President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Monday said his administration was on the path of fulfilling many of the promises made to the Ghanaian electorate.

He said his government, over the course of the last two and a half years in office, has fulfilled a considerable number of the assurances made, adding that "by the end of my mandate, they will see that I came to tell them the truth about what I wanted to do. I didn’t come to deceive anybody”.

The President said this when he addressed members of the Ghanaian community resident in France as part of activities for his three-day official visit to the Western European country.

He told the gathering that “I know that my opponents will be saying something else, but that is their right. God willing, on the December 7, 2020, the day of accountability, we will know who is telling the truth”.

President Akufo-Addo said this after the announcement has been made by the Assembly of Heads of State and Governments of the African Union naming Ghana as host country for the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Describing the AfCFTA as “one of the most important things that the AU has done”, the President explained that Ghanaians who have been resident in France for some time can appreciate the significance of what was achieved at the 12th AU Extraordinary Summit, held in Niamey, Niger, on Sunday, July 7, 2019.

“Maybe some of the grey beards can remember 30 years ago, at the beginning of the common market, what France was like, and what it is like today… there is no doubt about the massive impact that the European Union has had on the lives of European people, in terms of increasing their economic circumstances, and we believe that the African Continental Free Trade Area is going to do the same for us,” he explained.

The President expressed confidence that the AfCFTA would enable Africa to bring its 1.2 billion people into active play in developing the continent.

"We have to find a way of developing our continent ourselves. We can’t continue to depend on foreigners to develop our continent for us,” he said, noting further that the AfCFTA would increase considerably intra-African trade, create millions of jobs for African youths, and help the continent develop its enterprises.

President Akufo-Addo said the siting of the AfCFTA Secretariat in Ghana was "a great opportunity for the country, especially as Ghana has been at the centre of Pan-African matters."

“It is going to mean that all the ancillary activities of AfCFTA are going to be Accra- and Ghana-centered. It is also a recognition of the contribution we have made to the struggle of Pan-Africanism, and for the decolonization of the continent,” he said.

The President also paid tribute to the late President John Evans Atta-Mills, who first moved the motion for the establishment of the Continental Free Trade Area in 2011.

“Every country should have its goals and policies that it follows successfully, leader after leader. When the national goals are set, all of us who come to occupy the seat of office would then be obliged to follow it,” he said.