EXCERPTS FROM LIBERTY LECTURES, AUG 31
4th August 1897 - a truly seminal moment in Ghanaian history.

Significance of Aug 4
• 4th August 1897 first Ghanaian lawyer, John Mensah Sarbah, pioneering Pan-Africanist Joseph Casely Hayford, Peter Awoonor Renner, Jacob W. Sey, George Hughes, J. P. Brown and others established the Aborigines Rights Protection Society in Cape Coast. The Society mounted an effective, successful campaign, mobilizing the chiefs and people, to oppose the infamous 1897 Crown Lands Bill, which sought to expropriate our lands to the British Crown.
• 4th August, fifty years later in 1947, the wealthy nationalist businessman George ‘Pa’ Grant, J. B. Danquah, R. S. Blay, Francis Awoonor-Williams, Edward Akufo-Addo, Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey, known as Liberty Lamptey, Ebenezer Ako Adjei and others such as Cobbina Kessie, J. W. de Graft Johnson, William Ofori-Atta and John Tsiboe, the publisher of the Ashanti Pioneer, and chiefs and people gathered in Saltpond to launch the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC). It was the body that subsequently brought Kwame Nkrumah down from London to act as its general secretary, and offered him a platform for his political career, and from which he broke away to form the Convention Peoples’ Party, the party that led the final push for independence on March 6, 1957.

Nana Addo on Kufuor:
It was “John Agyekum Kufuor, whose eight year stewardship of our nation gave the Ghanaian people a welcome, solid taste of the meaning of development in freedom. The rapid expansion of the economy that took place under his watch, now universally acknowledged even by his fiercest critics and detractors, bringing in its wake a marked improvement in the living standards of the Ghanaian people, together with the enhancement of the culture of democratic governance that his era witnessed, leaves many Ghanaians wondering how far down our development journey we would have been had the other post-independent governments worked with the same efficiency and zeal as his did. Excellency, Ghanaians continue to salute your leadership.”

Nana on Muslims:
“Let me use this occasion to wish my Muslim brothers and sisters Barka Da Sallah, which marks the end of Ramadan. Ramadan was the month in which the Quran was revealed: the fundamental liberating document for Muslims. In it, the Prophet Muhammad taught the faithful to fight for Liberty. And I believe that much of the upheavals we are witnessing in North Africa today are a direct response to the desire of people, especially the young people, to live lives of freedom and dignity.”

Nana on aspirations:
“It is normal for every individual to aspire to have a decent education, a decent job, a decent home, and to live in an atmosphere of security, law and order.”
Nana on Responsibility:
“But that freedom is not a license to do whatever you like. Liberty goes hand in hand with responsibility. So, the free citizen is also the responsible citizen.”

Nana on Education – why education is a priority
“What the evidence from history and the experience of many countries have shown is that it is not natural resources that build nations. It is people who build nations. It is the people of Ghana, Ghanaians like you and I, and especially the youth of today, who are going to build Ghana.”
• Truly heartbreaking statistics – we are failing the youth.
• Thousands of JSS students drop out of the education system each year because they cannot afford tuition fees to move on to Senior High School. What do we expect them to do? What opportunities are available to them? How competitive can they be in this global economy? Too many of our children, nearly a quarter of a million each year, graduate from our Senior High Schools without access to our universities or the necessary skills for the job market.
• Nearly 300,000 JHS/SHS students fail final exam
• According to GLSS5:- 30% of adults in urban areas are illiterate
• 60% adults in rural areas are illiterate (GLSS5).
• 90% of students at the University of Ghana from private primary schools
• Only 10% of students coming from small town/village in Ghana.
• Too many universities graduate without jobs.


