There is currently no coherent approach to economic policy and economic management in Ghana. The result has been a disconnect between policy and performance. Indeed, had it not been for increased donor resources over the past 7-8 years, Ghana’s economy would be in serious crisis today (see Figure 2 below).

 National Development Planning

 Managing an Oil and Gas Economy

Revenue accruing from the large reserves of oil that have recently been found in Ghana poses a major challenge for the managers of the economy in terms of efficiency (avoiding waste and corruption), equity (sharing the revenue fairly among communities and economic sectors), and development (how to grow the oil industry without ignoring the non-oil sector. Managing the oil revenue will form part of a larger programme to improve overall public financial management. It is important that we manage both oil and non-oil revenue efficiently and transparently to create public confidence in the managers of the economy. In terms of equity, government will hold consultations with all stakeholders to ensure that every community’s needs and aspirations are adequately met. With respect to development, we shall introduce a strategic plan to carefully develop all other industries associated with the oil industry. We will make Ghana the petroleum refining hub of the West Africa sub-region, with large-scale petroleum refining capacity providing the region’s gasoline, jet/aviation fuel, diesel fuel and lubricating oils. There are at least 10 products of industrial and domestic use, including nitrogen-based fertilisers, that the CPP intends to develop to derive the maximum benefit from the oil and gas industry (see List 4).
Lisr 4. Beyond oil and gas: 10 industries to be developed by CPP
1.Petroleum Refining
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)
Petrol (gasoline)
Diesel fuels
Aviation/jet fuel
Lubricating oil
Petroleum jelly
Bitumen/asphalt
Carbon black
Wax
2. Petrochemical feedstocks
Ethylene, propylene, butanes, butenes, naphthalenes, benzenes toluene and xylenes
3. Vinyl chloride and PVC and plastics and Synthetic Rubber (e.g., for tyres and rubber compounds)
4. Inks and paints, varnish, and anti-rust chemicals
5. Industrial solvents (e.g., Turpentine as varnish/paint thinner)
6. Detergents
7. Insecticides, fungicides and sprays
8. Leather and textile oils
9. Fuel and metallurgical coke
10. Fertiliser from natural gas which is mainly methane with relatively small amounts of the following:
Ethane
Propane
Butane
Source: Research and Manifesto Committee, CPP
To be able to take full advantage of these associated industries, however, we will establish an advanced machine tools industry, with highly trained and skilled technicians and machinists from our polytechnics, technical colleges and universities.
 

Monetary Policy

We will work with the Bank of Ghana to strengthen Ghana’s monetary policy and to continue reforms in the financial sector, including improved oversight of financial institutions and the passage and implementation of laws to protect the welfare of consumer.
o Consumer credit: We shall work with the Bank of Ghana to induce our banks to bring down interest rates to reasonable and realistic levels for workers in both the formal and informal sectors. As consumer credit increases, households will expand their assets;

• banks and businesses will earn more and pay more taxes; they will employ more people (which will lead to still more taxes for national development) and thus raise national income.

 

• Long-term funds for industry: We shall accelerate insurance reforms as part of a broader strategy to make available long-term funds for Ghanaian businesses. Most of the loans currently being given by banks are for the short term, and this makes it virtually impossible for existing and new businesses to make long-term investments to grow the economy and create jobs.

 

 

• Lowering interest rates: While interest rates have come down somewhat over the past few years, they remain very high, compared to other countries. This is mainly due to risks and inefficiencies within the banks which they pass on to customers in the form of high interest rates. We shall not determine interest rates for the banks but we shall take action, including legislation, to ensure that interest rates are reasonable and internationally competitive.

 

• Single-digit inflation: The failure of the Central Bank to attain single digit inflation over the years shows that "inflation targeting" is inappropriate for Ghana. The CPP will not practice inflation targeting. We shall focus instead on economic growth and job creation and allow the inflation rate to find its own level in line with the pace of overall economic activity.  

• State-owned banks: We shall reform state-owned banks, including listing them on the Ghana Stock Exchange, to deepen their capacity to finance national development and make them internationally competitive. Where possible, we shall encourage them to venture into foreign markets, just as others are venturing into the Ghanaian financial market.

• Rural banks: We shall work with the central bank to strengthen the capacity of rural banks to finance rural agricultural and non-agricultural activities. Among other things, this calls for increased governance and transparency in the management and supervision of rural banks. 

