The report that President Akufo-Addo has stated that Ghana is on her way to establishing a domestic manufacturing plant for COVID-19 vaccines is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stated that Ghana is on her way to establishing a domestic manufacturing plant for COVID-19 vaccines.
He said with the Presidents of Senegal, Mr Macky Sall, and Rwanda, Mr Paul Kagame, the three would inspect production facilities needed for that in Germany on February 16, 2022.
“We are going to build a pan African project with these two sister African states where initially the fill and finish plant will be located in Ghana.
“BioNtech of Germany, a health and technology company which now works with Pfizer, has agreed to be our partner and will contribute awesomely to the construction if a modern production facility for other vaccines such as those for malaria and tuberculosis in Ghana,” President Akufo-Addo said.
President Akufo-Addo disclosed this when he opened the 73rd edition of the annual New Year School and Conference at the Great Hall of the University of Ghana at Legon on Tuesday (Jan 25, 2022).
He said the government would continue to work proactively to protect the citizens from the ravages of the pandemic.
He, therefore, urged all Ghanaians to get vaccinated and help end the spread of the virus in the country.
The newspaper says that former President Mr John Mahama has accused the government of mismanaging the country’s economy since assuming office.
In a Facebook post last Tuesday, Mr Mahama said Ghanaians are reeling under the impact of the country’s current debt crisis and the worsening economic hardships imposed on them by the government.
“The Ghanaian economy has been collapsed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia. The debt crisis, for which there are very few tangible projects to show for and worsening economic hardship of Ghanaians amply demonstrate the negative impact of a collapsed economy,” he claimed.
The 2020 flag bearer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) further indicated that the government’s ‘voracious appetite for borrowing’ and the imposition of burdensome taxes will erode business capital.
According to him, the Akufo-Addo-led administration had also crowded out the private sector’s access to credit.
“The NDC remains opposed to the imposition of the numerous fresh taxes on Ghanaians at a time when the government is living large and unwilling or unable to trim expenditure, cut waste and check corruption,” he stressed.
Appreciation to NDC MPs
The Ghanaian Times reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says the sound economic foundation laid by his administration between 2017 and 2020 has significantly reduced the impact of the COVID-19 on the country’s economy.
Aside the impact of the pandemic on global health, COVID-19 has significantly affected the socio-economic lives of billions of people worldwide.
However, President Akufo-Addo said “but for the sound economic foundation built between 2017 and 2020, where on the average, the economy grew by seven per cent, the impact of COVID-19 would have even been more devastating in Ghana.”
The President made these remarks at the opening of the 2022 edition of the annual New Year School at the campus of the University of Ghana, Legon in Accra yesterday.
Stakeholders from across the various sectors of the economy are attending the school, organised by the Institute of Distance Education, University of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance, to deliberate on the theme “COVID-19, Socio-economic dynamics in Ghana.”
President Akufo-Addo, in his address, pointed out that when the global food security situation was threatened by the pandemic, with many economies shutting down exports and essential food items seized, Ghana’s economy remained largely self-sufficient.
“We were able to feed ourselves; thanks to the programme of Planting for Foods and Jobs, there were no food shortages,” he said.
The newspaper says that the third wave of the COVID-19 Households and Job Tracker conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service has revealed that majority of households are yet to recover from the shock of the pandemic.
Data for the exercise was collected in the first two weeks of December 2021 and all the answers are self-reported.
It said two thirds (68.3 per cent) surveyed said their income had not been recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
According to the survey only 26.7 per cent of respondents indicated that their total household income stayed the same as compared to the period before COVID-19 (March 16, 2020).
It said 5.1 per cent of respondents indicated that their total income increased.
The survey revealed that most households resorted to borrowing in the heat of the pandemic to eke out the living.
“The survey identified that approximately 86.7 per cent of households used some sort of coping strategy to deal with the negative effects of COVID-19 since March 2020,” the survey revealed.
It said the most common coping strategies included relying on savings (43.0 per cent) and reducing food consumption (42.9 per cent).
The survey revealed that households spent GH12 on Personal Protection Equipment (PPEs) per week on average.
“The median expenditure on PPEs (masks, sanitisers, face shields per household on the seven days before the interviews was 12.0 and the mean expenditure 22.0. Median expenditure was slightly higher in urban areas (14) than in rural areas (10.3),” the survey, said.
It said of the zones, both the median (15) and mean (25.3) expenditure was the highest in the coastal zone, while 68.2% indicated that their household income decreased, adding that different sources of income, non-farm family business income saw the biggest reduction.
The survey said 77.3 per cent of households with income derived from a non-farm family business saw a decrease in income and only 4.4 per cent reported an increase in income.
The 4.2 per cent of households who got income from pension saw the smallest change of this income source. 76.7 per cent however reported no change in pension income, 13.0 per cent, a reduction and 10.3 per cent an increase.
GIK/APA