General News of Saturday, 25 July 2020

Source: peacefmonline.com

My belief is certain, we'll fully restore Ghana - Finance Minister

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta play videoFinance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has expressed hope in the administration of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to revamp the economy despite the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Minister, although the pandemic has had adverse effects on the nation, the Akufo-Addo government has made significant plans to confront the impact of the pandemic and ensure a robust economy.

Speaking in an interview on 'Kokrokoo' on Peace FM, Hon. Ofori-Atta noted the government's ''Obaatan Pa Ghana Cares'' initiative which he announced in his 2020 mid-year budget review in Parliament yesterday is part of the development measures.

The initiative is to raise about 100 billion cedis to cushion the economy.

The Minister was extremely optimistic that Ghana will stand on her strong feet under the leadership of President Akufo-Addo.

"Since we came into power and inheriting arrears, the IMF programme and so forth; still since 2017, we have spent 900 million cedis on teacher trainees and nurses trainees which the NDC said it can never happen. In addition to that, feeding of children everyday, it used to be about 1.7 million children but we have reached almost 3 million that we feed everyday. We've been able to do that too. And when you take the free education that the opponents said we couldn't do but now 1.2 million Senior High School...that also amouts to about GHC 3 billion. Someone will ask where did we get the money? Look at our introduction of NABCO that has created jobs for students who were stayed home for about 3-4 years without employment . . .

'' . . you can't give up and when you don't and you keep thinking and you care deeply about the people as a government that cares, things come up. Because one can get people to work, then you have innovation, you have productivity and you get more and different ideas. My hope is also rarely a deep, deep belief in the capacity of the Ghanaian if he's supported," he stated.