Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia says government is putting in place the necessary policies and programmes to propel the country’s ambition of developing beyond aid and promote trade and partnerships.
He said government had rolled out strategic policies to stabilise the macroeconomic environment and would offer assistance to the Danish Business Community that would express interest in investing in Ghana.
He said a ‘Ghana beyond Aid’ meant mobilising and leveraging domestic savings and revenue transparently, expanding financial inclusion with credit services and financing businesses through the local market using the local currency as well as ensuring transparent and accountable governance.
Vice President Bawumia said this at the Ghana-Denmark Business Conference in Accra on Thursday.
The event formed part of the Danish Queen’s visit to Ghana, which attracted more than 90 businessmen and women and captains of industries.
Vice President Bawumia said a “Ghana beyond Aid; Moving forward Together,’ had gained prominence in the country’s conversation with her development partners because the Government, led by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, would like to change the status quo and mobilise domestic resources to engender growth.
‘‘Ghana would like to build a country using our own resources and management to engineer social and economic growth, however challenging, however daunting, we must start now,’’ he said.
Dr Bawumia said the country needed enabling business environment powered by good governance, sound economic policies, solid democratic institutions, rule of law and sound national strategy, which are the tenets of the Nana Addo Akufo-Addo led government.
He called on Ghanaians, home and abroad, to lead investors into the country to ensure sustainable development path.
The Vice President said in spite of government’s resolve to depend on domestic resource, it would also partly source overseas aid towards development. Dr Bawumia said Ghana’s ambition to develop beyond aid was reiterated by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, in the 2018 Budget and Economic Policy Statement, which demonstrated government’s commitment to change the status quo.
The Vice President said financing the Sustainable Development Goals was enormous in view of the low financial inflows, therefore, it would required innovative and integrated policy framework to mobilise financial resources from public, domestic and external sources to implement development programmes. – GNA
