By Emmnuella Jackson
President Akufo-Addo has appealed to Ghanaians to help mobilise the needed revenue internally to develop the country. He points out that the problems bedeviling the country, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the energy crunch, depreciation of the Cedi, and others will be robustly dealt with.
The President was addressing a parade in Cape Coast to mark Ghana’s 65th Independence Anniversary.
The Anniversary was premised on the theme; “Working together; Bouncing Back Better”. He said Ghana needs to find home grown solutions to her problems.
President Akufo-Addo did not mince words in an appeal to Ghanaians to trust his administration to turn around the worsening economic situation.
”We can no longer ignore that there is a pressing need to increase our dependence on foreign savings. Today, there is no doubt that the most important thing on people’s minds is the need for accelerating national development to improve living standards and generate jobs for the mass of the people, especially the youth. However, not everyone is ready to take the next step to the recognition that the accelerated national development can best be achieved with a considerable increase in revenue mobilization”.
”In our society, we have unfortunately not yet reached the stage of universal acceptance of taxation as a matter of public growth”.
”Truth be told, our tax to GDP ratio of 12.2% compares unfavorably to less than 10 % of the Ghanaian population. 2.4 million people carry the direct tax burden of 30.8 million people”.
President Akufo-Addo reiterated his Ghana Beyond Aid agenda.
”We must move Ghana to a situation beyond aid, that is Ghana which is no longer dependent on the benevolence or charity of foreign taxpayers and donors for the management of our public finances. We want to transform Ghana to a world class economic hub which will benefit every single Ghanaian”, President Akufo-Addo said.
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