By Iddi Yire, GNA Special Correspondent in London.
London, June 05, GNA – Mr Augustus Goosie Tanoh, Presidential Advisor on the 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development, has appealed to Ghanaians living in the United Kingdom to invest back home to contribute towards the 24-Hour Economy and its related initiatives.
Speaking at a town hall engagement in London, Mr Tandoh explained that the support would be funding export-driven value chains, transferring technical skills, and partnering with local industries.
The purpose of the Town Hall Engagement organised by the Ghana High Commission in London was to enable President John Dramani Mahama to connect with diaspora Ghanaians living in the UK during his five-day high level visit to the UK.
It was aimed at updating the diaspora Ghanaians on the nation’s macroeconomic recovery, discuss national development priorities, and encourage diaspora investment and skills transfer.
Mr Tanoh’s presentation served as both a progress report on the flagship policy and a strategic appeal for diaspora capital to fuel Ghana’s industrial transformation.
He said that for nearly six decades, the nation’s economy had followed the same rhythms, with a few good years of growth and balance of payment squeeze and a return to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He noted that Ghana had had 17 IMF programmes since 1966, one every three and a half years.
“Each time we’ve gone to the IMF, for a brief period, our national books are restored for a time. Unfortunately, each time we have gone and come back, the basic structures of our economy, the underlying structural deformity of the inherited colonial economy remains,” the Presidential Advisor said.
He said the recent agenda President Mahama was leading rests on two pillars, and the two must hold together.
He said the first was a disciplined macroeconomic management, and in just 17 months, the indicators have begun to turn in a way that Ghanaians now have not seen for some time.
“And what are these indicators? Inflation is down to 3.4 per cent. It was 3.2 per cent just before the Iranian crisis, and it’s ticked up slightly to 3.4 per cent with the oil squeeze and the increase in oil prices.”
This, he said, was the lowest reading in over four years, and it represents 15 months of consecutively falling of inflation.
He said the Bank of Ghana policy rate had been cut from 28 per cent to 14 per cent.
Mr Tanoh said the cedi had remained within a $10 to $12 bank protected and rationally administered by the Bank of Ghana.
He said close to six months of import cover with the Bank of Ghana holding nearly 38 tons of gold on its balance sheet as additional security, saying that the trade surplus in the first few months of 2026 alone restraped by 68 billion United States dollars.
“Our public debt has fallen from 92.4 per cent at its peak of GDP to 48 per cent below 50 per cent. And reaching a target where our debt levels will be sustainable. The economy has grown in the first quarter of 2026 by 7.7 per cent. It grew by 6 per cent in 2025.”
He said the Finance Minister, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, and the President’s Economic Team under President Mahama’s leadership had held the line, and they would continue to hold the line.
The Presidential Advisor said within that growth laid a task that they had set for themselves and the rationale for the 24-hour economy, stating that the six per cent that Ghana grew by in 2025 came largely from services.
He said close to 60 per cent of the growth came from the services sector and agriculture as a contributor of 25 per cent.
Mr Tanoh said in the industry, the factories, processing plants, and construction sites that created productive jobs contributed even less, around 12 per cent, growing by only 2.3 per cent per hour.
“Our strategy moves on two deliberate tracks. The first is export led. We are building productive capacity where Ghana has latent advantage,” he said.
Mr Tanoh said they were processing across the Volta Economic Corridor, which touches 75 districts around the Volta Lake and its tributaries – garments and pharmaceuticals, and light industries anchored on affordable energy.
He highlighted four major agreements signed within the preceding ninety days, collectively accounting for over 160,000 projected jobs: Buipe Solar Farm, Kambonwule Oil Palm Anchor Project, Bioenergy/Biofuels Programme and Tamale Air Cargo Hub.
He said the Kambonwule Oil Palm Anchor Project was a $300 million agricultural initiative designed to establish large-scale sustainable palm production and significantly close Ghana’s vegetable oil import deficit.
While the Tamale Air Cargo Hub was demarcated for two operators scheduled to begin operations in 2027, positioned to transform northern Ghana into a major export and logistics corridor.
GNA
Edited by Linda Asante Agyei