ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
Add onto this the new tax regime that was introduced to negatively affect machetes, fertilizers, other farming equipments, fishing nets and premix fuel.
The result of this is reduced food security for the country and low productivity resulting in low income for farmers.
FOOD Last year we related to the stagnation of growth in the production of basic food staples (cereals, legumes, roots and tubers).
The huge yearly fluctuations in output and the rising 2011 and over 600 metric tonnes in 2013 and for which we spent $374million (ref.
pg.11 of Address), provide ample testimony to deepened food insecurity in the country.
Admittedly, there has been a steady growth in the roots and tubers sub-sector, attributable to the continuation of the policy initiatives introduced by the NPP administration since 2005.
TFISHERIES AND MEAT PRODUCTION In respect of the production of meat and fish which constitutes by far, the chunk of protein intake by Ghanaians one can only make the same observation which we made last year.
Production of meat and fish has not witnessed much growth which explains why, correspondingly, there has been a steady increase in the importation of livestock and poultry products: from 128,000 metric tonnes in 2008 to about 139,000 metric tonnes in 2011 and now, in 2013 the nation spent $170million on imported poultry and $283million on imported fish.
All this is inspite of the heavy penalties that importers of meat and fish have to pay.
To demonstrate how serious government is in pouliry farming, for 2013 the Ministry of Agriculture raised and distributed 8000 cockerels to 500 farmers — so each poultry farmer had 16 cockerels!
In 2009 the NDC government established the Local Premix Committee (LPC) to facilitate what they called “a fairer distribution of premix fuel to fishermen”.
Today, there are reports of persistent shortages of premix in virtually all the fishing communities.
That is quite aside the fact that the price of premix fuel, fishing nets, outboard motors and wooden canoes have all steeply gone up.
The combined effect of these is the deepening of poverty levels within the fishing communities of the country.
COCOA AFFAIRS Ladies and gentlemen, two months ago when we engaged the media on the price of cocoa we related to government’s controversial decision not to increase the price paid to cocoa farmers in the current 2013/14 cocoa season.
Government’s position has been that there has been a decline in the price of cocoa on the international market.
We stated then and we do now reiterate that if for nothing at all the sharp devaluation of the Ghana Cedi (more than 20%) in 2013 provides a justification to increase the price paid to farmers.
In 2012/2013 prices were increased by a mere 5% when domestic inflation reregistered 10%.
Today, inflation is 14%.
Interest rales are rising, the Ghana cedi’s depreciation has not been mitigated inspite of the panic measures announced by the Bank of Ghana and inflation which already is 14% is likely to rise further in the coming months, Already this year, just 3 months into the year the cedi has further depreciated by about 17% since December, 2013.
The tumbling of the cedi has thrown the policy of government to pay a minimum of 70% - of the FOB price out-of gear;Today; the FOB price of cocoa is $2;700permetric tommeAs we """ .
speak today, the dollar to the cedi rate is GH¢2.85 to $1.00.
The equivalent of the FOB price in local currency is GH¢7,695 per metric tonne and therefore the current price paid to the farmer of GH¢3,392 per tonne is equivalent to only 44.0 percent.
In other words, the current price is far less than the 70% which NDC promised cocoa farmers in both 2008 and 2012 presidential and general elections and which figure finds expression in both the 2008 and 2012 manifestos of the NDC.
Whilst government has purposed not to increase the local price of cocoa the price of imported farming inputs such as fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides, weedicites, fishing nets, outboard motors, and farming equipment are all going up.
Labour cost is also sky-rocketing.
As if these travails are not biting enough, government has not responded to the issue of the payment of bonuses to cocoa farmers which has not been done over the past three years.
Farmers have become severely imperiled.
President, the farmers of this country deserve greater respect than you have accorded them.
If farmers are shabbily treated, if they are cheated they may engage in smuggling and the nation will not have the full benefit of our production especially in these days when the country needs every single dollar or foreign currency.
