President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said revitalizing and transforming the economy remained at the heart of government’s post COVID-19 recovery efforts.

He spoke during the 64th Independence Day celebration held at the forecourt of the Jubilee House, where this year’s national celebration took place. He cited the Obaatan Pa initiative launched in November 2020 as the linchpin for the drive towards industrial transformation of the economy.

“Already, government is taking steps to revitalize and transform the economy, a process which is hinged on the 100 billion cedis Ghana CARES Obataan Pa program, the linchpin of our drive towards a rapid industrial transformation of our economy, our main national priority.

“The Minister for Finance will this month provide to parliament further details on the measures to be taken to spur on the process of economic recovery. A year from now, the benefits of economic recovery will begin to show,” he stressed.

The 100 billion CARES Obatampa initiative was a major feature of the New Patriotic Party’s manifesto going into the 2020 general elections. The president in November 2020 launched the initiative which goes by the full name: ‘COVID-19 Alleviation and Revitalization of Enterprise Support’ initiative.

The president described it at the time as an “ambitious and unprecedented” initiative designed to mitigate the economic challenges brought on by the Coronavirus pandemic.

“Fellow Ghanaians, I pledged to build a Ghana that works and gives every one of us the opportunity to improve our lives. Over the last 3 years and 10 months, my government has done exactly that. We have stabilized the economy to create the enabling environment for business,” the president said in a statement read on his behalf by the then Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo.

“This three and a half year, two-phased ¢100bn Ghana CARES ‘Obaatan Pa’ Programme is Ghana Beyond Aid in action! We must take advantage of the opportunity the pandemic has afforded us to do things differently,” he added.