Show understanding in the face of rising cost of food and oil-Kufuor

President John Agyekum Kufuor on Tuesday counselled the nation to show understanding and to appreciate that the rising cost of food and petroleum products was a global challenge. The Government, he said, was handling the situation in such a way that, the economic gains made would not be destroyed.
Under this year's national budget, the price of crude oil was estimated at 70 dollars per barrel, but it has now hit an all time high of about 120 dollars.
President Kufuor pointed out that the knock-on effect of this has been wide-ranging and wondered how the economy could have run in the next two years but for the country's discovery of oilfields in commercial quantities.
He said this in opening remarks before going into a closed session with the Council of State at their quarterly review meeting at the Credentials Hall of the Castle, Osu.
Ghana's successful hosting of the just ended United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), crude oil and food price hike, energy and water were among key issues that came up during the open session of the meeting.
President Kufuor declared that despite the challenges, the Government was heading on the right path and doing very well. Touching on the water shortage affecting particularly some parts of the Capital City, Accra, President Kufuor said they were negotiating for a 200-million dollar loan to expand the generating capacity of the Kpong Dam.
Meanwhile, construction work to connect the mains of Weija and Kpong Head-works was on-going.
It was not that the Government had either been insensitive or uncaring, he said, and cited the various water projects it was implementing including those at Cape Coast, Tamale, Kumasi, Baafikrom and Kwanyako.
Additionally, he outlined policies being pursued to achieve energy security to drive the country's industrialization, mentioning the construction of thermal plants in partnership with the private section alongside hydro-electricity dams.
He said he was confident that in the next two to three years power generation was going to double.
He said what they were looking at was how to make sure that the utility charges were affordable and the protection of the environment. Professor Daniel Adzei Bekoe, Chairman of the Council, earlier, had expressed the Council's concern about the water supply problem in Accra and some parts of the country.
"The gap between supply and demand is so large that we are presented with a major challenge that must be approached in a fundamentally different way from the incremental strategies that we have been used to."
He spoke of the need to give serious attention to rain water harvesting and the production of potable water from the sea. The Council congratulated the Government for working out the futuristic system of payments for goods and services, transfer of funds and reducing the handling of cash in financial transactions through the introduction of a secure smart card system, "e-zwich."
Professor Adzei Bekoe said the Council was also gratified that the Government had taken steps to help formulate a comprehensive oil and gas policy to govern the way the country exploited these resources.