By Adu Koranteng
The administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Ambassador Mark Green, says the US government is prepared to work with the government to achieve its ‘Ghana beyond Aid’ agenda.
Ambassador Green, who is in Ghana as part of US First Lady, Melania Trump’s visit to Ghana, said the US is excited about the vision.
“When we heard President Akufo-Addo speak on Ghana beyond aid, I immediately thought we are singing the same song and we are approaching things in the same way. During this trip, we have met the Vice President and also the Ghana beyond aid committee to talk about ways we can help to make this happen.”
“So it’s taking on issues like domestic resource mobilization and doing what we can to walk by Ghana’s side. Ghana must lead because it is Ghana’s journey, but as a long time friend of Ghana, we believe we can walk with them along the way. To us that is what Ghana beyond is about. It is good friends working together to find ways to make government effective, but most importantly to find ways for people to lead themselves to a better future”
USAID spends over $160 million dollars annually in the country on several programs in Ghana focusing on education, health and private enterprises.
President Akufo-Addo has made this agenda a priority by focusing on using the country’s extensive natural resources as a bridge to financial independence.
This has seen him set up a Ghana Beyond Aid Committee chaired by the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Marfo, which has drawn up a charter to manage the process towards the attainment of the vision.
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia,Vice President of Ghana has said that the vision of an economically-emancipated Africa is what underpins President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid, which should eventually lead to Africa Beyond Aid.
Dr. Bawumia outlined the President’s vision when he received Pedro Verona Rodrigues Pires, former President of the Republic of Cape Verde, at the Jubilee House, Accra on Friday, April 20, 2018.
“Decades after Ghana and the rest of Africa fought for political freedom, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is engaged in a fight for economic freedom, which is captured in his vision of a Ghana beyond Aid. We hope this eventually leads to an economically-emancipated Africa, an Africa Beyond Aid,” Dr Bawumia stated.
