![\"nana-addo-west-africa-tour-ss\"](\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Nana-Addo-West-Africa-Tour-ss.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe path to returning Ghana onto the path of progress and prosperity, he indicated, is being pivoted by the revival of the Ghanaian economy.<\/p>\n
With the majority of jobs in Ghana created by the private sector, the President indicated that \u201cif the private sector does not have the strength to be able to operate and grow, it becomes difficult to create jobs. So our attitude has been that, let us do whatever we can to strengthen the private sector in Ghana to work and create jobs, especially for our young people in Ghana.\u201d<\/p>\n
To this end, President Akufo-Addo noted that the raft of tax cuts and incentives introduced to stimulate the growth of the private sector has resulted in $1 billion of revenue taken away from the exchequer.<\/p>\n
Free SHS, NHIS revamp<\/strong><\/p>\n The Free Senior High School Policy, described by President Akufo-Addo as his “obsession\u201d, is on its way to being fulfilled.<\/p>\n He noted that his government will fund the cost of public Senior High Schools for all those who qualify for entry from the 2017\/2018 academic year onwards.<\/p>\n With the restoration of the National Health Insurance Scheme\u00a0being\u00a0a major campaign pledge, President Akufo-Addo noted that his government has found it necessary to find the money to\u00a0stave\u00a0the scheme off collapse.<\/p>\n \u201cThe NHIS was collapsing because it owed so much to the providers, and a lot of the providers were insisting on \u2018cash and carry\u2019. We don\u2019t want to go back to \u2018cash and carry\u2019. We have begun to claw back the arrears and began now to pay the service providers. So in the months ahead of us, we are going to see the full recovery of the NHIS,\u201d he assured.<\/p>\n Planting for Food and Jobs to stem migration<\/strong><\/p>\n Touching on the agricultural sector, President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that the programme for \u201cPlanting for Food and Jobs\u201d launched in Goaso a month ago is the answer to the\u00a0twin problem\u00a0of the migration of youth to city centres in search of non-existent jobs, as well as an end to the disgraceful spectacle of Ghana importing food\u00a0stuffs\u00a0from neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n Planting for Food and Jobs, the President explained, will be anchored on the pillars that will transform Ghanaian agriculture: the provision of improved seeds, the supply of\u00a0fertilizers, and the provision of dedicated extension services.<\/p>\n Assuring\u00a0that all the necessary measures have been put in place to guarantee the success of the programme, President Akufo-Addo indicated that to ensure\u00a0fertilizer\u00a0is readily available to the farmer at affordable prices,\u00a0government\u00a0has reduced the prices of fertiliser by 50%.<\/p>\n Additionally, with a looming shortage of agricultural extension officers in the next two to three years, and largely as a result of the previous NDC administration\u2019s decision not to employ any of the 3,200 graduates from the country\u2019s 5 Colleges of Agriculture between 2011 and 2015, President Akufo-Addo revealed that his government has, in the last 3 months, employed 1,200 of these graduates.<\/p>\n He assured further that \u201cin 2018, we will employ 2,000 more extension officers, with the solemn pledge of employing more graduates from our Colleges of Agriculture in the subsequent years.\u201d He concluded by stating that \u201cWe are determined to turn\u00a0round\u00a0the fortunes of Ghana. Ghana should not be a poor nation. We are not a poor nation. I refuse the description of Ghana as a poor country. We are a rich nation, and we will make sure that the wealth of the country is apparent in the lives of its people.\u201d<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Delali Adogla-Bessa\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Nana Akufo-Addo, has assured that his government is fulfilling the promises made to Ghanaians, adding that, Ghanaians will soon be witnesses to the immense benefits of the pledges made to them. President Akufo-Addo indicated that he did not make the promises to win votes but \u201cto save the future of our country.” Addressing the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":320222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[529,253,3,156,368],"class_list":["post-320221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-planting-for-food-and-jobs","tag-free-shs","tag-ghana-news","tag-nana-addo","tag-nhis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=320221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=320221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=320221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=320221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOn the commitments made to protect the public purse, President Akufo-Addo stressed that his government is \u201cbringing back competitive tendering for all transactions in the public sector. Sole sourcing, with one or two people sitting in a room and agreeing on things, is over. We are not going to do that again in Ghana. We are going to make sure that the competitive basis for doing things is restored.\u201d<\/p>\n