President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Tuesday received a strategic document and Charter that outlines the roadmap for Ghana's attainment of her goal of self-reliance and the vision of a country beyond aid.
The document, which was put together by a 13-member Ghana Beyond Aid Charter Committee, constituted by the President last June, is envisaged to become the mobilizing instrument for Ghana's development.
The document is to be laid before Parliament for deliberations and expected to become a national policy document that would guide the actions of government, as well as that of the various stakeholders in the country.
At a short handing-over ceremony at the Jubilee House in Accra, President Akufo-Addo said the document, which he had perused, presented clear guidelines on how things ought to be done in Ghana "in a collective sense".
He said the agenda of a Ghana Beyond Aid, essentially was a mobilizing strategy to conscientise Ghanaians "that no one was going to come from anywhere to develop Ghana for them other than Ghanaians themselves".
President Akufo-Addo noted that "the document is also going to be a guide as to how we go about applying the slogan [Ghana Beyond Aid] for it to become meaningful in the lives of the thirty million Ghanaians in Ghana and those outside Ghana".
He noted that the new awareness on the continent over the past four decades had shown clearly that Africa could only address its developmental challenges when it weaned itself from the addiction to dependence on aid.
Africa ought to utilize its own resources and rely more on appropriate home-grown policies to unlock the economic potential of the continent.
"Progress would be made when we accept responsibility for our own actions and thereby conduct ourselves in a manner that would be fruitful," he said.
The President said, as soon as practicable, he would want Parliament to have access to the document, to enable the House to deliberate on it and approve the strategy to give it a national character, that would guide all interventions aimed at making the country self-reliant.
He said It was important that Parliament, which was the main deliberating chamber of our country was apprised of it and also sees it as a document that is going to guide all the work of institutions of our State; Executive, Legislature, Judiciary, across board, Social institutions as well as Public ones.
The President has continually stated that after sixty years of independence, Ghana cannot depend on external assistance to plan its yearly budgets.
Thus, "for the sake of dignity and pride, as a country, as a people," the President said, “We should be in a position to fund our own activities, then, we will have control of ourselves.”
"This is important for our self-esteem,” he reiterated.
Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo, who chairs the Charter Committee told the President that the strategic document was a reflection of the collective inputs of 30 institutions.
He said a lot had gone into the preparation of the manuscript and was hopeful that it (document) would give direction to the vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid.
The members of Committee drawn from various sectors of the governance structure also include the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta; Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, Minister of Planning, Prof. Gyan Baffour, and the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Hajia Alima Mahama, MP.
The rest are drawn from the Trades Union Congress, the Private Enterprise Foundation, the Ghana National Association of Teachers, as well as the Association of Ghana industries.
Source: GNA
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It takes bold leadership for any society to move forward, Africans have been brain washed to the extend we do not believe in our selves anymore,we live in the most endowed continent , how ever we keep begging , it's about time we start thinking about how to develop our selves.
@ Klutse thanks for your response and I believe healthy discussions truly build nations. We have alwaus been here. Preparing lofty documents which do not go anywhere. We have the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) with our creme de la creme superintending. They have in their archives all our development plans with input from round table discussions, scrutiny from our academicians and intelligentsia. Oh foreign consultants have been engaged over the years on generous per diem and sitting allowances for their contribution. The president from reports just did not mention "development plan" but all intents and purposes show that he is talking about one. Legislation backing that the president is seeking from this development plan has been sought before. We have all of them we have gone through the process already. Lest I forget, President Kuffour did the same preceded by President Rawlings with Mr P. V. Obeng at the helm of the process. They are fine documents. All the legislative Instruments that have been legislated have been debated at length and passed into law to back our development. Some in finance and banking, education, roads, housing, agriculture and so on. Oh we have plans even for fertiliser, seedling, premix petrol, fishing, ***barred word*** husbandry (***barred word*** research at Achimota) palm fruit cultivation at a nice village which name I can't readily remember, tourism with the Akosombo, Ada and the northern enclaves in tow. They were all developed by visionaries. Boss we are just good at writing big grammar and theorising. Our education system does not give us the capability to operationalise and our culture does not embue discipline and principles. We can move beyond the theories.
