EVENING ENCOUNTER WITH HON. NANA ADDO DANKWA AKUFO-ADDO, 2008 NPP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, ORGANISED BY THE INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS (IEA GHANA) AT ALISA HOTEL, ACCRA ON WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26TH 2008.

INTRODUCTION

Good Evening to you all . Let me begin by congratulating the IEA and all the organisations that have joined together to make this encounter possible. The presentations on energy, these encounters and others that are being planned are testament to the growing entrenchment of democracy in our country. Thank you.

This year’s elections are truly historic for our nation. Before us is the opportunity to fundamentally improve the lives of Ghanaians. The choice is whether to move forward with the New Patriotic Party or go back to and with the National Democratic Congress. There are clear differences between the major parties. There are differences in our records in government. There are differences in our respective past performances; there are differences in our respective visions for the future and there are differences in the Presidential candidates of the parties.

When I accepted my party’s nomination at Legon in the early morning hours of December 23rd, I pledged my party and I to a positive campaign of ideas and urged other parties and candidates to do the same. I remain committed to that pledge.

Fellow Ghanaians, I am here this evening to explain to you why you should return the NPP majority to Parliament and elect me, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, your President. I urge that you judge us in this election based on what we have done, what we are doing and what we are going to do. Consistent with my party’s values and its record of performance, I shall lead a team that will build on the solid foundation laid by the Kufuor-led NPP government to transform our country from the third to first world within our generation.

OUR RECORD OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS

I know that some in this country who are opposed to us struggle not to acknowledge the performance of the NPP government. While we are a democracy and they are entitled to their opinions, they are not entitled to create their own facts. I respectfully but strongly disagree with their views about our performance. Here are just some of the facts regarding our achievements.

First, the NPP government has given this nation its best economy in our half-a-century of independence. We have achieved macro-economic stability for the longest period in our history. We have reduced significantly both interest rates and inflation while nearly quadrupling the size of our economy to US$15 billion in the first seven years of the NPP. We have worked hard to wean ourselves off the financial dependence of the World Bank and the IMF. We have a sovereign credit rating of B+ and the ability to borrow on the open financial markets on our own. Indeed, last year, our first sovereign bond issue which was for US$750 million, was over-subscribed to the tune of US$3.2 billion. This, coupled with the increase in Foreign Direct Investment, our selection for Millennium Challenge Account and increased remittances are all testament to our successful management of the economy.

This year, despite the difficulties in the world affecting all economies, ours is projected to grow by 7%.We have been able to get a debt relief of over US$4 billion, reducing our external debt from 152% of our GDP to 22% today. Indeed, today, we are recognised as one of the top ten reforming countries in the world and the best place to do business in Africa.

Second, the plans and programs of the NPP have been the most effective of any government in addressing the needs of our people.

We introduced in 2003, the National Health Insurance Scheme over the objections of the NDC and with that freed Ghanaians from the clutches of the inhumane “cash and carry system”. Today, over 11 million Ghanaians have signed up and more are signing up each day. In education, we have introduced the Capitation Grant and School Feeding Program that have combined to increase primary school enrolment by an astonishing 30% over the last three years. It is gratifying that half of the increases have come from the three northern regions. Thus while others talk, we are closing the gap between the North and the South with our policies. Our public Universities have more than doubled enrolment, from 44 thousand in 2000 to a hundred thousand in 2007, while our Polytechnics have increased enrolment over 50% from 18,000 to 28,000. These expansions have been supported by massive government investments in educational infrastructure, the likes of which have not been seen in the last forty years. We have increased the minimum wage as well as the salaries of virtually every professional. For instance, the salary of an average teacher has gone up four-fold from Gh¢500 to Gh¢2,400 per year. The net effect of these policies is that we have reduced poverty from 39% to 28%.

Third, we have undertaken the most comprehensive physical infrastructural programme by any government since the First Republic. For example, the total road network of our country, which stretched for 39,000km in 2000 had increased to 62,000km in the first five years of the NPP. Our water situation across the country, especially in rural Ghana, has seen some significant improvements. From Wa and its environs, to North and South Tongu, Winneba, Kwanyaku, Swedru, Dangbe, and Cape Coast. However, the situation in some of our urban areas, such as Accra, Tamale, Koforidua and Mankesim, require a lot more urgency in completing ongoing water provision projects. The project to expand the country’s pre-Independence railway network system to cover the four corners of the country is also on.

