President John Dramani Mahama says Ghana will invest US$10 billion over five years in nine sectors under a proposed New Economy Policy aimed at creating jobs and expanding economic opportunities.
The programme will commit US$2 billion each year to productive areas including textiles and garments, agriculture and agribusiness, pharmaceuticals, and tourism.
“When the Minister presents the 2027 Budget, he is going to announce what we call the New Economy Policy. The policy has selected nine areas, or nine pillars, in which the government is going to invest about US$2 billion every year for five years. That is a total of US$10 billion,” he said.
“As I have said, this is our own money. We are not going to borrow money for the New Economy Policy.”
Mahama made the announcement during a courtesy call by chiefs from the Western North Region, where he also outlined measures intended to revive the economy.
He said Ghana was recovering from the debt default and economic crisis facing the government when it took office on 7 January 2025. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), he added, had projected economic growth of 5.7 per cent, compared with an average forecast of about four per cent for sub-Saharan Africa.
“Just yesterday [Friday], the IMF predicted that we would grow at 5.7 per cent,” he said.
The President said growth had remained strong despite external pressures, including higher petroleum prices linked to tensions between Iran and Israel. He also said the government was now operating within its financial means.
“Today, the government is living within its means, and everything we are financing is being financed from our taxes and what the government brings into the Exchequer,” he said.
Reduced domestic borrowing had eased pressure on Ghana’s banking sector, he said, with Treasury bill rates falling from about 29 per cent to approximately seven per cent.
“It is better for them to lend at about 13 per cent to a private company. That is going to enable private companies to invest, expand their businesses and employ more people,” he said.
Construction and manufacturing jobs
Mahama said the Big Push infrastructure programme had already generated substantial employment in construction.
“The construction industry alone has created hundreds of thousands of jobs because of the Big Push and the money the government is putting into infrastructure,” he said.
He also highlighted a textile factory in northern Ghana, supported by the Ghana Export-Import Bank, which exports garments to the United States and European markets. The factory employs 2,300 people, about 80 per cent of them women, and operates under the 24-hour economy model.
Vaccine production plans
The government also intends to establish a vaccine production hub in Ghana as part of efforts to develop the pharmaceutical industry and cut dependence on imported medical products.
“We have learnt a lesson, and we want to produce our own vaccines and medicines,” Mahama said.
Referring to the COVID-19 pandemic, he added: “We learnt a lesson from COVID-19. When vaccines became available, Africa was placed at the end of the queue. Everybody received vaccines before us.”
He said the continent could have faced an even greater disaster without natural immunity.
“If God had not given us immunity that prevented COVID-19 from affecting us severely, the whole of Africa could have been wiped out before even one vaccine arrived here,” he said.
The vaccine initiative forms part of the Accra Reset, which Mahama said was designed to achieve health sovereignty, invest in healthcare and reduce dependency.
Foreign pharmaceutical companies have expressed interest in a proposed pharmaceutical hub, he said. The government has acquired land for the project and supplied roads, electricity and water.
