The Ministry of Information has started with its planned Townhall meetings with the first edition taking place in Accra.
Organised in collaboration with the Regional Coordinating Council the meeting is a platform to showcase government’s infrastructural projects and social interventions in the regions.
It afforded the opportunity for all the 29 District, Municipal and Metropolitan Assemblies (MMDAs) to exhibit some key infrastructural projects implemented so far by the Government from 2017 to date.
Journalists and the public were given the opportunity to also ask questions and seek clarifications from duty-bearers.
The meeting which forms part of series of activities to rump up government communication is to help inform the citizenry of government’s achievement in the area of infrastructural development as well as governance in general.
Expected to be taken to all 16 regions of the country, the townhall meetings will focus on government’s achievement within respective regions and dovetail into national development.
Speaking during the Greater Accra Regional edition in Accra yesterday at the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) Hall in Accra, the Minister of Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, said the size of the economy despite the challenges had grown by $20 billion under the current administration as of 2023.
Comparing same with that of 2013, he said under Mahama’s administration the size of the economy was pegged at $64 billion, however, this reduced to $56 billion in 2016.
Dr Adam said as of 2023 the size of the Ghanaian economy was pegged at $76 billion “so in nominal terms the economy has grown by $20 billion under Akufo-Addo government”.
He said the government had taken tough economic decisions in the midst of the global economic crises occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war and those decisions were beginning to yield positive results.
Dr Adam cited the Domestic Debt Exchange programme (DDP) which saw 95 per cent participation by local bond-holders while as one of the numerous tough decisions taken by the government.
The minister said the government recorded $3.4 billion trade surplus in 2023, as against $1.8 billion trade deficit recorded under the Mahama government in 2016.
On inflation, he said government’s resilient policies and programmes had led to a drastic reduction in inflation from 54 per cent in 2022 to 22 per cent as of June this year.
“By the end of this year, the inflation will come down to 15 per cent and hopefully, if we are given the mandate in the December 7 Election, we will bring it down to a single digit by 2025,”Dr Amin Adam assured.
He attributed the surge in the inflation to the global economic meltdown due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic and not because of economic mismanagement.
The Minister of Information, Ms Fatimatu Abubakar, in her welcome remarks, said the townhall meetings would be organised across the country in all the 16 regions till November, this year.
She said the event would enable regional ministers, chief executive officers of the various assemblies and sector ministers to answer questions from the public on their stewardship.
She said the feedback from the interactions with the public would assist government’s future policies and programmes.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL