Akufo-Addo questions Ghana’s middle income status

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has expressed reservation about Ghana’s middle income status, stating there is still a lot more work to be done for country to reflect that status.

He said although Ghana’s economy is doing well, poverty is still very prevalent.

Government statistician in November 2010 announced Ghana had attained a middle income status when the government found that the economy had been undervalued by 60% and the Gross National Product was valued at 31 billion dollars.

But addressing journalists at the Jubilee House Friday, the President said until a lot more Ghanaians are able to fend for themselves and afford basic amenities, the country cannot be said to have attained middle income status.

“We have to always bear in mind the social consequences; I don’t want a situation where everything is determined by money; if you don’t have money, you can’t go to school, if you don’t have money you can’t have access to decent healthcare…”

“In the circumstance of Ghana where people will say we are a middle income country, I don’t know; 2,000 plus per capital income is not for me middle income, for me it’s still poor,” he said.

For Nana Akufo-Addo, it is only “when we are looking at 12 to 15,000 dollars a year, then we are talking about an economy that is moving in the upper end”.

The President said it is towards ensuring that people are not restricted by money from enjoying basic amenities that his government has put in place social interventions like the Free SHS programme to ensure some of these issues are dealt with.

“This intervention is made to open up the system so that it is no longer the ability to pay. It won’t happen overnight, but we have began aggressively tackling the issue of infrastructure in the secondary schools across the country,” he said.

The president also said “It is the growth and expansion of the economy that is going to deal with all the issues that we have; unemployment, income level…all of these are bundled up in how rapidly our economy can grow.”

He assured his government is doing all it can to ensure Ghana becomes a thriving economy to the envy of all across the world.