CONCLUSION ON AGRIC, FOOD SECURITY AND INDUSTRY In the 2008 manifesto of the NDC they gave a firm pledge to Ghanaians that by the end of 2012 they would have modernized agriculture in order to assure “food security for the people and dependable raw materials for industry”.
Nothing close to these have been achieved.
That is the state of the nation, Mx.
TRADE, INDUSTRY AND MANUFACTURING In 2011 trade deficit registered US$3.1billion.
In 2012 the deficit was $4.2billion.
In 2013 merchandise export was at $13.8billion while total merchandise imports amounted to $17.6billion.
Our balance of wrade which is in the negative, at about $4.0billion, is indeed the result of indiscriminate imports.
The worsening balance of trade position contributed to the massive current account deficit of $5.7billion in 2013 and the colossal depreciation of the cedi from GH¢1.10 to $1.1 in December 2008 to GH¢1.98 in December 2012 and further to GH¢2.80 in March 2014, DOMESTIC TRADE The free fall of the cedi has resulted in overexposure of local traders who are left unable to protect their working capital.
Many Ghanaian retailers have been forced to close their shops because they are operating at a loss.
The situation has been further aggravated by the invasion of foreigners in local trade.
We made this observation last year and we reiterate the point because, toady, the situation has worsened.
The huge cost of transportation as a result of frequent increases in the price of petroleum products, six times Jast year and already two times this year, has occasioned a huge price differential between the farm gates and the markets in the cities.
These are matters that government has to intervene in a positive way, Mr.
MANUFACTURING Since 2008 the manufacturing sector has not performed well, The share of manutacturing of GDP fell from 6.9% in 2009 to 6.7% in 2011.
In 2012 the share of manufacturing to industrial sector declined from 17% in 2011 to 5.0% in 2012 and to 2.5% in 2013, This is attributable partly to the power crisis of 2012 and which, as we speak today, has not abated inspite of the numerous explanations and assurances.
Ladies and gentlemen, the bane of industry are legion: First is the lack of access to long term credit.
The second is the lack of access to even short term credit from the banks because of excessive government borrowing from the banks.
Third, is the erratic nature of utility supplies to industry.
Fourth is the huge taxes imposed on industry, which to a large measure, is already under performing.
It is important, by way of flashing back, fo state that the northern region is still awaiting the 50,000 metric tonne capacity sheanut processing factory promised in both the 2010 and 2011 budget statements.
The President knows that the $11million facility which has been installed is inappropriate.
The revival of CEDECOM, the serious capitation of SADA, the integrated development of the bauxite deposit at Kyebi and iron-ore at Oppong-Manse, the industrial salt complex at Keta all promised in the 2010 and 2011 budgets have all turned out to be a mirage, empty promises.
In the meantime, the President last year promised to review Ghana’s tax structure to reduce taxes paid by manufacturers.
e promised to establish an Industrial Development Fund; provide serviced plots for the development of industrial zones; complete work on the Nyankrom Fertilizer plant.
The President, as is usual of him, provided no update on these.
Today, many industries have to resort to private generators to provide electricity to their businesses.
This is making industrial production uncompetitive.
The President knows this.
What is his programme of action?
Today, tanker services provide some industries and households with water and he had the courage to refer to ‘Kufuor gallons’ to describe a phenomenon of acute water shortage occurring under his watch.
Today, manufacturers in Ghana have to pay tax rate of about 35%.
How do we make made in Ghana goods, which the President declares to promote, competitive?
If the President i seriously minded to promote local manufacturers he should look at the burdensome tax regime that is suffocating local industry and rather broaden the net with lesser tax burdens.
The display by the President to promote Made-in-Ghana goods by naming some local enterprises on the face of it appears commendable.
However, there are subsisting suspicions and perceptions out there that there are some businessmen who are being targeted for certain commissions -~ which are familiar to and engaged in by many practitioners — because they are suspected to be supporting opposition parties.
Now, if that is true it will represent a throw back into the dark ages of the PNDC when it was decreed that Ghanaians should not buy APINO soap, chicken from Darko Farms or paper from Dr.
Addison’s factory because the owners would use their profits to fund opposition activities.
If there is a practice in industry which is inimical and hence must be confronted and decapitated then all who are suspected to have engaged in the act must be dealt with.
If a couple of suspected persons are singled out, it gives cause for people to raise issues of selective justice.
SADA The Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) is a mere rechristening of the Northern Development Authority concept which was conceived by President Kufuor.
It is a vehicle which if better administered could facilitate the transformation of the northern region and thereby profoundly affect the standard of living of the people in the area.
It is a tragedy that it has been reduced to lip service.
In 2013, on SADA, the President promised to establish a shea nut factory at Buipe; A vegetable oil mill at Tamale, a rice processing mill at Nyankpala and continue the planting of 5 milfion trees, Not long after his delivery the Minority came out with an exposure of improprieties in SADA.
The President failed to mention the various agric-processing plants and the SADA program.
Against the backdrop of the massive corruption and fraudulent deals in the program in 16 both 2012 and 2013 the President should have been bolder and tougher on the commissions within SADA.
Not surprisingly, the President indicated his spinelessness.
JOB CREATION The right to work, according to Article 24(1) of the Constitution is a fundamental human right and that is why the work programme of government, the budget, must seek to address this.
We must concede realistically though that as a nation we are miles away from affording this right to every Ghanaian.
Notwithstanding, it is important that we focus aftention and effort to address this phenomenon.
The NDC in the 2008 electioneering campaign assured to apply state machinery and resources to create jobs for the people, particularly the youth.
Their strategic objective was to provide every Ghanaian with a job from which they could earn their livelihood (pg.
60 of 2008 Manifesto).
In a country where the combined sirength of workers on government pay-roll is about 750,000, the NDC propagandists and misinformation Ministers claimed that they had by 2010 created 1.5million jobs.
The budgets of 2011 and 2012 indicated a total job creation of 120,000.
That figure of 1.5million job creation could only come from persons who insist that when their followers see a sheep they have to exclaim that they have seen a cow.
Exploiting President Nkrumah’s “work and happiness” slogan the NDC declared to launch an Dmployment policy to reduce unemployment to the barest minimum.
Today unemployment has tisen shatply, no thanks to the high cost of doing business in Ghana, the “durmso, dumso”, the erratic water and other utilities supply and the ever increasing petroleum products prices, many people have been thrown out of employment because industry has become restive and is not doing well.
2012 as in 2008 the NDC has promised to launch a major housing and public works scheme involving urban roads, drainage construction and environmental sanitation.
The President repeated the initiation of such huge projects in his State of the Nation Address to generate employment.
Ladies and gentlemen, what is the nation to make of this policy and its gargantuan projects when 40days after the President came to rejterate his social contract with Ghanaians the same President through his Minister of Finance comes to tell the nation that no new coutracts will be awarded for 2014, Need we remind the President that one of their pet projects to provide jobs to the youth, the hyped STX Housing Project remains a mirage.
The nation is yet to know how much went into that ill-fated project against the backdrop of conflicting accounts by various personalities who have been made ministers of Works and Housing.
Tt was the President himself who led the pation to the STX journey-of-no-return.
He led the nation to bit the “nail into the coffin’ of the STX scheme as President Mills prophetically stated.
The nation awaits the President fo set up 17 another sole-commissioner to delve into the STX mystery.
We said so to him last year and we repeat same today.
HOUSING AND POTABLE WATER The 2012 NDC Manifesto has this bold provision: “With an accumulated national (housing) backlog estimated at 1,5million housing units which is increasing at an annual rate of over 100,000 units in both rural and wrban communities, the need for an accelerated construction of housing units in all settlements is an imperative”.
That is a laudable statement.
However what concrete measures to be employed to address the problem is what remains tnclear in the manifesto.
In 2008 they promised a housing policy and strategy to focus on five arcas: i National Human Settlement Policy and Strategy il.
Housing Shelter Strategy ili.
Urban Development iv.
Shum Upgrading and prevention, and V. Rural Housing Pive years on, these promises have turned out to be empty promises.
The result is that the housing deficit has worsened and today the deficit has moved from [.2million in 2008 to 1.7million.
