Speaking in Accra, President Nana Akufo-Addo stated that measures put in place by the government with the support of the IMF will ensure that the economy is restored.
“I am confident that we will revive and revitalize the economy and put our nation back on the path of rapid economic growth,” President Akufo-Addo said.
He said this was a scenario Ghana had become accustomed to in the last three immediate years before the pandemic struck.
“This is a solemn pledge I am making to you. I remain resolutely optimistic about Ghana’s future, which I continue to believe is bright,” President Akufo-Addo assured.
Ghana’s economy has struggled in 2022, with citizens enduring high cost of living.
Inflation reached a 19-year high of 29.8 percent and the cedi has also been regarded as the worst performing currency against the dollar after depreciating over 20 percent in 2022.
The President in a recent address to participants of the Advancing Justice: Reparations and Radical Healing Summit, in Accra said Africans deserve to get reparations from its colonial masters.
President Akufo-Addo said, “the effects of the slave trade have been devastating on the continent and the African diaspora” and that the entire period of slavery meant that Africa’s “progress; economically, culturally and psychologically, was stifled”.
“There are legions of stories of families who were torn apart. You cannot quantify the effects of such tragedies, but they need to be recognized. African, her people, lost out tremendously in that period and its ripple effects are still being felt right to this very day. Reparations for African and the African diaspora are long overdue,” Akufo-Addo said.
“Predictably, the question of reparation becomes a debate only when it comes to Africa and the Africans.
“When the British ended slavery, all the owners of enslaved Africans received reparation up to the tune of 20 million pounds sterling, the equivalent today of 20 billion pounds sterling, but enslaved Africans themselves, did not receive a penny”.