A strong economy creates opportunities, and inspires more people to start new businesses. In much the same way, a strong economy encourages existing businesses to make new investments, to grow, and expand. More and well-paying jobs are created, the private sector hires more people, and citizens prosper. Public sector-driven job creation interventions and initiatives also require a strong economy. Social services such as the National Health Insurance Scheme, free quality basic schools across every part of the country, the School Feeding Programme, good roads and a wider and cheaper transport network, affordable housing, stable and affordable electric power: all of these require a strong economy.

Supported by a good business environment, a strong economy is defined by its stability, its growth rate, the levels and number of taxes, the extent of value-addition, the creation of wealth, and the prosperity of citizens. Having jobs and livelihoods provide security for individuals, families and communities as a whole. When people prosper, the peace is largely secured.

The agenda for job creation would be underpinned by, among others, the following:
a. pursuing aggressive industrialization and value-addition to agricultural produce
b. providing tax and related incentives for manufacturing businesses in sectors such as agro-processing, light industries, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, garments and textiles, among others
c. providing a reliable and cost effective mix of energy supply for businesses
d. providing the necessary incentives for private sector participation in health service delivery
e. pursuing policies that will reduce interest rates
f. implementing policies that will reduce the cost of doing business
g. stabilizing the currency
h. providing incentives to the hospitality and creative industries that will enable them create jobs
i. investing in skills training and apprenticeships, and
j. promoting exports, especially of value-added agricultural produce and light manufactures.

The country’s industrial sector faces significant challenges, the principal ones of which are lack of access to finance, high interest rates, inadequate and poor quality raw materials for industrial processing, poorly developed domestic trade, weak consumer protection, lack of effective collaboration between research institutions and industry, poor trade facilitation, an unstable exchange rate, lack of coherent industrial development planning and initiatives, poor research and development support scheme for industry, lack of land for industrial zones, high import duties on raw materials, poor standards of certification, and an unreliable and expensive power source.

Our strategy is to address these challenges in ways that enable industry to thrive and become a major source of jobs, especially for the youth.

Our vision for the energy sector is to develop a modern, diversified, efficient, and financially sustainable “Energy Economy” that will ensure that all Ghanaian homes and industries have access to an adequate, reliable, affordable and environmentally-sustainable supply of energy to meet their needs and to support the accelerated growth and development agenda we envisage for the country.

We also commit to a transparent, accountable and efficient management of the country’s petroleum resources for the benefit of all Ghanaians.

Our vision for the next four years is to modernize agriculture, improve production efficiency, achieve food security, and profitability for our farmers, all aimed at significantly increasing agricultural productivity. We will pursue a value-addition strategy, aimed at rapidly ramping up agro-processing and developing new and stable markets for our products.

Our policies and interventions will ensure that our farmers and fisherfolk earn higher incomes. Our reforms will encompass the full agricultural value chain and create additional businesses and job opportunities in the areas of storage, transport, processing, packaging and marketing of agricultural produce.

District Assemblies and Traditional Authorities will be assigned specific roles in agricultural development and the we will adopt policies specifically targeted at supporting women in agriculture.

Growing Together consists of seven major economic initiatives, designed to take giant leaps in transforming Ghana holistically, with particular emphasis on rural and deprived communities, in a major effort at inclusive development of all parts of the country, by adopting a localised development approach.

They are:
a. the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP)
b. the restructuring of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA)” to the original design and mandate of the Northern Development Authority (NDA)
c. the establishment of a Middle Belt Development Authority (MBA)
d. the establishment of a Coastal Development Authority (CDA)
e. the establishment of a Zongo Development Fund
f. the creation of a new, “Western North” Administrative Region, and
g. the restructuring of the Royalty Sharing Ratios with Mining Communities to increase the share of revenues that mining communities currently receive in royalty payments.

The country is richly endowed with natural resources like fertile lands, lakes, rivers, forests, wildlife, fish and minerals which are vital for her development.
However, Ghana’s natural resources, upon which so much of the country’s economic activity and the population’s livelihood depend, are being depleted at an alarming rate. More than 50 percent of the original forest cover has been converted to agricultural land by clearing for perennial or annual cropping.