SOLUTION:
“We believe that education is a right and not a privilege.”
“An educated and trained workforce will transform our economy, an educated and trained population will give us the confidence required to deal with the rest of the world in the competitive economy.”
• Quality education and skills training = top NPP agenda.
“If you went around Accra or Tamale or Cape Coast, indeed if you went around the whole country and asked people what they wanted most, the answer is the same and resounding: jobs, jobs and jobs.”
• Our policy is: Teacher First -- we shall restore the teaching profession to the status it once enjoyed and make it an attractive career choice.
• the next NPP administration will NOT, repeat, NOT seek to change the current JSS-SSS format for at least 4 years
• I am committed to making post-JSS education free and making the secondary school level the first point of exit, both within the four years of an Akufo-Addo presidency.
• NPP doubled enrolment at all levels schools
• Public universities from 44,000 in 2000 to 107,640 in 2008
• Polytechnic enrolment from 18,470 in 2000 to 45,934 by 2009
• By 2008 we improved percentage of GDP to funding for education by 92% from 3.8% of a GDP of $3.9 billion to 7.2% of a 2008 GDP of $16 billion
• We will do more to make education not only accessible but able to produce the kind of human capital necessary for our development.
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• Free internet access to secondary and tertiary institutions
• “Education translates into jobs, jobs and jobs. Or we can put it the other way, ladies and gentlemen, to get jobs, we need education, education and education.”

Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!:
“If you went around Accra or Tamale or Cape Coast, indeed if you went around the whole country and asked people what they wanted most, the answer is the same and resounding: jobs, jobs and jobs.”
“The NYEP has shown its limits; it was never meant to be a job creation programme but one that provided apprenticeship employment. The big gap has been how to convert this apprenticeship period into an opportunity for learning habits of work, so that employers could see the value of taking on these graduates as permanent employees.”

• Create thousands of rural jobs through forest planting, maintenance, seasonal farm labour such as spraying in cocoa areas, dams, water points
• reverse the rural-urban population drift by taking some of the attractions of urbanity to rural Ghana, including the prospect of better paid jobs
• Make NYEP skills-acquisition focused
• Expand NYEP as an apprenticeship scheme with private sector
• Engage more employers to offer apprenticeship programmes
• Give incentives to employers who take on youth
• Incentives will include, public sector contracting, tax abatements (such as modified social security contributions, corporate income tax etc) in exchange for guaranteeing formal training for apprentices in NYEP-owned facilities
• Support and promote self-employment with cheap credit, management training, and preferences in public procurement to give hope to the hordes of street peddlers in Accra, of kiosk owners, and of lotto and telephone card roadside entrepreneurs
• Turn NYEP secretariat into a professional organization – depoliticizing it
• Develop a vibrant Business Process Outsourcing in Ghana for high-paying jobs for the youth
• Support big commercial farms to employ more, produce more and export more
• Turn the Northern Savannah Ecological Belt, stretching from the Upper East through the Northern Region to the Upper West into a food basket, with diversification of the agricultural base, adding high value cash crops
• Intensify the cultivation of food and cash crops, including cocoa and pineapple in the Middle Belt of Ghana, spanning the Eastern, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions which have a good climate, large expanses of land and adequate water, will see the intensification in the cultivation of food and cash crops, besides Cocoa
• Support large scale Palm Oil plantations to create jobs and compete with Indonesia, Malaysia and Nigeria in this crop for the future – for vegetable oils and biodiesel
• “I intend to give active support to Ghanaian players in the oil palm industry to grow and compete with Indonesia and Malaysia in this increasingly lucrative business.”
• The Southern Belt, stretching from the Western to the Volta Regions, and encompassing the Horticultural Belt, will see additional efforts aimed at the expansion of the base of all farming operations, with a view to meeting local processing needs and supplying the very competitive international markets with high value horticultural and floriculture crops

KEY POINT ON JOBS: “During my nationwide Listening Campaign, the cries of the people, whether it is about cost of education, bad roads, high cost of living, low retail sales, all come down to one thing: we need good jobs with good income. But the truth must be told. Unless we industrialise with the goal of adding significant value to our primary products, be they heavy or otherwise, we cannot create the necessary numbers of high-paying jobs that will enhance the living standards of the mass of our people. Raw material producing economies do not create prosperity for the masses.”

