Ghana’s Government adopts free education plan of the Opposition

Ghana will look toward boosting its local industries to strengthen its economy, President John Dramani Mahama said in his annual state of the nation address in parliament. The president stated that the structure of the economy has not changed since colonial times with reliance on the exportation of raw materials.

Around $1.5 billion is currently spent on importing rice, sugar, fish, wheat, poultry, vegetable oil and tomatoes. However this money could be otherwise kept in the country if those good were produced locally, according to the president. But Rice accounted for largest amount of those imports at $374 million, but the president said the country has the capacity to be a net rice exporter.

Finance for the Komenda sugar factory has been finalized, with construction to begin soon and COCOBOD has also been tasked to produce jute sacks. But last year $1.3 billion was lost in exporting revenue due to the fall in gold prices and cocoa production. Throughout his speech, the president’s proposals and summaries were met with jeers and heckles from the opposition.

But the jeers went up when he revealed plans to introduce free secondary school, a key proposal made by the opposition New Patriotic Party in the run up to the 2012 elections that was shot down by the governing National Democratic Congress. Mahama also said that the commissioning for the first batch of community day schools will begin on Monday.

Despite the country’s current currency crisis, the president assured that its “economic fundamentals remain sound” and that Ghana is still an attractive place for investment. But the reality is that the numbers aren’t in Ghana’s favor, as the country has a debt to GDP ratio of 52 percent.

While the cedi continues to depreciate, despite new foreign exchange measures to rescue it, some Ghc 4 billion is needed to fund the national infrastructure gap. Despite elaborate information on the development of roads across the country, the president, however, was vague on solid plans to rehabilitate the railway system and expand and refurbish airports.

Source:  The Africa Report