Tariff Review In The Offing … 2018 Budget Hints At Reduction In Electricity Tariff To Boost Industrial Sector

According to the President, the private sector would be given all the needed support through the reduction of electricity tariff to help boost the industrial sector.

He said successive NPP government has supported businesses and the private sector and many of their policies have been fashioned towards energizing and inspiring the Ghanaian entrepreneur.

The President was addressing the 6th Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) Ghana Industry and Quality Awards, an event organized by the Association in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ghana Standards Authority at the Banquet Hall of the State House, in Accra.

He noted that “We want the Ghanaian entrepreneur to be in the forefront of the critical national assignment of undertaking stricture transformation of our economy,” adding that there can be no future prosperity of people in the short, medium or long term if we continue to maintain economic structures that are dependent on the production of raw materials.

He said “we must add value to our resources, we must industrialize.”

He also enumerated that the NPP has deeply embedded in its philosophy and ideology an unshakable believe In open markets as the most effective means of  developing and allocating resources in any given economy.

According to him, industries have not done well in the past years, but the NPP governments have put strategies in place to remedy the situation and created a stable economy.

This he said has resulted in the growing stability of the macro-economy and the cedi, as the government has moved quickly to restore fiscal discipline by passing a budget, the Asempa Budget that will bring down the deficit, by the end of the year, to 6.3%, from 9.4% in 2016.

He said “The economy has responded positively to this, interest rates on the money markets have declined, the exchange rate is more stable, inflation, which stood at 15.4% in December 2016, is on the decline, and, in September 2017, stood at 12.2%, and economic growth picked up in the first half of the year, and is projected to end at 7.6%, up from the 3.6% we inherited, which was the lowest in over 20 years,” he added.

The benchmark 91-day Treasury Bill (T-bill) rate, which was was 22.8 percent in January last year, has narrowed to 13.2% percent in October 2017.

The President added that an improved macro-economy is a fundamental requirement for stimulating the investments needed for the significant expansion and growth of the national economy, and the generation of wealth and jobs.

He also said government is doing all it can to help the private sector be able to promote quality standards since they cannot promote their share of the export market without meeting the required standards.

According to him, government has put in place policy initiatives to spur the rapid growth of the industries through a comprehensive, export diversification action plans that they stated in the 2016 manifesto.

“Investments in the export oriented economy is driven by industries. That is why the One-District-One-Factory is paramount,” he said, adding that AGI is working with government to make the 1D1F possible to boost economic growth.

He said the effects of the rapidly emerging foreign markets on the Ghanaian economy require that government introduces policies that would offer all the help Ghanaian industries need to stay competitive.

The President hinted that as part of efforts to develop new growth poles in the economy, an Integrated Bauxite and Aluminum Development Authority will be considered by Parliament during its current sitting to pave way for the exploitation of the entire value chain of the considerable Bauxite deposits of the Country.

He also said an Iron and Steel Development Authority will also be created to do same for the iron ore deposits of the country.