<\/p>\n
President Akufo-Addo<\/strong><\/p>\n President Akufo-Addo has announced that measures adopted by government to cushion the economy from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are yielding results.<\/p>\n He said the GH\u00a2100 billion COVID-19 Alleviation and Revitalisation of Enterprises Support (CARES) \u201cObaatan Pa\u201d programme to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, \u201chas begun yielding results.\u201d<\/p>\n He made the disclosures when he addressed members of the Diplomatic Corps at this year\u2019s presentation of New Year Greetings at the Peduase Lodge (Presidential Villa) in the Eastern Region on Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m happy to report that the Ghana Cares programme is inspiring the desired dividends that we anticipated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He was therefore confident that development would return the country to a sustained path of robust growth and create a more resilient and transformed economy.<\/p>\n The President attributed this to the implementation of government\u2019s policies which made the economy to grow at a provisional 5.2 percent in the first three quarters of 2020.<\/p>\n That growth, which he said, is expected to be sustained in the medium term, and projected to rise to 5.6 percent in the medium term, proved that his administration had managed the economy well despite the ravages of the pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cThe overall real GDP for the medium term is projected to grow at an average of 5.6 percent, and we remain committed to returning to the fiscal deficit target threshold as enshrined in the fiscal responsibility Act, (Act 982) from this year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will continue along the line of promoting inclusive growth, encouraging investments, and improving the standard of living of Ghanaians\u201d, he assured, saying \u201cit is encouraging for me and my party, the New Patriotic Party, to record that the rate of growth of the economy at 5.6 percent against the background of exceptionally difficult circumstances of the Covid era, is still considerably better than the 3.4% we inherited in calmer times from our predecessors Administration.\u201d<\/p>\n The annual New Year greeting is held to strengthen the bonds for friendship and promote goodwill between Ghana and other countries as well as international organisations.<\/p>\n The event had not been held for the past two years owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n President Akufo-Addo expressed the gratitude of the Ghanaian people to the Diplomatic Corps for the various items of support offered by their respective countries and the World Health Organisation to assist Ghana in her fight against COVID-19.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are thankful for the test kids, the protective medical gear, the facemask the vaccines, as well as the collaboration with our research and health institutions. These gestures of solidarity and friendship also underscore the fact that none of our countries can do it alone in the fight to defeat the virus.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have learnt in this period that getting vaccinated is the most efficient way to defeat the virus and go back to our normal way of life, reopen fully our economy and return our nation on to the path of progress and prosperity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the President said his government has succeeded in securing nearly 26 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines and has so far been able to administer a total of 11 million vaccines, saying \u201cwe will ramp up our vaccination campaign to ensure that more and more Ghanaians get the jab.\u201d<\/p>\n That, he said, was because \u201cwe\u2019re still determined to reach our target of at least 20 million Ghanaians vaccinated.\u201d<\/p>\n President Akufo-Addo also used the occasion to call on the international community to support the sanctions imposed on countries like Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to curb the worrying political developments unfolding in the region.<\/p>\n He described as grave the recent military take-overs in those three countries since there were setbacks to democracy for the citizens of these countries and the entire ECOWAS community.<\/p>\n \u201cOur collective history has taught us these military interventions are never a panacea for addressing whatever challenges that a nation may be confronted with,\u201d he said, insisting that \u201cdecisive steps need to be taken to preserve democracy and freedom in the region as well as to overcome the additional security challenges posed through terrorist activities.\u201d<\/p>\n He was of the belief the West Africa will remain unsafe until drastic measures are instituted to consolidate and entrench democratic tenets, which are necessary for economic development and the protection of freedom.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this regard, I urge you and your respective countries and organisations to lend your wholehearted support for these sanctions to ensure their effectiveness,\u201d he appealed.<\/p>\n The President reiterated his government\u2019s commitment to promote the tenets of Ghana\u2019s foreign policy as well as continue to work to uphold the country\u2019s reputation which finds expression in her democratic credentials.<\/p>\n He was hopeful that the relations between Ghana and the respective countries and international organisations would be further deepened through cooperation during the course of the year and beyond to help create prosperity and opportunity for all.<\/p>\n BY Charles Takyi-Boadu<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Akufo-Addo President Akufo-Addo has announced that measures adopted by government to cushion the economy from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are yielding results. He said the GH\u00a2100 billion COVID-19 Alleviation and Revitalisation of Enterprises Support (CARES) \u201cObaatan Pa\u201d programme to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, \u201chas begun yielding results.\u201d He made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":159580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[648,1963,4814],"class_list":["post-986179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-akufoaddo","tag-economy","tag-recovering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=986179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=986179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=986179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=986179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}