Former President John Mahama has intimated that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) plans to invest $3 billion in expanding young employment opportunities in the digital sector through its One Million Coders program.
During a public address at the Christian Service University in Kumasi, he declared, “We intend to spend $3 billion on investments in information and communication technology (ICT), and the One Million Coders Program will be aimed at creating additional digital jobs for our youth.”
He was the guest speaker for the lecture that the Christian Service University was hosting in honor of its 50th anniversary.
The former president said sound and prudent economic management founded on broad and far-reaching governance and economic reforms would take root in Ghana under the new leadership of the NDC.
He said his number one priority would be stabilizing the economy, halting the deterioration of the cedi, and restoring its value against other currencies.
“Our economic policy would be geared towards sustainable growth with an equitable distribution of the proceeds of growth amongst our citizens,” the former president assured.
He further indicated that “The basic structure of our economy, reliant on raw material exports with little or no value addition is no longer tenable.”
Significant growth and wealth creation, according to him, could not be realized translating into the government failing to provide for the people if the situation continued.
Mr Mahama said the next NDC government would work to restore the country’s traditional export sector to their past glory, adding that, incentives for cocoa farmers to increase exports and turn the sector around to take advantage of the improved world market prices would also be a priority for the NDC.
“We will also increase production in our oil and gas sector.
The last eight years have been wasted without one single oil well brought on stream,” he bemoaned.
He said oil and gas were in the transition period, with the world shifting towards green energy; hence every country with oil was pumping them out in haste, yet Ghana had wasted eight years without developing additional wells.
“If we don’t bring these producers back on stream and take advantage of our oil and gas sector, the world would make the transition, and our gas and oil will become stranded assets,” he cautioned.
He gave the assurance that his government would seek to take greater control of Ghana’s natural resources and move towards processing such resources while attracting investments into areas such as farming, industry, and agribusiness.
“This will increase our export potential and bring in foreign exchange so that it can lead to a stable currency,” he said.
