By Stephen Asante
Accra, March 08, GNA – President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says his Administration has over the last six years championed the innovation of policies and the execution of projects that have helped improved the quality of life of the Ghanaian people.
“And, God willing, I will continue on a path that brings the most benefit to the people of Ghana,” he stated, in his State of the Nation’s Address, on Wednesday.
The Address covered all aspects of the Government’s development agenda, programmes and policies, including the state of the country’s economy, agriculture, education, Information Technology, tourism, mining, climate change, health and infrastructural development.
On agriculture, the President said, in 2022, the Government completed the rehabilitation and modernisation of large-scale irrigation schemes at Tono, Kpong and Kpong Left Bank projects.
“The three schemes are expected to provide six thousand, seven hundred and sixty-six hectares (6,766ha) of irrigable land for all-year-round crop production,” he stated.
Phases One and Two of the Tamne Irrigation Project had also been completed, with Phase Three of the project at 57 per cent completion.
“I would like to state categorically that this Government has built more roads than any government in the history of the Fourth Republic,” he said.
Beyond the construction of roads, he said, the NPP Administration had also implemented successfully a National Identification System with the Ghanacard, constructed more railways, and also established the Zongo Development Fund to address the needs of Zongo and inner-city communities.
“We have constructed more infrastructure in the Zongo Communities than any other government in the Fourth Republic,” he stressed, adding that the Government had worked assiduously to increase the proportion of the population with access to toilet facilities from 33 per cent to 59 per cent.
There has also been an increase in the number of public libraries from 61 from independence until 2017 to 115 in 2022.
President Nana Akufo-Addo said the Government had provided more equipment, that is, vehicles, ammunition, among others, to security services than any other government in the Fourth Republic, while successfully implementing the Digital Address System.
On industrialisation, he said, in four years, 106 companies had been completed and in operation under the ‘One District, One Factory (1D1F).
According to him, 148 factories were under construction-the largest expansion of that sector since independence.
On health, he indicated that his Administration had introduced drones in the delivery of critical medicine, vaccines and blood to people in remote parts of the country.
“Today, Ghana has the largest medical drone delivery service in the world with six Zipline Distribution Centres in Omenako, Mpanya, Vobsi, Sefwi Wiawso, Kete Krachi and Anum,” the President stated.
On tourism, he said international arrivals nearly trebled in 2022, from a low of three hundred and fifty-five thousand, one hundred and eight (355,108) in 2020, to over nine hundred and fifteen thousand (915,000).
Domestic visits to tourist sites were also up by over 55.7 per cent during the period, he hinted, saying all those had been made possible by deliberate marketing initiatives and upgrades of tourist infrastructure by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture and its Agency, the Ghana Tourism Authority.
President Nana Akufo-Addo noted that the Government had overseen an improvement in revenue collection, with the introduction of an e-VAT and e-Invoicing System.
For example, figures from nineteen (19) taxpaying companies onboarded unto the e-Vat system revealed total recorded monthly sales increasing from two hundred and twenty-two million cedis (GHS222 million) in November 2021 to seven hundred and twenty million cedis (GHS720 million) in November 2022.
Again, in December 2021, total monthly sales of two hundred and eighty-four million cedis (GHS284 million) also saw a huge increase to one billion cedis (GHS1 billion) in December 2022, the President said.
GNA