That is why the lack of clarity and direction or bold measures to tackle the problem head-on is unacceptable.
Perhaps, the NDC has not yet recovered from the failure of the STX housing deal and hence have thus far been unable to generate fresh and better alternatives to the housing problem.
In spite of the assorted and conflicting excuses offered, the NDC government, after five years has not been able to complete and commission a single unit out of the 5200 affordable housing units started under the Kufuor administration.
It was the tax-payers money that was used to commence the construction and therefore it is an insensitive waste of public resources if government has after all these years not been able to complete 5200 housing units most of which were near completion when the NDC assumed power.
Since the issues which we raised last year have gone unheeded we may wish to reiterate them for emphasis.
A good housing delivery system has three features: i A well-defined Policy framework, ii.
Implementation system and strategies, and ifi, Funding sources The Mills-Mahama administration has shown a lack of policy direction or absence of any clear strategy and no indication of funding sources to solve or even ameliorate the housing deficit.
In the meantime, the following indicators point to the pitiable state of the housing sector: An estimated housing deficit of 1.7million units with a projected annual increase of 100,000 units.
The horrible spectre of 50% of Ghanaians living in sub-standard houses in our rural areas and in the deprived inner city dwellings and other unsuitable structures including kiosks and containers.
Tnability to provide undisputed land titles to private developers.
Local Private Estate developers are not incentivized to partner government in delivering houses even though we spread out the red carpet to STX, a foreign company.
Neither the central government through its agencies or departments like the District Assemblies are participating-in the-delivery of rental units and this is leading to high —~ rents for the poor and vulnerable in society.
The over concentration of private housing estates in Accra and Kumasi, leading to spatial confusion.
Absence of support infrastructure like roads, potable water, drainage, fixed telephone lines, reliable electricity supply etc.
in our rural aveas and even in the inner city slums.
President, that is the state of our housing.
Nothing to write home about!
In their 2012 Manifesto (Pg.58) the NDC has pledged to “make more interventions in the next four years with the goal of attaining ‘Water for Al by 2020.
“They have promised to “accelerate the provision of affordable and safe water in the urbanities through: a) Mobilization of funds for the construction of new, and the rehabilitation and expansion of existing water treatment plants; b) The establishment of a “Water Fund” to support the implementation of a pro-poor water pricing regime.
Further, the NDC has pledged to drill 20,000 boreholes nationwide to serve the rural communities, Accra and indeed the entire nation in 2013 faced one of its worst water crisis.
As we have said earlier, the President had the ‘courage’ to tell Ghanaians that people were fetching water with “Kufuor gallons™ as if to tell Ghanaians that he was not responsible, it was Kufuor who was 19 responsible for the water shortages of 2013.
The Accra water supply is plagued by inefficiency and not enough investment in the Mills-Mahama administration.
The NDC in 2009 promised to drill 20,000 boreholes nationwide.
In 2010 when the project had not taken off they then said the 20,000 would have been provided by 2012. in 2011 only 400 had been sunk.
Unashamedly, the 2012 manifesto repeats the same 20,000 borehole to be provided by the close of 2016, As we speak today, after S years only 1,115 out of 20,000 boreholes have been drilled amounting to 5.6% completion rate in five years!
That is the level of efficiency of the Mahama administration.
Increasingly and manifestly, there is a growing overdependence on factory purified water by most residents with serious financial consequences for low income groups.
President, that is the state of water usage in the country.
There is a yeal threat of an outbreak of water-boyne diseases like cholera especially in the very poor comniinities.
Because of the non-release of funds to the Assemblies there is serious sanitation crisis in all the major cities in the country and the situation is grossly compounded by the lack of running water in many communities.
Many of the rural and small water schemes have stalled because of funding difficulties.
Finally, no serious attention is being paid to the ever increasing pollution and destruction of our river bodies and water sources.
ROADS AND TRANSPORT In the period between 2009-2013 the country’s road network suffered the worst maintenance in the history of the nation.
Three features characterized our road maintenance: i. poor quality ii.
Very slow-paced and iii.
