The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) is to set to develop a 40-year development plan aimed at shaping Ghana’s future.
The 40-year plan, according to the Commission is to complement the existing medium development plans of the country.
[contextly_sidebar id=”i1dxuyWctXuq6i9sqmSW19uTUA0QQN15″]Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, the Director General of the NDPC, Dr. Nii Moi Thompson stated that the 40-year plan, when adopted will have constitutional backing making it binding on all subsequent governments.
He explained that the plan will be adopted because when the time is up, Ghana will be celebrating its 100 years independence anniversary.
“The reason why we are playing around with the 40, it may very well change but the reason why we are playing around with 40, 41, 42 depending on when the long-term plan itself is done, is that it is when Ghana will actually turn 100 so it’s a good terminal point so to speak,” he remarked.
Dr. Thompson however clarified that the 40-year plan does not mean that the Mahama-government and other governments “would have to wait 40 years for everything to happen.”
He said as a result, his outfit is developing a “modular plans of framework” which will be incorporated in the long-term vision and then included in the constitution.
The NDPC boss pointed out that “some will say we will not be here but it’s not about us.”
Regarding the Vision 2020, he said it was terminated when there was a change in government in 2000 but was quick to add that “there are medium-term plans and now you need a much longer time horizon.”
According to him, the Ministry of Finance is no longer Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
“That is because the planning functions are now being transferred to NDPC for the long-term aspects of planning and also the infrastructure thing and so we are actually building occupancy in order to take on those additional responsibilities,” he explained.
He said all these plans are being put in place following calls by religious bodies and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) for the development of a common national development plan “and of course, we needed to respond to that.”
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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