PUTTING THE GHANAIAN BUSINESS PERSON FIRST
“The Ghanaian entrepreneur is calling for a policy that looks after his or her interest on the same basis as the foreign investor who is here to supplement our own local efforts.”
For the people of Ghana to drive the development that we all cherish, we first have to believe in ourselves. We have to believe in our God-given abilities. We have to believe and know that we are human beings created in God’s image, like any other human being on this earth. We have to believe that whatever anyone elsewhere can do, we can also do and even better!
• NDC “does not believe in Ghanaians. A recent example had to do with the Government contracting a South Korean firm, STX, to build 200,000 houses in Ghana at the cost of $10 billion.”
• NPP will promote the development of big Ghanaian firms, especially in the road construction industry.
• For the real estate industry: What is good for STX is also good for our local industries.
• Our party believes in the ability of Ghanaian industry and Ghanaian industrialists and entrepreneurs.
• We will focus on policies that will close the gap between ideas and implementation. We will improve government capacity in contract negotiations -- an area where our nation has been grossly exposed in recent years. Our records show clearly a capacity for competent and imaginative management of the economy.
• “In order for industries in Ghana to have the liberty to grow and expand, the state must protect them from unfair competition,” like local pharmaceutical companies against fake drugs
• “Often when we talk about the private sector, attention immediately goes to big business. But, the woman who sells my favourite fried yam in Kyebi, Atta Maame, is, indeed, the typical private sector operator in Ghana.”
• Nana says: “Any policy for the private sector that ignores… the informal sector is likely to have nominal impact on the structure of our economy. Our party believes in the ability of Ghanaian industry and Ghanaian industrialists and entrepreneurs. I shall not shy away from supporting local industries through a conducive and enabling business environment to grow and compete in our region and beyond. I will talk to them, listen and learn and do what will help them to become economic champions.”

• The EDA will develop a Local Content Policy to facilitate the greater participation of Ghanaians in the general scope of the economy.

He will support institutions of democracy: “ensure that funds are available to strengthen Parliament, the Judiciary, CHRAJ, EOCO, Food and Drugs Board, Standards Board and other institutions with more resources and where necessary, better personnel and greater efficiency.”


PARLIAMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY
A mad rush for billions of dollars of loans
• Dec 2008, Ghana’s domestic debt = GH¢4.8 billion ($3.33 billion)
• Ghana’s total domestic debt was GH¢10.8 billion at end of June 2011
• This was before recent bond issue of GH¢300 million at 14% interest rate for ‘gang of four’ road projects
• Ghana’s external debt was $4 billion at the end of 2008.
• Nana says, “This has been rising but oil gives us that fiscal space to borrow more money to speed up our development.”
• “The point, however, is that we must proceed responsibly.”
• Ghana risks returning to HIPC
• Some $10 billion of loans have been approved by Parliament between 2009- August 2011
• What is wrong this?
o lack of adequate value-for-money assessment
o debt sustainability issues – in 5-10yrs we may have no money for pay and social programmes
o and insufficient preparedness on how these loans must be spent. NDC is rushing for loans without proper feasibility studies and programmes
Nana says, “This NDC government has had plenty of resources at its disposal because of the expanded economy it inherited, record cocoa and gold prices on the world market, together with revenues from this newfound wealth, oil. To borrow a famous phrase: Na Sika No Wo He? What has been the impact of these massive resources on the lives of the people? Where are the projects?

NANA ON $3BN LOAN
• Parliament has three basic functions of equal weight. The law-making function, the deliberative function (as the debating chamber of the nation) and the oversight responsibility, ensuring accountability -- prudent use of our resources by the state.
• Parliament has unique constitutional powers to authorise government to raise and spend public money and also has a responsibility, on behalf of the public, to hold government to account for this spending.
• This work goes to the heart of good governance and it is critical to the fight against corruption. Accountability is key to development.
• The Minority deserves commendation rather than condemnation for living up to their responsibility of insisting on financial scrutiny. Their warnings against the $1.5 billion STX Supplier’s Credit Facility were dismissed as the shrill cries of a jealous and jilted group who are not interested in the welfare of the security forces.

