Coronavirus: GDP now better than rates under Mahama – Akufo-Addo

7% GDP growth rates experienced pre-COVID, Akufo-Addo

Ghana Cares Obaatanpa programme yielding results

President addresses National Labour conference

President Akufo-Addo has stated that his administration’s efforts in securing Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is commendable.

According to him, he has done better than the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) government led by John Dramani Mahama.

“It is encouraging for my government and party, the New Patriotic Party, to recall that the rate of growth of the economy, 5.6%, against the background of the exceptionally difficult circumstances of the COVID-era, is still considerably better than the 3.4% we inherited (in 2016) in calmer times from our predecessor administration,” he said.

He made these comparisons when he delivered the keynote address at the National Labour Conference held in Kwahu Nkwatia in the Eastern Region on Monday, February 28, 2022.

He furthered that, “prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, we witnessed average annual GDP growth rates of seven percent (7%) in 2017, 2018, 2019 and part of 2020, when our economy was then, generally, acknowledged as one of the fastest growing in the world.”

President Akufo-Addo in his delivery said various programmes undertaken by his government, including the one hundred-billion-cedi Ghana COVID-19 Alleviation and Revitalization of Enterprises Support (Ghana CARES) ‘Obaatampa’ Programme, to create jobs and prosperity for Ghanaians over a three-year period, have begun yielding results.

The first phase of the Ghana CARES programme, the phase of stabilisation, ended in 2020.

“As a result of this programme and the policies being implemented by Government, the economy grew at a provisional 5.2% in the first three quarters of 2021. This growth is expected to be sustained in the medium term,” he said.