By Iddi Yire
Accra, Jan. 09, GNA – The Government of Ghana will work with the World Bank to turn the nation’s fortune around, President John Dramani Mahama, has said.
“We want to work with the World Bank to turn things around as quickly as possible,” President Mahama stated during a courtesy call on him by Mr Ousmane Diagana, the World Bank Vice President for West and Central Africa, in Accra.
“The World Bank has been a very good partner, and we work together on many projects. Indeed, in this period of crisis, I think that the World Bank has been one true partner in helping to stabilise things and we want to continue to work with you to do that.”
Mr Diagana was in Accra to witness the inauguration of President Mahama, which took place at the Independence Square on Tuesday, January 7.
Touching on the energy sector, the President said there were a few surprises that had come up in respect of the energy sector with regards to some aspects of government’s decisions and things over the last several years.
He, however, reiterated that Ghana had the human resources to be able to deal with the situation and turn things around as quickly as possible.
“We need to reset this country and put it back on track in terms of economic stability, in terms of governance and to be able to create jobs for young people, empower women and also eliminate poverty.”
The President said these were some of the priority things they had and to be able to do this they must increase investment; they must open Ghana for business again.
Adding that they would like to create an atmosphere where people see Ghana as a favourite destination for doing business.
“We used to talk on the ease of doing business on the World Bank charts for many years,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we have slid back a bit. I know you have changed the criteria for the ease of doing business, but I think that whatever the criteria are we must work to make sure that Ghana becomes a favourite place for investment.”
He said during his first term, Ghana easily attracted about $ 3.3 billion in foreign direct investment every year, consistently for the four years that he had been in office.
He said within the last year of the outgoing administration; Ghana barely managed a little over one billion dollars in foreign direct investment; declaring that, “so, it shows exactly what the situation is with the crisis we are going through in the economy”.
The President mentioned that two pillars that generate non-tax revenue were the cocoa industry and the oil and gas sector, and that unfortunately, the previous government had not been able to add one single drop of oil or gas, cubic metre of gas to what they inherited from his first administration.
“That is for many parochial reasons. The producers in the oil and gas sector have not been happy. Some have been hounded out,” he said.
He said the government would encourage as many players in the nation’s oil and gas sector as possible so that they could increase gas production, eliminate the use of crude oil in electricity generation and be able to earn some more money in terms of non-tax revenues so that they could balance and stabilise the economy.
On his part, Mr Ousmane Diagana, the World Bank Vice President for West and Central Africa, reiterated the Bank’s commitment to supporting Ghana’s development agenda.
He said the Bank had dedicated programmes that exist already in Ghana to contribute to addressing those challenges that the President had mentioned; saying “the energy sector is one that has given us a lot of trouble. A lot of headaches”.
GNA