2022 SONA: Akufo-Addo didn’t touch on hardships – Analyst

A Fiscal Policy Analyst, Dr. Alex Ampaabeng believes that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo did not touch on the hardships Ghanaians are going through at the moment in his 2022 State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered in Parliament on Wednesday March 30.

“I don’t think there was much in the President’s speech. He didn’t touch on the hardship of most Ghanaians,” Dr Ampaabeng told Alfred Ocansey on the Sunrise show on 3FM Thursday March 31.

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu also said that the SONA delivered did not reflect the true conditions of Ghanaians.

Seconding the motion for adjournment of sitting after the President had delivered his address, Mr Iddirsu said “we expected him to deliver the true state of the nation that reflect the hardship of the people. Regrettably, he himself does not have the confidence to talk about the economy.”

President Akufo-Addo in his address said among other things that through the One District One Factory Initiative (1D1F) initiative, the made-in-Ghana label is being stamped on a wide range of products proudly manufactured in Ghana.

He said out of a total of two hundred and seventy-eight (278) 1D1F projects at various stages of implementation in all the sixteen (16) regions, one hundred and six (106) factories are currently operational, one hundred and forty-eight (148) are under construction, while twenty-four (24) projects are at mobilization stage.

He said “Mr. Speaker, in order to bring the youth on board the 1D1F Programme, fifty-eight (58) out of the two hundred and seventy-eight (278) 1D1F Projects have been developed as enterprises fully owned by youth groups, with direct Government support. Each of these 1D1F Youth companies are owned by between forty (40) and fifty (50) youth as shareholders.

“In addition, five (5) medium scale state-of-the-art agro-processing Common-User Facilities (CUFs) have been established with direct support from Government and are owned by various groups of farmers, whose farming operations had previously been undermined through lack of processing facilities. These farmer-owned companies have been established in five (5) Districts, namely Dormaa West, Savelugu, Sefwi Akontonbra, Sekyere Central and Tarkwa Nsuaem. They cover oil palm processing, rice milling and the processing of maize into maize grits.

“Mr. Speaker, quite a number of global vehicle manufacturing companies have set up assembly plants here in our country, and started producing vehicles for our market and for the West African market. The well-defined Ghana Automotive Development Policy we outdoored in August 2019 has facilitated this welcome development.

“Since June 2021, Toyota and Suzuki brands of vehicles are being produced here, commencing with the production of Hilux Pickup and Swift models. VW and Sinotruck, which commenced commercial operations in 2020, have continued to assemble their brands of vehicles and are enjoying significant local patronage.

“In addition, a new state-of-the-art assembly plant with capacity to assemble 5,000 new vehicles per annum has been established by Nissan in Tema, which is currently producing Nissan and Peugeot brands of vehicles for the Ghanaian and West African markets. I will have the pleasure to commission this new plant in Tema tomorrow. Three other vehicle manufacturers, namely KIA, Hyundai and Renault are also expected to commence commercial production this year.

“Our national iconic automobile brand, the Kantanka brand produced by Kantanka Automobile Company Ltd., also stepped-up production of its made-in-Ghana vehicles which include Nkunimdie SUV, Omama Pickup, Onantefo 4×4 Pickup, Otumfuo SUV and K71 Small SUV models.”

Source: 3news.com|Ghana