Former President John Dramani Mahama has hinted that his National Democratic Congress (NDC) will invest $3 billion in creating digital jobs for youth as part of its “One Million Coders Programme”.
“The One Million Programmers Plan will invest $3 billion in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) with the aim of creating digital jobs for youth,” he told the audience at a public lecture at the Christian Service College in Kumasi.
He was speaking as a guest speaker at a lecture held by Christian Service University as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations.
The former President said sound and prudent economic management based on far-reaching governance and economic reforms would take root in Ghana under the new leadership of the NDC.
He said his top priorities were to stabilise the economy, halt the decline of the cedi and restore its value against other currencies.
“Our economic policies will be geared towards sustainable growth with equitable distribution of the benefits of growth among our people,” the former president assured.
He added that “the basic structure of our economy, which relies on the export of raw materials with little or no value added, can no longer be sustained.”
According to him, if this situation continues, significant growth and wealth creation will not be possible and the government will not be able to provide support to its people.
Mahama said the next NDC administration would work to restore the country’s traditional export sector to its former glory, adding that providing incentives to cocoa farmers to boost exports and rebuild the sector to take advantage of improved world market prices would also be a priority for the NDC.
“We will also increase production in the oil and gas sector.”
“The last eight years have gone to waste with not a single well operating,” he lamented.
He said oil and gas is in a transitional period as the world moves towards green energy, so while all oil-having countries are rushing to extract oil, Ghana has wasted eight years without developing additional oil wells.
“If we don’t get these producers back up and running and leverage our oil and gas sector, the world will transition and our gas and oil will become stranded assets,” he warned.
The Prime Minister assured that his government would take greater control over Ghana’s natural resources and work to process them while attracting investment in agriculture, industry and agribusiness.
“This will increase our country’s export potential, bring in foreign exchange and stabilize our currency,” he opined.
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