Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, a former Trade and Industry Minister who is now a flagbearer aspirant for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), has asserted that Ghanaians would not have had to return to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if the country had paid heed to his ideas and put them into practise in the past.
If Ghanaians had listened to me, we wouldn’t have gone to the IMF
Mr. Kyerematen singled out in particular the President's Special Initiatives (PSI), which were implemented during the time of John Agyekum Kufuor, as one of his ideas that could have been a game changer if it had been fully accepted by Ghanaians. The PSI was first presented during the time of Kufuor.
The Ablekuma constituency in Accra was the location of the first stop on his Greater Accra Delegates tour, and he made his remarks there.
“When I think of all the things I have done for this country, there are moments when I even feel embarrassed to talk about them.” During the time when John Kufuor was President of Ghana, I served as one of the senior ministers in his cabinet. I proposed PSI, which stands for The President's Special Initiatives. If the Ghanaians had listened to me, the country of Ghana would not be in debt to the IMF right now.
Former President John Agyekum Kufuor envisioned the President's Special Initiatives as an opportunity to create a “Golden Age of Business,” which would be encouraged by public-private partnerships and the development of over 100,000 jobs. Kufuor had this vision when he was in office.
According to the NPP government, the strategic goal of the PSIs was to advance Ghana's economy beyond HIPC status and reduce the country's overdependence on aid and donor support, as well as a few commodity exports, by identifying new pillars of growth. This was to be accomplished by moving Ghana's economy beyond HIPC status.
In January of this year, as a member of Nana Akufo-Addo's cabinet, Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen resigned from his position as Minister of Trade and Industry in order to revive his ambitions of becoming president.
In 2007, Alan launched his initial run for the leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), but he was defeated by Nana Akufo-Addo, who received 47.96 percent of the vote. Alan received 32.3% of the vote.
He ran for president a third time in 2010 and again in 2014, but Akufo-Addo emerged victorious in both of those years' primaries.
Mr. Kyerematen, who is now 68 years old, served as Ghana's Ambassador to the United States and, later, as Minister of Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development (PSD), and Presidential Special Initiatives (PSI) under the administration of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which was led by President John Kufuor.
He managed the activities of the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) while working as a trade advisor for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The presidential primaries of the governing NPP are planned to take place in November of this year, and it is expected that Alan and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia will compete head-to-head for the party's nomination.
