President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says the policies and programmes of his administration are geared towards positioning the country on the path towards the realisation of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He said the government’s policies were meant to transform the economy, diversify agriculture, increase agricultural productivity, and create strong social services.
According to him, such initiatives represented Ghana’s path towards the realisation of the 2030 SDGs–a set of goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda.
The President made this known on Friday, June 9 when he called on Peter Thomson, President of the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly, at the UN building in New York, USA.
With Ghana’s economy being largely dependent on the production and export of raw materials for many years, President Akufo-Addo noted that the situation had resulted in Ghana’s economy being unable to create the necessary numbers of high-paying jobs that would enhance the living standards of the masses of the people.
He said the addition of significant value to Ghana’s primary products, through initiatives, in collaboration with the private sector, such as the One-District-One-Factory, were a priority of his government.
On agriculture, the occupational mainstay of the majority of Ghanaians, President Akufo-Addo indicated that initiatives such as the Planting for Food and Jobs, and the One-Village-One-Dam project in the three Northern regions, were the answers to the twin-problem of the migration of youth to city centres in search of non-existent jobs, as well as ending the disgraceful spectacle of Ghana importing food stuffs from neighbouring countries.
President Akufo-Addo pointed out that countries that had done well, even without natural resources, were the countries that had invested in education and skills training.
Education and skills training, he added, were the most important source of empowering and providing opportunities to the youth to help drive Ghana’s development, and in the process create jobs.
From September 2017, the President said his government had committed resources to begin the Free Senior High School policy.
Having inherited a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) indebted to the tune of some GH¢1.2 billion which threatened the very survival of the scheme, President Akufo-Addo stated that his government had put in place measures to find the money to pay off the debt, and revive the NHIS.
As co-chair of the UN SDGs Advocates Group of Eminent Personalities, President Akufo-Addo stressed that he, together with all other members of the Advocates Group, would mobilise political support for the realisation of the goals, and promote global development that leaves no one behind.
On his part, Mr Thompson congratulated President Akufo-Addo for his decisive victory in the December 2016 elections, and the concrete measures he had put in place to ensure the realisation of the vision of a “Ghana Beyond Aid.”
That vision, he added, was a laudable one, which must be emulated by leaders of developing countries in Africa and across the world.
Mr Thompson congratulated President Akufo-Addo on his appointment by UN Secretary General, António Gutteres, as co-Chair of the SDGs Advocates Group, and was confident that the Ghanaian President would be successful in mobilising political support for the implementation of the 15 goals, pledging the support of the UN to this end.
By Times Reporter
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