President Nana Akufo-Addo has said the economic dividend that must accompany our independence has not materialized.

Addressing a gathering at the Ghana@60 Independence Day Parade, the president said the expectation of a rapid economic growth and development that should follow Ghana’s independence has eluded us.

He said, Ghana has emerged as a shining example as a democratic state in the African region with a multi-party democracy and a guarantee of individual freedoms under the rule of law.

These past 24 years have been the longest period of political stability our country has enjoyed since independence, and the effects are showing, albeit slowly.

He said: ‘’The pace of our development has quickened and our self-confidence, which had been severely strained, has returned. At independence, the popular slogan was to seek first the political kingdom and all other things would be added. We assumed and, indeed, we expected that rapid economic development would follow the political freedom that we achieved. Sadly, the economic dividend that was meant to accompany our freedom has still not materialised. Sixty years after those heady days, too many of our people continue to wallow in unacceptable poverty.’’

The president added: ‘’After sixty years, we have run out of excuses and it is time to set Ghana to rights and get our country to where it should be. The challenge before us is to build our economy and generate a prosperous, progressive and dignified life for the mass of our people. Hard work, enterprise, creativity and a consistent fight against corruption in public life would bring the transformation we seek.’’

According to him, ‘’we [Ghanaians] will achieve these goals when we move and act as a united people. We must take pride in our diversity by all means, but the Ghanaian must always rise above the ethnic or sectional interest. We have a bright future and we must mobilize all our resources and all our strengths, here and in the Ghanaian Diaspora, to get to that promised land faster.’’