Untimely intervention.
The combined effect of these was the rapid deterioration of our roads.
Stretches of our roads have become bedeviled with (a) potholes; (b) very bushy roadsides which reduce the safety of both the motoring public and pedestrians and which also lead to carly failure of the road margins; and (c) severely and dangerously corrugated gravel surfaces which affect the travelling comfort of ruralites and adversely affect their social and economic activities with consequential increases in poverty levels especially in the rural communities.
Undoubtedly, the poor roads which leads to high vehicular wear and tear coupled with increasing fuel costs due primarily to the persistent depreciation of the Ghana Cedi has resulted in high transportation cost which affect the prices of goods, including foodstuff on the market.
Such roads of vital economic importance as the Bunso Junction — Koforidua-Mamfe, Tarkwa-Ayamfuri-Dunkwa-Obuasi-Anwiankwanta, Anyinam-Kwabeng, Brekum-Drobo, Adamsu-Zezera, Bolga-Bawlku, Wa-Nandom-Hamile, Navrongo-Tumu-Wa are all in very deplorable states as a result of delayed maintenance.
Delays in the payment of contractors and the resort to sole-sourcing in road contract awards arc matters that are negatively affecting the health of our roads.
That is the state of owr roads.
Pretty soon we shall strand out the pertinent matters relating to the roads sector in order to expose the rot in the system.
THE ENERGY CRISIS Late 2007 and early 2008 when the country had problems with power generation, atiributable primarily to the low levels of water in the Akosombo dam at that time due to severe draught, the NDC insisted that they “would ensurc the supply of power on a reliable and sustainable basis” if they were elected into office.
They pledged “to ensure the delivery of energy services to all consumers_in a secure, efficient, reliable, sustainable, safe and environmentally-friendly manner™, Five years on, they have not delivered on their promises and the energy sector is in crisis.
The problems in the energy sector are self-inflicted and ensue from indecisions and not- well-thought-through policies of government.
The resolution of these problems is within the competence and control of government and VRA.
The latter have not kept up their capacity expansion and government has not sufficiently resourced VRA to procure crude oil to propel electric power generation.
Till date government is hugely indebted to the Bulk Oil Distribution Companies which debt is destabilizing the BDC and also deepening the risk exposure of the Commercial banks in the country.
BOST is in dire straits and the country’s strategic oil reserves has about evaporated into thin air.
Under President Kufuor the country’s strategic oil reserves could hold for 3months.
On monthly basis the country has to experience fuel price increases because of the ever depreciating Ghana cedi and not because of world price increases.
The fate of Tema Oil Refinery is still hanging and even though the Bui Dam has been commissioned it has run into problems.
About 25% of electricity generated in lost because ECG transmission network is in a terrible state of disrepair.
ECG needs about $700million investment.
Government is not assisting, but government owes ECG hugely.
In the meantime, ECG loses over $110million yearly due to poor transmission.
The thermal plants at Takoradi, in particular the T3 plant has run into technical problems arising out of contractual disagreements between VRA and the Canadian Contractors on the project.
The T1 plant has also not worked effectively and efficiently over the past two (2) years.
21 | i i Ladies and gentlemen, the problems in the energy sector are legion and the net effect is the continuation of the “dumso™ “dumso™ affliction with its consequences on almost every facet of our soci0-economic life.
We shall return to this topic in the next few weeks.
TRANSPARENCY & ACCOUNTABLE GOVERNANCE Generally speaking, access to relevant information relating to various aspects of our national democratic governance is still very difficult.
People in authority still feel very reluctant and uneasy release basic information.
Often times they are simply afraid of repercussions of vindictiveness.
That is unhelpful to transparency and accountability in good governance.
Parliament which is the prime institution charged with this function cannot act because resources and their releases from the Ministry of Finance to the institution are neither adequate nor timeou: In the event, committees cannot work effectively.
In contemporary times 2013 was the waorst year, the “annus hotribulus™ for Parliament in ferms of releases and times of releases.
That stalled the work of Parliament.
Indeed for 2013 Parliament merely survived.