By Ken Sackey, GNA
Accra, Jan. 15, GNA - President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has rallied Ghanaians to support the enterprise to have a Ghana Beyond Aid, collaborate with the Government to define the country’s destiny, and put it on path of sustainable growth, prosperity and development.
He said the Ghana Beyond Aid was not a mere slogan, but an achievable agenda that would quicken the pace of the country’s development, make it truly independent and in charge of its own affairs and guarantee the respect and dignity the nation deserved.
“Ghana Beyond Aid is not a pie in the sky notion, because other countries including our peers at independence have exactly that…It is doable and we must believe that what others with less resources have done we can do.” The President said when he opened the 71st Annual New Year School at the University of Ghana, Legon
Organised by the School of Continuing and Distance Education of the University, the three-day conference is held on the theme “Attaining Ghana Beyond Aid: Prospects and Challenges”.
Stating the need for Ghanaians to partner government to deliver on its programmes to wean the country off the over-dependence on aid, President Akufo-Addo noted that achieving that vision required "breaking away from the mindset of dependency and manifest a can do spirit fueled by love for our dear country, Ghana.”
He pointed out that even though Ghana’s checkered history was fraught with underachievement, that situation should no longer be part of the country’s destiny, saying that the only nation Ghanaians wanted should be decided by the people.
“We do not have to accept someone’s definition of Ghana, we must define and craft our own destiny”, he said, adding that Ghanaians had to start doing things differently to realise the prosperity and development that the nation needed to urgently attain.
“We need to do better than that as we have already wasted enough time. To get to a Ghana Beyond Aid, we have to harness our own resources, and deploy them creatively and effectively for rapid economic and social transformation,” he added.
The President further noted that achieving the country’s destiny required “deliberate qualitative change in all aspects of our life, especially in the structure of our economy, the nature of our infrastructure, the education of the young people and the acquisition of skills and above all in our attitude”.
He noted that though the state of the nation did correspond with country's vast natural resources, “we are determined to pursue a different path to prosperity and self-respect for our nation".
Thus, all Ghanaians, the President stated, must join hands and rise to define the country's destiny "in order for us to move from the area of underdevelopment", adding that we must choose where and what we want to attain as a people.
This he said, would aid the country to register its name competitively on the global market, lamenting that the country underdeveloped in the area of economic growth.
The President said government had commenced concrete steps towards putting the country on the path to stability, prosperity and economic growth, saying the programmes and policies being implemented by his government would eventually move Ghana to a situation beyond aid.
“We have started on the right path towards a prosperous future with the concrete steps we are taking to restore macro-economic stability and economic growth,” he stated.
GNA
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