 7, 2017, to January 6, 2021.
We can boldly describe the first term of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as one with resounding success.
The reality is that we have been going through a big change for the past four and half years, and with each year, it only seems to grow exponentially. Denial of this does not negate that it has been occurring and will continue to occur.
The movement is very much aware of the considerable gains that the country has chalked under the exemplary leadership of President Akufo-Addo. This attests to the fact that the country is being fixed.
Under the Akufo-Addo led administration, the economy which hitherto had high inflation, a high budget deficit, a depreciating cedi and depleting gross international reserves has been totally turned around for the better. The Macroeconomic indices attest to this feat with several indicators showing fantastic results never achieved in Ghana’s history.
☑As a matter of fact, Inflation has been reduced from 15.4% in 2016 to 10.4% at the end of 2020.
☑ Average lending rates have been reduced from 32% in 2016 to 21% in 2020.
☑The average exchange rate depreciation over the last four years (7.3%) is the lowest for any first-term government since 1992. The year 2020 recorded the lowest rate of depreciation in the last 28 years.
☑President Akufo-Addo is fixing the country by cleaning up the mess in the financial sector that he inherited and saved the deposits of 4.6 million depositors.
☑Akufo-Addo’s sound economic policies have resulted in Ghana been consistently one of the fastest-growing economies in the world for each of the last four years. notwithstanding the decline of GDP growth to 0.9% in 2020 as a result of COVID-19.
☑ For the first time in over two decades, the trade balance (the difference between what we export and what we import) recorded a surplus for four consecutive years from 2017-2020.
☑Ghana’s Gross International Reserves increased from $6.1 billion (3.5 months of imports) in 2016 to $8.6 billion in 2020 (4.1 months of imports).
☑Planting for Food and Jobs has increased food production. It has led to a 71% increase in the national production of maize and 34% in paddy rice.
☑ The Global Food Security Index, which measures affordability, availability and quality of food across 113 countries, placed Ghana in 59th position in 2019, up from 78th position in 2016.
☑ Akufo-Addo’s resilience in fixing the country has led to the introduction of the Free SHS policy.
As stated in Article 25 1b of the 1992 Constitution, “Secondary education in its different forms including technical and vocational education, shall be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means, and in particular, by the progressive introduction of free education.”
Goal 4 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) states: “By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes.” It has therefore been a priority of the Akufo-Addo government to ensure that education is made free from basic to secondary to afford more children in Ghana the opportunity to access quality education. In September 2017, the Ministry achieved a major milestone with the implementation of the Free Senior High School program. That year, there was an 11% increase in enrolment, breaking records from previous years. In the 2017/18 academic year, a new record was set with the highest enrolment ever seen in the country: over 470,000 students enrolled in senior high school.
☑ President Akufo-Addo has implemented the One District, One Factory Initiative. In four years, 76 companies are in operation under 1D1F.
☑Established the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO). 100,000 graduates employed
☑ Akufo-Addo’s administration has recruited nurses, doctors, and other healthcare workers, teachers, police officers, and many others in the public sector after many years of employment freeze under the previous Government. At least 550,000 public sector workers were recruited.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, we can also attest to the fact that President Akufo-Addo’s believes in Ghana and the great potentials of the Ghanaian youth has resulted in about 70% of his policies and programmes being youth-driven.
The Free Senior High School, One-District-One-Factory, Digitalization, Free Technical Vocational Education, the Planting for food and jobs, Restoration of Allowances for Teachers and Nursing Trainees, Reviving Scholarship Secretariat, the Nation Builders Corps, Youth in Afforestation, NEIP, the Amplified Projects and the Ghana Entreprises Agency are all youth-driven.
Ladies and Gentlemen, President Akufo-Addo’s administration is the only Government since independence that has been able to champion youth-driven policies and programmes in the areas of empowerment, employment, mentorship, training and development.
The Digitalization Agenda of Akufo-Addo has made it easy for people to renew their national health insurance membership on their phones without having to spend precious time in long queues.
☑ECG customers can now easily buy pre-paid electricity units conveniently from wherever they’re from their mobile phone.
☑The online passport application processes are helping many people and making it easier to obtain a passport.
☑Digitization at the port, elimination of long room, and streamlined inspections and enhanced enforcement has made it easier to clear goods and curb corruption in the process.
☑Following digitization at the Scholarship Secretariat, everyone is able to apply for scholarships and receive the same in the comfort of his or her home via online applications.
☑One Constituency one ambulance policy has been implemented.
☑Established the Zongo Development Fund to address the needs of Zongo and inner-city communities.
☑President Akufo-Addo has also created six new regions to help promote decentralized and inclusive development
☑Akufo-Addo has done the largest investment in infrastructure (roads, railways, schools, etc.) for any first-term government in the fourth republic.
☑World class leadership demonstrated by President Akufo-Addo in the management of COVID-19. Notwithstanding the impact of COVID-19, inflation, interest rates and exchange rate depreciation are much lower today than they were in 2016.
☑Long running chieftaincy dispute in Dagbon has been solved against all odds by Akufo-Addo.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the call to fix the Country are legitimate, and we must all appreciate the fact that President Akufo-Addo is on course fixing the myriad of problems bedevilling this nation.
As a country, we must not lose sight of the transformation agenda being rolled out by this president.
Indeed, in the year 2020, Ghana came second in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa. As a nation, we bagged $2.7billion worth of investment out of which $2.6billion was from FDI.
The FDIs were realized from 271 registered projects in Ghana and it is envisaged that 27,000 direct jobs were created, according to statistics from the Ghana Investment Promotion Center.
President Akufo-Addo is supporting Ghanaian workers by throwing a lifeline to them.
The country’s wage bill has more than doubled in the last three (5) years. This is why the Fixing The Country Movement, is by this statement calling on all right-thinking Ghanaians to stand by for our maiden match in support of President Akufo-Addo’s resilience in fixing the country.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, as a Movement we are going to embark on a Nationwide sustained campaign across all the sixteen(16) regions to propagate the good works of Akufo-Addo in fixing the country.
At our next engagement, we would be seeking to shed more light on projects in various regions.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, it was the Indian author Rohini Nilekani who remarked that we cannot be mere consumers of good governance, we must be participants; we must be co-creators. Let’s join hands and be participants in propagating the success stories of the Akufo-Addo regime.
Long live Ghana!!
(Signed)
Ernest Kofi Owusu Bempah(Political Strategist, Convener- Fixing The Country Movement)