Fourth, while we remain deeply concerned and continue to engage in resolving the few trouble spots, we have maintained peace and unity and promoted reconciliation while deepening our democracy. Today, Ghana is the most peaceful country in West Africa. Now, no media person lives in dread of the Criminal Libel Law because we have repealed it and our Press is perhaps the most vibrant on our continent. Our democratic institutions are working and our commitment to the ballot rather than bullets as the way of changing governments is evident to all with election processes whose fairness and credibility are hailed around the world. The result has been the visible revival of popular self-confidence of Ghanaians.

Fifth, as a result of the NPP’s stewardship and mature diplomacy, our nation is once again highly respected around the World. The effect of all this is that we have created a conducive environment to attract and generate the needed investment to move our nation and people forward to a free, prosperous, modern society.

Sixth, we found oil and that was not by accident. When we came in 2001, we refocused the GNPC on its core mission and within a few years, oil has been found. Since the discovery, we have organised a conference to plan the prudent, transparent and honest management of the oil revenues to which we invited many countries with the experience in the oil industry to share their experience with us. There is no doubt that the New Patriotic Party is the party that is best prepared to ensure the transparent and accountable management of these revenues and thereby ensure that the entire nation, particularly the Western Region benefit from this blessing.

Despite our achievements, we recognise that there is a great deal more work to be done to ensure that our citizens get a better life.

The world has been a difficult place due to astronomical increases in crude oil and global food prices.

The economy, nevertheless, has shown greater resilience in dealing with these external shocks because of the NPP’s responsible management of the economy. I am proud to say that Ghana today has the best economy since Independence. The nation has been better off under the NPP.

You are better off if you are one of the millions of Ghanaians who have been freed from the clutches of the “cash-and-carry” system by the National Health Insurance Scheme.

Your family is better off if your young child is benefiting from the School Feeding Program and/or the Capitation Grant and your older child now has a chance to attend University or Polytechnic because of the expansion in facilities that have led to increased enrolment.

You are better off when the road in your area has been improved and travel takes less time than before.

Let us count our blessings and thank the Lord for what we have achieved as we commit ourselves to moving forward.

Indeed, we are moving forward. In health, Government will soon announce free antenatal, delivery and post-natal services to all women. Furthermore, the government has announced plans to de-link the coverage of minors from their parents under the NHIS. This will extend the benefits of the NHIS to those under 18 even if their parents have not signed up for the program.

MY VISION – A NEW GHANA

Fellow Ghanaians, we know that the challenges we faced in 2001 as a nation are different from those we will face in 2009. The Kufuor administration has greatly enhanced Ghana’s democracy, stabilised the economy and laid the foundation for the comprehensive growth of the economy and the provision of social justice.

My vision is to use this platform to create a modern society, by transforming the structure of the Ghanaian economy, consolidating democracy, and fully engaging our country in the agenda for regional and continental integration and promoting our common interest in the global arena.

DEEPENING OUR DEMOCRACY

Fellow Ghanaians, let me focus on some of the priority areas that would occupy by Presidency. My administration will intensify the process of decentralisation by continuing the creation of new districts, increasing the District Assembly Common Fund to 10% during my first term and increasing the control of District Assemblies over their staff. We shall move to improve the relationship among DCEs, Members of Parliament and traditional leader in the interest of their districts.

Next, we shall, with greater urgency, reform the public sector to make public services more efficient, transparent and customer-friendly. I shall work to ensure that with the help of technology and better training and in line with decentralisation, nearly all the services provided by government will be available in any of the regional capitals.

Democracies do best when there are strong and vibrant institutions. As the saying goes, nothing is possible without individuals but nothing is lasting without institutions. The gains we have made in our democracy due to the sacrifices of great individuals must be protected by great institutions. We shall prioritise our budgetary arrangement to ensure that the next NPP government has the funds to strengthen Parliament, CHRAJ, SFO, Food and Drugs Board, Standards Board and other institutions with more resources and where necessary, better personnel and greater efficiency.

I am committed to fighting corruption with vigour. While the Whistleblowers, Public Procurement and Financial Administration statutes and the open sittings of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament are good starts, we have a lot more work to do. We will complete the significant work done by this government on the Right to Information Bill and pass the law within six months of my assumption of office. I shall hold my Ministers and other officials accountable, consistent with the high standards that I have set for in the last 30 years.

Also, we need to recognise that our rights as citizens of a democracy come with responsibilities. We need to get to places on time because time is money. Our potential as a nation is seriously diminished by the pervasive habits of tardiness and lack of professionalism.

