Business News of Thursday, 24 August 2017

Source: ghananewsagency.org

Ghana now exporting power to La Cote d’Ivoire - Hamid

Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, Minister of Information Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, Minister of Information

Ghana is now exporting electricity to her West African neighbours, La Cote d’Ivoire just after seven months of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led government came into office, Mr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, the Minister of Information, has disclosed.

He said the government had managed to stabilise the power supply situation after the country went through about four years of power crisis, which crippled many businesses.

“Without power there is no way the industries can operate because power is what powers industries.The power situation is very stable in our country, we use to import power from Cote d’Ivoire to supplement what we produced in Ghana, today we’re exporting power back to Cote d’Ivoire again just seven months in government,” he stated.

He said the government had good intentions, zeal and commitment to resuscitate the economy and would get the economic fundamentals right to enhance the industrialisation drive.

Mr Abdul-Hamid said this at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Government and The Business Year magazine, in Accra, on Wednesday.
The Information Minister initialled on behalf of Government while Madam Florencia Solano, the Country Manager of the Magazine, signed on behalf of her organisation.

The MoU implies that the reputable international magazine would publish Ghana’s business and industrial potentials in its various editions while Government facilitates interviews and provide other relevant data for publication.

Mr Abdul-Hamid said the government, during the 2016 General Elections, campaigned on the Agenda of Change to transform the national economy from consumption to production base while, the exportation of raw materials would be enhanced with exporting of value-added products.

“So our entire programme is anchored on industrialisation,” he stressed.

He said the government would roll out the paperless port from September this year, to make the country’s port operations efficient and competitive.

In addition, he said, Government had reduced the inflation rate from 15 per cent to about 12 per cent, cut-down government expenditure and stabilised other macro-economic indicators.

“So clearly this government is committed to its programme of ensuring that the country industrialise and accelerate job creation,” he added.

Commenting on the government’s flagship programme of One District, One Factory initiative, he said, on Friday, August 25, the President would cut the sod at Ekumfi in the Central Region, to kick-start the programme.

The Minister expressed the believed that the magazine would give the nation the leverage to tell its story to the international community about the happenings on the economic and industrial front, in order to attract more investments into the country.

Madam Solano, on her part, said her outfit was aware of the changes happening in the country to diversify the economy and would, therefore, provide the platform for Ghana to inform the global audiences about the opportunities here.

The multinational magazine comes out once every year and has presence in 30 countries and supplied its publications to businesses, corporate organisations and individuals.

It also has a website and newsletters that carry some of its publications.

The magazine provides accurate, timely and country specific economic and business data with highlight on statistics, news, laws and tax legislations.