Nana says, “We must welcome the readiness of the world’s fastest growing large economy to provide Ghana with the needed credit to accelerate our development. But, since it is a relationship of mutual needs, ‘I have oil you have money’, it is the duty of our government to get the best deal for Ghana. This does not appear to be the case in this $3 billion facility, plus $450 million (or 15%) counter-funding from Government.”

• No money yet but we have to pay $30 million Commitment Fee,
• $7.5 million Upfront Fee
• $101,400,000 interest rate per annum.
• Yet, there is no guarantee that Ghana will be able to meet the stringent oil-swap arrangements to meet the disbursement of the entire $3 billion facility within the next six years, as stated.
• The agreement does not allow for competitive tender, so cost could be cheaper
• Interest rate payment likely to go up because interest rates at an all-time low now of 0.5%
• This commercial loan facility guarantees a minimum of 60% Chinese content ($1.8bn or more) to Chinese companies
• It should have been a minimum of 40% local content. “It cannot be the best.”
• OTHER FUNDING OPTIONS:
o Break projects up; don’t lump them together
o Bring in private sector participation/funding to reduce GoG exposure
o Fund some of the projects directly from our oil revenues
o Issue a sovereign bond (same rate as Chinese loan) on the international money market to raise money for some of these projects – and give them out to tender
o Let the Chinese Development Bank fund some projects

Nana says, “While it is really about what you do with the funds that you raise as a government, it is more importantly about optimising your economic capacity to create jobs and wealth and raise the living standards of the people. After nearly 20 years of a stable and free, democratic society, with a market economy, resources-rich Ghana today has the best opportunity since Independence, to undertake a deliberate and meaningful transformation of the economic structure.”

AGRIC
We see agriculture as a major wealth creation venture for the Ghana transformation project. The sector will serve as the platform for socio-economic transformation and growth of our rural communities. This will be anchored on an integrated approach.
• Our vision for agriculture is to modernise the sector.
• Specifically, we will bring back the Ministry for Fisheries.
Three themes for Agric:
• expand, intensify and diversify agriculture by broadening the base and accessibility of various ecological zones to other high value food and cash crops
• Make Ghana a major exporter of Palm Oil
o Global demand for oil palm plantations makes it multi-billion growth industry. Palm more productive per hectare than either soya or rapeseed for biodiesel – Chinese, Indian and European demand for biodiesel more than world production can cope
o the most significant vegetable oil in the world, accounting for 30% of world edible oil production in 2006/7.
• We will promote the use of petrochemical feedstock for a fertiliser industry and step up research on seeds, including genetic modification where it has been shown to be safe.


Water and Sanitation
“One of the first key areas we are going to focus on is water and sanitation. I would like to be able to say that by the end of our first term in office, Ghana’s water problems have either been solved or are well on the way to being solved. We want to move away from tackling problems to solving problems.”

Women
Nana is in favour of affirmative action. “With that I mean one that rewards companies and organisations that pursue a deliberate policy to promote gender equality… To build a society of opportunity for all, we need to address more seriously, the issue of micro-credit for our women and bring sanity to bear in women’s marital and property rights and increase support for the institutions which fight to protect women from the scourge of domestic violence.”

Physically Challenged
Our quest for building a society of opportunities cannot be complete if we do not address the needs of the physically challenged.

ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION
Albert Einstein, the great scientist, did not mince his words when he described as ‘Insanity: the habit of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’ Our problems require that we think outside of the box. Our thinking and approach to solving problems must be different from the thinking and approach that brought about the problems in the first place.

