APA – Accra (Ghana)
The commissioning of a local assembly plant for the production of KIA vehicles for the Ghana and West Africa market by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday commissioned a local assembly plant for the production of KIA vehicles for the Ghana and West Africa market.
Established by Rana Motors, it offers direct employment to 250 young people, and is expected to create 300 additional indirect jobs to contribute to the development of the local value chain for automobile assembling.
The company has the capacity to assemble some 30,000 vehicles annually.
It will bring the total capacity of the domestically established assembly plants by various vehicle companies to 100,000 vehicles per year.
President Akufo-Addo said the investment by Rana Motors was “a strong indication of the private sector support of my government’s industrialisation agenda, and the sign of growing resilience by the private sector in these challenging times”.
President Akufo-Addo said he had directed that state institutions prioritised domestically assembled vehicles for relevant procurements to fulfil the government’s commitment to patronise made-in-Ghana products.
“We are, however, mindful of the fact that the state alone cannot purchase sufficient numbers of vehicles to be produced from the assembly plants; it will thus require Ghanaians to patronise these vehicles,” he said.
The President said the government would soon roll out an asset-based vehicle financing scheme to stimulate demand for domestically assembled vehicles, as was the case in developed economies, to afford Ghanaians the opportunity to purchase vehicles under the Ghana Automotive Development programme.
President Akufo-Addo assured the assembly plants that government would continue with discussions that would lead to the expansion of the market for domestically assembled vehicles at the regional and continental levels.
That, he assured the public, was intended to drive the demand and create the necessary traction for them to transition into a completely knock-down assembly, which would be supported by component and kits produced domestically to feed into the supply chain.
The newspaper says that Parliament yesterday reconvened for an urgent business and approved seven loan agreements totalling $750 million to enhance public sector reforms, food security, COVID-19 response measures and digital acceleration agenda.
The facilities, which were approved during the emergency sitting, were an on-lending agreement between the Government of Ghana (GoG) and the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank Group for an amount of $150 million to finance the West Africa Food System Resilience Programme phase two under the Multipurpose Programme Approach.
Also approved were a €170 million between the GoG and the Development Bank of Ghana for the establishment of the Development Bank of Ghana, a $60.6 million agreement between the GoG and the IDA of the World Bank Group as a third additional financing for the Ghana COVID-19 emergency preparedness.
Again, a $30 million response project and an agreement between the GoG and the Government of the Republic of Korea [acting through the Export-Import Bank of Korea-Government Agency for the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF)], an agreement between the GoG and the IDA of the World Bank for an amount of $150 million to finance the Primary Healthcare investment Project and a $150 million agreement between the GoG and the IDA to finance the Public Financial Management for service delivery project, were all approved.
Additionally, the House approved a financing agreement between the GoG and the IDA for an amount of $200 million to finance the Ghana Digital Acceleration Project.
The loan agreements, which had been on the books already, were supposed to have been approved by the House before it adjourned sine die on March 31, 2023.
The Ghanaian Times reports that former President John Mahama has stated that the government continues to fail the nation on several fronts.
“I celebrate all workers’ industry, innovation, agency, and commend you sincerely for holding the ship of state afloat however, the government continues to fail the nation on several fronts, leading to her worst state of unemployment in recent memory,” he decried.
Former President Mahama noted that government workers – teachers, health workers, civil servants, and security personnel – continue to shoulder the additional burden of an expanding population which could be avoided with prudent and pragmatic policies.
This was contained in the former president’s message on the occasion of the 2023 International Workers’ Day, sent warm salutations to all Ghanaian workers for their contribution towards the nation’s socioeconomic development.
Former President Mahama indicated that the desperate state of unemployment came with extra demands on the time and energy of existing workers and sadly deprived their families of their presence at home and called for an open and frank national dialogue on the true state of the economy.
He said on several occasions he had done that with the hope to brainstorm and build consensus on the way forward towards common good and was also why he kept urging the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail out the government to inject capital, credibility, and prudence into the management of the economy.
“Data from Ghana Statistical Service indicated that unemployment among the youth was high, exacerbated by the government’s inability and unwillingness to pay crucial social protection funds such as Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty, National Health Insurance Levy, and District Assemblies’ Common Fund.
“As we painfully sail through these stormy times with courage, I will continue to appeal to you, our gallant workers across the country, to hope for a better future that will protect investments of retirees, restore,revamp collapsed businesses, banks, create genuine jobs and ensure our statutory vehicles that offer protection to vulnerable in society are not starved of funds,” Former President Mahama bemoaned.
He said workers were the backbone of the country, epitomise the Black Star of hope, aspiration and honour which was proudly extolled in the national anthem, it was their steadfastness, commitment, determination and dedicated service to the nation that had kept the country afloat.
The former president stressed that amid the present economic turbulence he saluted Ghanaian workers, for inspiring citizens to be bold, resolute and work towards building the Ghana they wanted together.
The newspaper says that the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has predicted that Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate will drastically slow down to 1.3 per cent in 2023, due to rising prices and monetary tightening leading to a contraction in domestic demand.
This is lower than the projections of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The slowdown will result in reduced consumption and sustained cedi depreciation, which will boost net exports, the sole growth driver in 2023.
The EIU in its report said it expected growth to remain subdued in 2024 as tightening continues, but then pick up over 2025-27 driven by an uptick in gold and oil export earnings.
It also warned that macroeconomic instability and a public debt crisis would weigh on Ghana’s business environment and its ambitions to become a West African trading hub.
The government is expected to remain committed to fiscal consolidation in 2023-27, with revenue-raising measures in place to shrink the fiscal deficit.
GIK/APA