Mahama reiterates commitment to improving economy, says prospects remain bright

President John Mahama says his government remains committed to strict fiscal discipline and diversification of the economy, for macroeconomic stability and accelerated growth.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, he said that Ghana, like several other African countries making strides in achieving economic growth and reducing hunger and poverty, is seeing positive movement towards fiscal consolidation with the support of its multilateral and bilateral partners, despite the uncertainty and risk from the international markets.

A recent slowdown in the economic growth of Chinas is expected by economists to significantly affect commodity prices and the economies of many of China’s trading partners, some of which are African countries.

President Mahama conceded once again that Ghana’s energy crisis has “slowed growth and is taking a steep toll on economic and social life” and severely affecting small and medium enterprises which can least afford generators.

The president cited the shortage of power in Africa as a major constraint to growth, adding that power outages arising from a shortfall in generation have even become normal in many African countries.

“We plan to put an additional 3500 MW of power into our transmission grid utilizing the significant gas reserves we have discovered in offshore oncessions. This will be supplemented by renewable power mainly from solar, biomass and wind sources”, he said.

In light of the wakeup call in the manifestations of climate change, the president said the road ahead for energy demands that energy sufficiency is achieved “in a manner that is sustainable and does not further worsen the fragile environment of our planet”

“We must curb our consumerism not just in respect of the environment, but also in the exercise of tolerance and the mindful practice of coexistence with one another”, he said.

By Emmanuel Odonkor