We have the human capital right here in Ghana to make it happen.
• Those young boys at “Suame Magazin” in Kumasi are essential to our prosperity.
• The smart young people at Abossey Okai, Sekondi/Takoradi and other places will get the support they need from me.
• We need industrial parks in every Region. We need to support our indigenous manufacturing sector. Our small businessmen will form the foundations of our new industrial policy: And I will support them.
• Ghana should lead thee industrialisation of West Africa.
• We will mine our bauxite and add value to build an Integrated Aluminium Industry
• Produce and export manufactured aluminum products as envisaged by Kufuor
• Add value to our iron ore and build a new Iron and Steel Industry.
• Develop a strong Petro-Chemical Industry in Ghana, using both private and public equity.
• Our salt industry will be part of this new vision.
• Develop a comprehensive/integrated transportation network.
This is the time for a visionary leadership, supported by a competent team, to move forward Ghana’s agenda for industrialisation.
• Ever since Governor Guggisberg left our shores in 1928, Ghana’s economy has remained structurally rigid, depending largely on exports of primary commodities such as gold, cocoa, bauxite and timber. In 1928, seventy percent (70%) of our foreign exchange earnings were from gold, cocoa and timber.
• In 2009, cocoa and gold exports accounted for $4.5 billion or 78% of total exports
• In 2010, Cocoa and gold accounted for 76% of exports
• In 2011, cocoa, gold and crude oil could account for over 90% of export earnings
• Manufacturing contributes a meager 8 to 9% to GDP.
• The way forward: the industrial development of our economy.
• Jobs should mean more than selling cheap imported goods on the streets. Let’s create industries, train our youth to have “decent jobs with decent pay”


“As the experiences of the successful countries in Asia and elsewhere have shown, Government has a very important and positive role to play in spurring industrialisation and economic transformation.”
“Voters agreeing and God willing, the next NPP government will take office with a clear programme of action for the industrialisation of Ghana – an economic transformation that touches every region of Ghana.”

AREAS OF ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION
• Support Ghana’s pharmaceutical industry
• Promote medical tourism – support more Ghanaians (home and abroad) to set up excellent international health centres – like Cardiothoracic Centre, Pro Vita, Trinity Health Spa, and more
• Modernise agric based on the Millennium Challenge Compact model of helping small-scale farmers to modernize, grow and expand
• Very actively support the creation and expansion of commercial farms into global champions
• Revive Kufuor’s policy to make Ghana an international financial service centre to attract billion of dollars of investment and savings
• Establish a one stop investment promotion unit called the Economic Development Authority as lead government agency for planning and executing strategies to make Ghana a truly global business destination.
• The Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Minerals Commission, Free zones Board, Ghana Export Promotion Council, and Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC) will all be merged into the EDA.
• Effective co-ordination between key government ministries and agencies, chief among them: The Ministry of Finance the Ministry of Trade and Industry; the Ministry of Education; and the infrastructure development and provision ministries and agencies in government, will enable timely decisions to be taken and implemented by government.
• Developed countries such as Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan and Ireland have an Economic Development Authority in place and has been key to their economic transformation



WHAT WE CAN DO WITH OIL AND GAS
“We are determined to build a petrochemical industry here in Ghana, creating linkages with other businesses that will turn Ghana into a light industry centre for our region. We intend to convert our petrochemicals into hundreds of industrial and consumer products produced right here in Ghana.”
• manufacture plastics, paints, rubber, fertilisers, detergents, dyes, textiles, solvents and bitumen for road construction.
• From the petroleum preservatives to can food produced in Ghana, plastics to package the processed food.
• Synthetic by-product from petroleum can serve as raw material for the manufacturing of different types of garments and footwear.
• Facilitate the setting up of a multi-billion dollar gas feedstock industrial estate in the Nzema area producing methanol, ammonia, urea and natural gas liquids, which hopefully will feed from the oil and gas industry in both Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.
• Ghana’s bauxite deposits carry a potential value of $350 billion, far in excess of what we expect to reap from crude oil. An integrated aluminum industry, supported by a petrochemical industry can transform our economy within a decade. But this will not happen without a considered plan and programme. Our manifesto will outline such a plan and programme.

I am not arrogating to myself the right to lead Ghana’s development for ten years as some political commentators and propagandists have mischievously sought to portray. Neither will I borrow the garb of arrogance and say I will hand over power peacefully in January 2021. The length of time a president stays at the helm of affairs of our country depends on constitutional limits and the will of the people expressed in free and fair elections, free of intimidation, and hopefully, free of propaganda and lies. That is why I am laying out my vision for moving Ghana forward, to give Ghanaians ample time to interrogate the issues and make an informed choice come election 2012.