The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, says his government is working to grow Ghana’s economy and, thereby, open up opportunities for the progress and prosperity of all Ghanaians.

Acknowledging that Ghana is nowhere near where she has to be, his administration is determined to realise fully the country’s potential, and make Ghana a prosperous nation.

It is for this reason, President Akufo-Addo noted, that “we do not want to be a scar on anybody’s conscience. We want to build an economy that is not dependent on charity and hand-outs. Long and bitter experience has taught us no matter how generous the charity, we would remain poor.”

The President continued, “We want to build a Ghana which looks to the use of its own resources and their proper management as the way to engineer social and economic growth in our country. We want to build an economy that looks past commodities to position our country in the global marketplace.”

President Akufo-Addo made this known on Thursday, 21st September, 2017, when he delivered his address at the 72nd Session of the United General Assembly, currently ongoing at New York.

Whilst not disclaiming aid, the President stressed that “we do want to discard a mind-set of dependency and living on handouts; we want to build a Ghana beyond aid. It is an easier platform on which to build sustainable relationships.”

He told the General Assembly that his government has started the Free Senior High School programme, which aims to guarantee at least secondary education for all Ghana’s children.

“The programme will ensure that all our children will be educated to secondary level, and money, or the lack of it, will no longer mean a denial of education. This has already led to an increase of over 90,000 children who have entered secondary school this academic year, who would otherwise have dropped out at this stage,” he added.

The implementation of the Free SHS policy, President Akufo-Addo, added would mean that Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims at ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all, will be within Ghana’s reach by the target date of 2030.

To this end, President Akufo-Addo noted that “no longer should Ghanaians feel they have to subject themselves to the intolerable and inhumane conditions of crossing the Sahara and drowning in the Mediterranean in the hope of making a living in Europe.”