My first letter to the President

Dear Mr. President,

I wish to state that, “Time Answers Everything“ and that, GOD makes things beautiful in HIS time.

I write to first congratulate you on your election and swearing in as the first gentleman of our Motherland Ghana for the next four (4) years ending 7th of January 2029.

As a proud Ghanaian and someone who belives in positivity and hard work, I strongly believe in individual`s  contribution  to achieving  the desired state that we (Ghanaians)  wish to see Ghana  gets to.

The below twenty (20)  hightlights / Pointers,  are  my   inert convictions  to  help  build  our  homeland Ghana  in attaining self-sufficiency in the medium to long term.

POINTERS:

1. Redevelopment / Realignment of the Tema Freezone enclave. Thus, taking a relook at the Free zones Act 1995, Act 504,
2. Initiating the development of the Western Freezones enclave and the Kumasi Industrial park and undoubtedly, will be one of your economic save lines in creating jobs in the medium to long term and a Hallmark of Economic excellence when implemented,
3. Seek to enhance cohesion in the best productive manner between Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (G.I.P.C), Ghana Free Zones Authoriry (G.F.Z.A) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (M.O.T.I),
4. Establishing and appreciating sectorial / industrial deficits starting with  the “low  hanging  fruits“ and develop actional ways of reducing the deficits to achieve self-sufficiency and self-sustenance in the long term,
5. Revisiting the quest to limit importation of certain items / commodities industry-by-industry as started by the former government led by the Ministry of Trade and Industry but didn`t see the light of day due to the lack of comprehensive stakeholder engagements in developing the blueprint. (To kick start a very  comprehensive stalkholder engagements –  Import substitution strategies with KPI`s).
6. A re-look at the Boankra In-land Port Project – a comprehensive value chain assessment, very critical as this project when completed, will be pivotal in furtherance to our ecconomic expansion  to other western African countries to the north of Ghana,
7. To birth and nurture deliberate policies to building capacities of local construction firms.( One exciting occurance is the award of the Motorway rehabilitation project to MARIPOMA ENTERPRISE LIMITED, a local firm in 2024).
8. Develop dynamic policies to sync with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) blueprint, taking full advantage of the existence of  AfCFTA  Headquarters in Ghana. Creating a unit within the Ministry of Trade & Industry to be tasked to transition to achieving this objective,
9. To comprehensively assess Ghana’s foreign policies regulating , monitoring and evaluating the madate of High Commssioners and Ambassadors performances / expectations. Thus, results based mandates – to be linked to GDP growth in the quest to enhance Foreign Direct Investments (FDI`s).
10. A deliberate relook at the railway sector development agenda in phases at a pace that convinces and gives hope. (Inner & Intra-City Transport enhancements bearing in mind the Boankra In-Land Port project, very pivotal)
11. In the medium to long-term, intiate the reasons for establishing certain Ministries , Agencies and  State Owned Enterprises (SOE`s)  for re-alignments and better productive outcomes,
12. To re-tool Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (G.I.D.A) to comprehensively audit all irrigation facilities / schemes. (Human resource and facilities approach) in re-defining how best G.I.D.A can sit within the confines of Ministry of Food and Agriculture (M.O.F.A).
13. To decisively and comprehensively assess the One-District-One -Factory (1DIF) program within the first two years to see how its full potential can be realised with very robust Key Performance Indicators (KPI`s),
14. To bring on board specialties/ experts/ Civil Society Organizations (CSOs`) in the energy sector to develop continual and progressive policies to acheive self-sufficiency and self- sustainance energy sector with very minimal or no political interferences (Energy sector transformation). It is very worrying to see the anormalies in our energy sector after becoming an oil producing country since 2010, thus, 15 years and counting,
15. To re- define and establish the firm mandate of National Sports Authority (N.S.A) to fully take over the sports sector – coming out with a five to ten year development plan fully funded with result – oriented targets.
16. To personally take up the challenge as the President, to re-ingnite the lost Partriotic and Nationalistic attitude of the Ghanaian ( National Orientation / Mindset Change).
17. To take lead as the President in re-orienting the mindset change of Ghanaians starting from the basic school curriculum and the need to deliberately build the capacities of the teaching profession across all level ( five to fifteen year development plan).
18. To re-align the decentralization agenda to ensure dynamic and rapid development within the district with the 1DIF agenda in mind to create jobs.
19. To critically as a matter of urgency, re-look at the mandate of the National Buffer Stock Company (N.A.F.C.O) established in 2010 by the National Buffer Stock Policy.
20. To deliberately ensure the widening of the tax net to move from the about 5 million contributors  and to increase the tax to GDP ratio from the existing 12.4%. (This has been the mantra for most goverments within the 32 years of our democracy in the 4th republic and nothing seems to work towards this goal). This becomes very worrying when i phantom to know that more than 80% of our revenue goes into emoluments and costs to debts as interest payments.

 

 

In  conclusion, most at times I shiver and become sad when i see where Malaysia , Singapore and South Korea have gotten to in terms of their economic and governance structures and also where less than 40% of items sold in our shopping Malls are produced locally.

It is my believe that the twenty (20) pointers hightlighted above to an extent, will  push us as a country to our desired destination.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of blessed memory should be the inspirational factor of this desired destination of our country Ghana, because his deeds and legacies are evident enough to tell us, it is possible though a very difficult and daunting hurdle.

I end to say, A country becomes self-sufficient when there are real sustainable wages and salaries pivoted on an economy built on a solid industrial foundation.

Long live Ghana , Long live Mother Africa

Yours Sincerely,

SIGNED:

Alfred Mensah-Onumah

Citizen of GHANA.

 

 

 

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