The government’s policy on forestry resources will seek to rehabilitate degraded forest reserve areas through planting of fast-growing indigenous and exotic species, conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

The modern world economy is knowledge-based and technology-driven. Today, the management of energy, agriculture, medicine and health, clean air, potable water, transportation, sanitation and the conservation of natural resources is an example of sectors whose solutions are based on science and information technology. For the country to make strides in its development, science, technology and innovation must be essential elements in all aspects of the national development process.

Science and technology contributes less than 1% of Ghana’s GDP, compared to an average of 2.5% in the rest of Africa. It is the NPP’s intention to achieve at least 1.5% over the next four years.

We are committed to promoting and leveraging the efforts of the scientific community to help transform the economy into a production-based one.

Education is critical in the building of the cohesive and prosperous Ghana on which we have set our eyes. Our children, and young people, must be equipped with the knowledge, skills, and aptitudes that would enable them compete with the best in the world. Every country that has made rapid, and significant progress has placed education at the heart of its development.

We aim to shift the structure and content of our education system from merely passing examinations to building character, nurturing values, and raising literate, confident, and engaged citizens who can think critically.

The health system in the country is critical for national development. Our vision is to see that the right to health of all Ghanaians is guaranteed through an established health sector with sustainable ability to deliver affordable, equitable and easily accessible healthcare.

To realise this vision, we will expand health promotion programmes, scale up disease prevention strategies and improve access to curative and emergency services, through vigorous human resource and health infrastructure development and strengthening of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

We aim to create a society of fair opportunities for all Ghanaians. Building on the far-reaching social intervention policies of the Kufuor-led administration, will help create a fair and inclusive society, which ensures that all citizens share in the country’s wealth and prosperity.

This will be achieved by establishing a well-funded, functioning welfare system which addresses the needs of the weak, marginalised, vulnerable and socially excluded.

The government will:
a. amend the Disability Act to bring it into line with the UN Convention on Disability
b. pass appropriate Legislative Instruments for the implementation of the Mental Health Act, 2012 (Act 846) and the Disability Act, 2006 (Act 715)
c. staff and properly resource the National Council on Persons with Disability in partnership with civil society organisations
d. implement inclusive education for persons with disability
e. implement equal employment opportunity policies for appointment into public offices for persons living with disability
f. ensure the National Council on Persons with Disability (NCPD) is decentralized to the regional level in order to coordinate the activities of the various federations
g. enforce section 18 of the Disability Act that provides for free education for persons with disability
h. implement the 3% increase in Common Fund disbursements to persons with disability, announced in 2012, but which remains unimplemented
i. ensure that the portion of DACF meant for persons with disability are disbursed through the decentralized district and regional offices of the NCPD
j. modernise, improve and resource special training school for persons with disability, to train them on technical and skill training programmes, and
k. encourage private institutions to reserve a quota of jobs that can be filled by persons with disability.

The Government will secure peace and security for all Ghanaians. We believe that the strict enforcement of our existing laws by our security agencies, without selectivity, will go a long way to sanitize our nation, assuage the fears of the citizenry and dramatically transform our society.

In this regard, the government will ensure that all our security personnel are properly-trained, properly-resourced, and provided with incentives to enable them discharge professionally their duties and obligations fairly and effectively without any interference from the executive branch of government in order to make the country a safe place for all our citizens.

The government will ensure that our security personnel are also adequately prepared to deal with the emerging threats of terrorism and cybercrime, which will be another major priority of our government.

Since independence, Ghana has been held in high esteem in the comity of nations, thanks to its consistent show of leadership in international matters, especially within the West African region and on the African continent.

Our foreign policy will be one of the principal agents of Ghana’s socioeconomic resurgence. We will improve on the efficiency and effectiveness of our foreign missions. We will redirect their emphasis to the search for economic opportunities with the view to opening markets for Ghanaian goods, while attracting foreign investments into the Ghanaian economy.

To achieve this, the government will also review existing policies to take into account the new world order with respect to developments like Brexit, the emergence of China and other BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa.