Democracy and the rule of law are twins. We cannot be a democracy when we honour the law in the breach, when we fear the night because of criminals or die unacceptably on our roads that have become lawless spaces. Even though this government has increased the Police force by 66% from 15 to 25 thousand, while increasing their vehicles ten-fold, our work is not yet done. The reports in our newspapers of armed and violent crime, like the Madina robbery of a Bank a few days ago, remind all of us of how much more we need to do. My administration will double the Police Force to 50 thousand in the next five years while committing more resources for training, better pay and technology to increase professionalism and accountability of our Police Force. The public is entitled to a Police Force that is a friendly, effective and professional force and we do not yet have that. We shall fight the drug menace vigourously by improving the collaboration between law enforcement agencies, within our country and our across West Africa. We shall enhance our collaboration with Britain and America. However we need to offer more opportunities to our youth, in education and jobs while strengthening our families and communities to resist the temptation of drugs.

MODERNISATION OF OUR SOCIETY

To modernise our society, we need to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of public services while improving the quality of our lives.

In our cities, too many of our citizens live in sub-standard dwellings in unplanned neighbourhoods. It has become routine for people to build dwellings for miles and miles in unplanned areas without any space reserved for schools, hospitals and public parks. My administration will enforce zoning regulations and insist that our cities are planned and provision made for parks, schools and hospitals while newly developed areas have amenities and utilities before human dwellings. Along these lines, we need to develop geographical addresses coupled with personal identification and we shall complete the initiatives made in these areas by the current government.

We cannot be a modern society when so many of our citizens are not adequately housed and urban dwellers pay rents with advances that make it difficult for young people to start life independent of their parents. We shall support real estate developers to erase the significant housing deficits we face while creating needed jobs in our economy. It is estimated that there is a housing deficit of some half-a-million housing units with an annual increment of one hundred thousand. Consistent with my party’s philosophy creating a “ property-owning democracy”, I commit my government to the construction of fifty thousand units per year at 20, 000 GH cedis per unit for the next 5 years to complement the delivery of housing by the private sector.. This will cost a total of 1 billion Gh cedis and 20% of these will be committed to renting by families that cannot afford to buy these houses.

In addition to these changes, a modern society requires a good public health system and clean drinking water. We shall increase the resources for garbage and waste treatment significantly. To improve sanitation, we shall require organisations doing business with the public to provide more toilet facilities to the public and put on the streets 20 thousand sanitation inspectors, popularly known as “ TANKASE” workers per year for the next five years. These will be coupled with competitions between districts and cities on cleaness. We shall make our roads safer by enforcing traffic regulations in a humane manner.. However, we shall enhance the capacity of the National Ambulance service to deal with accidents and disasters when they occur.

Quality Education is fundamental to a modern society and we shall implement the new educational policy introduced by the current government by focusing on quality and putting the teacher at the center of the whole process. The School Feeding program that is being piloted in 2 schools per district will be extended to all schools in the next 2 years at a projected total cost of GH¢287,606,241 per year. Currently, the cost of Senior High School education is about GH¢92 million per year. Making this free and compulsory will cost an additional GH¢75 million per year initially with the cost expected to rise as enrolment increases.

To improve Basic Education, the Teacher Training Colleges have been upgraded to tertiary level and we shall strengthen these Colleges of Education to improve the quality of our teachers.

To make University education more accessible, I pledge that my administration will move towards the goal of having a public University in each region as soon as possible. This will provide public Universities for Volta and Eastern Regions and upgrade all the existing universities, and upgrade all existing universities to international standards.All our universities, through the development of Technology and/or Research Parks, will become “Business Incubation Centers in partnership with private business and our government. These partnerships will translate good ideas from the Universities into business ideas that can attract investment to create wealth and jobs and help drive our economy while on the other hand finding answers to the concerns of business. To make Science education more attractive, government will absorb the additional User Fees for Science students.

While all the factors discussed here will help, nothing is more subversive of modernisation than indiscipline. To me, for us to be the modern society to which we aspire, we must be disciplined and obey the law while insisting that others do so as well.

THE ECONOMY

Fellow Ghanaians, the precondition for attaining all that I have discussed this evening is a rapidly growing and robust economy which will enable us to generate the necessary revenues to finance our plans and programmes. Fortunately, the NPP has the team and the record of performance to assure Ghanaians that we can deliver. As I indicated in my address to AGI, the economy that I envisage will grow at about 10% per year, focus on value-addition to raw materials, manufacturing and ensure that the entire machinery of government is geared towards assisting Ghanaians trying to do business. I pledge to reduce the time for processing applications for businesses significantly, to require government to purchase half of its needs from local sources and to require timely payment for work done. All these will significantly increase economic growth.

