Ghana's Interest Is Paramount in Our Business Transactions - President Akufo-Addo

By Mainoo Yeboah

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said Ghana's quest to transact business with other countries would be meticulously negotiated through to ensure that, the country's interest is Paramount.

He said Ghana had become much wiser about these things, and as a result, his administration would go into "these new relationships with our eyes wide open."

President Akufo-Addo said though his administration welcomed any investor prepared to invest in his government's priority areas, "Nobody is coming, pretending to be bringing God's Word in one hand, and taking our lands with the other."

The President assured, "we will look after our interests, in much the same way as we know all other nations that we deal with, look after their own interests."

President Akufo-Addo articulated Ghana's stands in her business engagement with the outside world Monday, 8th October, 2018, when he delivered a speech at the 5th edition of the Financial Times Africa Summit, dubbed "Ghana, Africa mean business."

Of late, there have been increasingly loud anxieties, expressed mainly by some western countries, about the close and growing relationship between China and Africa, and, Ghana, describing it as real danger of a new colonization of the African continent by China.

President Akufo-Addo said Ghana and African countries were not the only countries dealing with China. "Everyone is dealing with China, and we are doing so with our eyes wide open."

This time round, the President said "we will look after our interests, in much the same way as we know all other nations that we deal with, look after their own interests. We are not the only ones dealing with China. Everyone is dealing with China, and we are doing so with our eyes wide open."

With Ghana's key economic challenge -- its infrastructural deficit -- President Akufo-Addo said, his government has embark on an aggressive public-private partnership programme to attract investment in both road and railway infrastructure development.

This, the President hope, with solid private sector participation, Ghana could develop a modern railway network with strong production centre linkages, and able to connect to her neighbours -- Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire and Togo.

The railway sector, he stressed, "is an area where appropriate foreign technology, expertise and investment would be very welcome."

President Akufo-Addo assured his government's commitment to the participants at the forum, to create the space for the private sector to grow and create jobs for the Ghanaian youth.

This, he said, would position Ghana to take full advantage of the immense opportunities of the projected African Continental Free Trade Area.

"I am working towards building a Ghana where her people have jobs and decent livelihoods. Ghana is endowed with great potential, where security and the rule of law are upheld, and where investments are secure. We want to contribute to the global market place at the higher level of the value chain for Ghanaian products," he added.

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