The youth constitute our major source of human capital for the transformational agenda of the country. Hence, all efforts should be made to employ their talents and skills for sustained growth of the economy.

In pursuant of this, we will focus on the following:
a. setting up a Youth Development Authority (YDA) to harmonise and coordinate all government-sponsored youth initiatives and policies
b. establishing a Youth Enterprises Fund (YEF) that will provide funding and business development services for businesses owned by young entrepreneurs, especially start-ups
c. developing industrial parks in all regions targeting young Ghanaians, who start or wish to start small businesses, to provide them with access to workspaces, equipment and basic services, including electricity and water
d. implementing our proposed policy that ensures businesses established by young entrepreneurs under the Youth Enterprise Fund (YEF) participate in bidding for the 30% of the required 70% of Government-funded contracts to be sourced from entities owned by women, persons with disability and young persons
e. offering tax incentives to young entrepreneurs to encourage them to initiate start-ups
f. introducing tax credits and other incentives for companies that hire young graduates from tertiary institutions
g. concentrating on ICT training to create job avenues locally and offshore for our youth, and
h. instituting a Buy-Local policy for Government agencies with regards to ICT to ensure that applications and software are procured from local ICT firms.

Also, under the NPP, sports development and promotion will be prioritised. We will pursue the development of the sports sector by:
a. modernising sports through the provision of the right legal framework, by enacting the comprehensive Sports Bill initiated under President Kufuor
b. ensuring that District Assemblies fully participate in sports development and promotion
c. developing, in partnership with the private sector, Youth Development & Sports Centres in all Regions. Each centre will house a fully-equipped library, ICT hub, social hall, multi-purpose pitches and courts
d. completing the construction of the University of Ghana stadium started by the Kufuor-led NPP government
e. pursuing the vision of providing modern multi-sport stadia for the regions currently without one, namely Brong Ahafo, Eastern, Upper East, Upper West and Volta
f. establishing a special unit at the Ministry to develop and promote sporting disciplines other than football, and to concentrate on the revival of school sports
g. putting in place an effective maintenance regime in partnership with the private sector
h. encouraging the private sector to provide funding for sports through the establishment of incentive packages, as well creating a Sports Fund to support the financing of sports
i. establishing three sports colleges in collaboration with the private sector
j. developing a Youth in Sports module to support young sportsmen and women and to create job opportunities for them
k. investing in a special Women-In-Sports programme to help unearth and support female athletes and sports talents across the country, and
l. awarding scholarships to promising young athletes so they can develop in the best of environments.

Ghana possesses an extensive array of tourist attractions that include UN Heritage Sites, Forts and Castles, ancient mosques, slave trade artefacts, indigenous craft villages and various wildlife sanctuaries.

The government will focus on transforming the country into a major Meeting, Incentive, Conference, & Exhibition (MICE) centre, as well as on expanding the tourism sector, through investment, innovation, the pursuit of service excellence and meaningful partnerships. This will enable tourism to become a major revenue-generating sector that provides safe, memorable and enjoyable experience for tourists.

Also, the government will give the Arts and Culture Industry the requisite attention and incentives to flourish and to also create jobs and wealth for our
people. We will build a detailed inventory of all our cultural assets, so the nation has a database of these assets. This inventory will include all of Ghana’s
tangible assets, like the Larabanga mosque, and intangible cultural assets like rites of passage and values and belief systems, which are in danger of disappearing completely with aging traditional custodians.

Additionally, we will focus on supporting the Creative Arts sector to enable it realize its full potential for generating wealth for its practitioners, create jobs and grow the economy.

The government will give due deference to Chiefs as the embodiment of the history and traditions of our people and will support the Chieftaincy institution to preserve, sustain and employ the traditional and cultural values, as well as practices that accelerate wealth creation and social harmony for total development.

Also, we will continue to engage actively religious organizations as the leading moral-cultural institutions that have a key role in molding the character and conduct of our citizens. We appreciate the value of the involvement of religious organisations in the management of faith-based schools and we will explore the possibility of enhancing their involvement.

The government will launch a new era of cooperation and collaboration with civil society to improve governance and enhance the well-being of Ghanaians. We will work to ensure that the community develops and thrives.