NPP presidential aspirant diagnoses national problem

Accra, May 21, GNA - Mr. Kwaku Boakye Agyarko, a presidential aspirant of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), on Monday expressed disquiet about vast majority of Ghanaians who, according to him, still subsist at "the grinding edge of poverty and were in constant worry over their families' future".

"In spite of the classic benchmark of success in stabilizing the economy from the declining state the party inherited from the previous government, today Ghana as a nation finds it difficult to feed its citizens and has resorted to the importation of basic communities such as rice, grains, cooking oil, tomatoes, vegetables, chicken and beef to feed the population," he said at an interaction with the media in Accra after a campaign tour of the Greater Accra Region.

"Our shops are filled with not less than 80 per cent of cheap imports, but there are no visible offsetting or corresponding increases in our exports...Local industries are either grinding to a halt or are producing far below their maximum operating capacities," he said.

"The ports are congested with imports of chocolates from the European Union and furniture from China; many homes and families in the country now desperately depend upon the periodic financial remittances from relatives abroad to sustain a life worth living," he added. Mr Agyarko described the tour as "a humbling experience", which exposed him to the huge problems the nation faces.

Unemployment is still a huge problem and day in and day out the rural population is still abandoning the villages and farms and streaming in droves to Accra and Kumasi for work and prosperity that does not exist, thus creating agricultural labour shortages in arable rural constituencies.

He said, "the prevalence of these problems required that we re-dedicated ourselves to the task of rapidly developing and transforming our national economy."

According to Mr Agyarko, it requires that, "we move out of the stabilization phase into a balanced growth orientation. Anything short would inexorably lead to a race to the bottom and to further inequality, erosion in basic living standards, wages, labour and social standards and restraint on our nascent political democracy."

He called for swift focus on the provision of the basic necessities of life - food, clothing and shelter.

Mr Agyarko said, it was to the satisfaction of these basic and necessary ends that all the other sectoral and thematic policies from agriculture through national infrastructure development hinged on.