Akufo-Addo never said he can’t fulfill all promises - Eugene Arhin

The Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, has dismissed media reports claiming that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said he cannot fulfill all his promises.

On Monday November 13, some media houses in Ghana reported that Mr Akufo-Addo has said “I have ambitious promises, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to fulfil all of them, but I’m going to give it a big shot,” during the 2017 Bloomberg Africa Business Media Innovators Summit in Accra.

But in a statement posted on his Facebook minutes after the publication, Mr Arhin said: “So what do some media houses gain from completely misquoting the President, and putting on their respective websites a story (I Don’t Know If I Can Fulfil All Promises – Akufo-Addo) that is entirely their creation? The President, at this morning's Bloomberg Africa Business Media Innovators Summit NEVER said he will not be able to fulfill all of his promises. He NEVER said that.”

He further posted the full transcript of the President’s comments.

Below is the transcript of what he said

"We also need important, large-scale industrial growth poles. We have identified three areas of activity. One, the exploitation of our bauxite resources. We have considerable bauxite resources in the Western Region of our country, in Awaso, in the Brong and Ashanti Regions, and, happily, also from where I come from in Kyebi… so you can understand the pressure on me to do something about these resources, and also do so in terms of looking at the entire value chain of establishing a refinery, establishing a smelter to aid in the transformation into aluminium. They say aluminium is the metal of the future. We have a lot of the raw material here, and we are determined to now exploit it in a comprehensive manner. The same with our iron ore and steel deposits. We have considerable iron ore deposits in Ghana, in Ghana, in the Western and Northern Regions. That is also part of the focus. Then, of course, in so far as we have considerable gas resources in our country, we also want to bring it into play for a petrochemical industry.

So it is an ambitious programme. I am not sure in four years I will be able to do it all. But I am going to give it a big shot, and see what can be done."