All these will help the transformation of our economy into one where we export products to which we have added value instead of raw materials. The foundation of such an economy is the modernisation of our agricultural sector. We must irrigate our agricultural land, particularly in the north and the Accra plains, give farmers technical help, as we did with the cocoa spraying, provide technical assistance through extension workers and reduce post-harvest losses by building storage facilities and roads while helping investors to build agro-processing plants that will provide ready markets to our farmers and spur productivity. These measures will significantly transform the north. Together with the Bui Dam and the One Billion Dollar Northern Development Authority that I pledge to establish and a modern airport that will make Tamale the gateway to the North, which will become the bread-basket of Ghana and the driving force of our economy rather than the disadvantaged area that it is today.

To support the development of Small and Medium Enterprises, which worldwide are the main generators of jobs, I am also pledged to establish a 1 billion dollar Industrial Development Fund that will support such enterprises. To provide the necessary infrastructure for these enterprises, my government will accelerate the work of the current administration in seeking partners to invest in critical industries like aluminium, iron ore, salt and petrochemicals as well as tourism and ICT.

This value addition to primary products will create thousands of jobs every year. The continuing effort to eliminate the housing deficit, the rehabilitation of our schools and the building of new public universities will create thousands of well-paying jobs for brick-layers, plumbers, carpenters and electricians for years to come. In the construction and agricultural sectors, we expect, working with the private sector, to create half-a-million jobs per year. 300,000 of these will be in construction and the rest in agriculture. Tourism and ICT combined will generate an estimated 300,000 jobs year. In the medium and long-term, the new heavy industries, the salt and petrochemical industries and the oil industry combined will generate, after the initial period, at least 400,000 jobs in the SME’s for our young men and women graduating from our universities, polytechnics, technical and vocational institutes with the necessary skills. The era of the unemployed graduate is on the way out and better days are on the way.

Some have questioned where the money will come from to pay for these. The short answer is that it will come from sovereign bonds, diaspora bonds, foreign direct investments and oil revenues. To take a couple of these for illustration, as I indicated earlier, when we went to the markets to raise 750 million through bonds, it was oversubscribed to the tune of 3.2 billion dollars. Secondly, while according to the GNPC only 1.3 billion US dollars came into Ghana between 1992 and 2001, from 2001 to 2007 there was nearly 8 billion US dollars of investment. In addition to these, Ghana expects 15 billion US dollars of revenues in the first five years from oil. This is combined with savings of nearly 10 billion US dollars in oil import bills. While we shall ensure that the Western Region and all future generations benefit from the oil revenue, we can dedicate some for investments in the critical areas that will transform our economy and modernise our society.

ENGAGEMENT IN WEST AFRICA AND AFRICA

The transformation of our economy will make Ghanaian businesses very competitive in West Africa, Africa and the world. As the empowered Ghanaian businesses become stronger and more successful, they will need bigger markets. West Africa has a market of a quarter of a billion people. This means that a peaceful, more prosperous West Africa is in our economic interest. My government will work to strengthen ECOWAS to have peace in our region so that all who travel and engage legitimately in pursuit of goods and services will be protected. Too often, security forces in various countries prey on peaceful traders instead of protecting them. My government, aided by my experience as Foreign Minister and my familiarity with both official languages of West Africa, stands poised to lead an unprecedented collaboration of West Africa that will unleash peace and commerce and inure to the benefit of all who live in our West African neighbourhood.

CONCLUSION

Fellow Ghanaians, as a person, I care deeply about the future of this country. Over the last three decades, I have been in the trenches, fighting to establish our democracy, to expand the frontiers of our freedoms and to make our nation better. From UNIGOV to KUMEPREKO, I have always been there – on the side of right, on the side of the people. I know therefore, in a very personal way, the price we have paid for our freedoms and our current growing prosperity.

We need to take a firm step into the future if we are to be part of the rapidly changing global village with its attendant technological advancements.

I shall lead by example, through a hands-on approach, working around the clock to restore the culture of hard work.

I shall create an effective and efficient public service that delivers to the expectation of our people.

I will be action-oriented, demanding of results, chase progress and will not tolerate bureaucratic inertia.

I have a strong desire to serve Ghana with a clear conscience, pure motives and a solid character. I will offer a leadership of competence, courage, compassion and commitment. From Pusiga to Axim, from Hamile to Keta we all by fate are Ghanaians first. We have to emphasise the things that bring us together. I believe in Ghana and I ask you also to believe in Ghana.

We are moving forward. Yeko yenim! Wonya wo hie!

And with God as our guide, we shall succeed.

God Bless you,

God bless Ghana.