CLAP! CLAP!! CLAP!!! Clap for sloganeering government! In Kufuor's government, it was Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy. Where is it? Has poverty reduced? Ghana beyond aid, but we still go to friends cap in hand! Politicians and CREATE, LOOT & SHARE. THAT IS ALL THEY DO
Dear Kofi: yes. We as individuals may have ideas in our heads and implement them without forming committees (except those who submit all to 'pastors'). however as a nation of 25-27 millions people, one person cannot wake up and say I have a Vision so let's do it! Ideas and visions have to be submitted to peer criticism and translated into plans (a.k.a. road maps). That is how nations rise and prosper. To KN: please leave Kwame Nkrumah out of your ignorance. Do not let politics blind you. Read some history, I mean not the 'person-worship' type.
@Komla and @Mawutor, with respect, the document is to conscientise the nation and it is a mobilising document. it is to set out a roadmap for Ghana's development. We can extol the virtues of the president and theorise a lot of things which we have done for many decades but if we cannot make systems work, we cannot move from point A to B. These systems are there already my brothers and sisters. They are there la. We do not have to philosophise anymore. Ok I looked at education in my previous post so I will like to look at another area; LAND ACQUISITION. With all due respect don't we have exhaustive development plans for this already? Why is it that there is no clear way of acquiring land? Why is it that someone is paid at lands and a whole community is redemarcated to serve selfish interests? Where someone who has acquired land legitimately can lose it by the machinations of the land registry and judicial system. This will surely not allow FDI's to come into the country to boost our economy. We fly to Dubai to buy property, shop and site see thereby investing in their economy because they were principled and disciplined to have a planned land system operationalised. Folks the diplomatic corps are seeing what is going on in our country and they always relay information back home. They will not invest in our economy as they know they are likely to lose their investment. We do not need a mobilising and conscientising document. MY OPINION.
Ghana is working again.In fact this man have passion to develop and build mother Ghana,let's all support him.May God grant him more grace and long life with good health.
Again, I know the doom sayers and visionless critics will soon jump out to rubbish this laudable policy by the strong and visionary President. From the meticulous way and manner this President is going about his duty, coupled with his great vision, selflessness and carefully thought through plans and programs, should God grant Mother Ghana the grace to see a Two-Term Akuffu Addo governance, Ghana will emerge as Africa Singapore. Let us all rise up and solidly back him with our support and efforts and surely Ghanaians will be the only winners. God Bless Mother Ghana! God bless the Great Adaklu kingdom! God bless the President!
Do we really need this? A whole committee for Ghana beyond aid? I beg to differ, we do not need this. Whatever they will propose is there already but we are just not disciplined people, that's all. We can write the best grammar, theorise about just anything but if we are not disciplined and principled, we are going nowhere. I will provide only one example which needs to be at the crux of national development and therefore at the centre of Ghana beyond aid. EDUCATION. We need to provide people with avenues to what they want to study and stop pushing everyone through a funnel. Change our thinking of accumulating letters after our names and focus on apprenticeships, give them equal value as degrees. these apprenticeships can be in agriculture, mechanics, teacher training, dressmaking, plumbing, planning, electricals, road construction and everywhere. Our university syllabus should be changed for assessments to include presentations, posters, roleplays and simulations. AT THE CENTRE OF THESE WILL BE BUDGETARY SCRUTINY. Someone will say how do we pay for them? Plugging holes at our ports by 30% only will pay for these and if we make sure the money is directed towards these very things and properly applied these graduates can start developing their own capabilities and contribute to the society. ENOUGH OF CHEW POUR AND FORGET. I am not a genius. These things are there already but we are not people who are able to set systems in motion.
Was it not what Dr Kwame Nkrumah and NPP was saying they should try to re-write the history of Ghana. Really who goes round definitely comes rounds, the highest the monkey jumps the truly its bottom show. The highest the NPP jump the truly the prophecy of Dr Kwame Nkrumah will be revealled for the whole world to know that the NPP can never re-write any history of our Dr Kwame Nkrumah Ghana.