• Managing oil revenue: Managing the anticipated revenue from Ghana’s oil will be situated within a larger programme to improve the management of government revenue from all sources. Indeed, our ability to manage the oil revenue well will depend on our ability to manage other revenues well. This has been the experience elsewhere and Ghana would be no exception. 

•  Debt policy and management: Our debt policy will be driven by our developmental needs and our capacity to repay through high economic growth and improved tax administration. Our debt policy will not be driven by donor benchmarks that ignore our developmental needs and undermine our ability to finance our development. We shall also improve our capacity for debt analysis and management, a deficiency which impedes our ability to raise funds both locally and externally to finance our developmen

• Transparency & Accountability: We shall require timely and consistent monthly and quarterly publication of public finances by national and local government tax agencies 

   Industrial Policy

Our industrial policy will embrace both the productive sector and the services sector (such as ICT and technical services like engineering and architecture) as a mutually beneficial strategy for the effective development of the two sectors. We shall focus on improved domestic and global competitiveness to achieve this aim. This will be done through a skillful combination of state assistance and innovations in the private sector to enhance productivity and boost production. Among our initiatives to pursue our industrial policy would be: 

•  Reverse the current decline in manufacturing by improving the policy environment (such as reducing the cost of business and consumer credit) and providing targeted state assistance to Ghanaian businesses.

• Industrial competitiveness: Improve domestic and international competitiveness of Ghanaian industry through benchmarks to be jointly developed by industry and government.

   

• High-value industrial employment. In the short-term, this will entail a focus on industrial activities that depend on local raw materials and are labour intensive.

 

• • Incentives from the state: Provide incentives to industry, such as discriminatory pricing for electricity as well as land reforms, to ensure easy acquisition and development of land for business. This will be accomplished through active collaboration between the state and the private sector, with appropriate state assistance to those sectors, such as communications, energy and finance, that we deem to be of strategic importance to our survival and development as a nation.

   

• Industrial capacity: Assemble experts to initiate the building of a machine tools industry for Ghana in the shortest time possible, along with the revival of strategic industries like Black Star Line, the Tema Steel Works, and the Tema Drydocks, all of which are critical to a modern industrial economy. The highly trained and skilled technicians and machinists from our polytechnics and technical colleges, who occupy the middle ground between engineers (responsible for the design, calculations etc), and the physical construction and repair of equipment, will be given the recognition they deserve to attract the best and most talented into this profession to ensure the success of our drive to industrialize Ghana.

   

   

• Technical services Work with relevant stakeholders, including professional associations, to develop technical services such as engineering, architecture, and ICT, to support activities in the domestic productive sectors and foreign clients

 

    

 Private Sector Development

• Under the current government, "private sector development" has meant nothing more than selling off pieces of Ghana to the highest bidder, mostly foreign "strategic investors," and opening up the Ghanaian economy to unfair foreign competition. Meanwhile, since 2000, the manufacturing sector’s share of business credit has fallen by 50.0% along with a decline in the sector’s share of economic output from 9.02% to 8.1%. The government’s Golden Age of Business has proven to be a mirage. The CPP’s approach to private sector development is three-dimensional and more comprehensive than anything proposed by the other parties. It involves business development, labour protection, and consumer welfare:

   

   Business development:

 In collaboration with the Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF) and the Management Development and Productivity Institute, we shall work to improve the productivity of Ghanaian industry and make it competitive against imports and in foreign markets. We shall strengthen the Ministry of Trade and Industry to provide Ghanaian industry with adequate and timely market intelligence for major economies around the world

 

• Provide subsidies and other forms of state assistance to Ghanaian industry and agriculture in their fight against unfair trading practices by foreign firms subsidised by their governmen

 

• Enhance credit and market access for Ghanaian businesses, especially small and medium-scale enterprises, at home and abroad.

 

 

• Collaborate with the private sector to provide basic business services to Ghanaian firms, especially newly formed ones and small-medium scale enterprises. Information on such services as financial management for SMEs; how to apply for loans; and accessing domestic and foreign markets will be made available at points of registration, banks, post offices, etc. for Ghanaian businesses.

 

 

• Reduce and/or abolish pre-production taxes for businesses to allow them more working capital, which will enhance profits and thus increased taxes to government.

 

 

• Strengthen existing programmes for small and medium scale industries (SMEs) to make them more effective.

 

 

• Diversify our export markets and products to protect Ghanaian firms against instability in world markets.

 

Consumer welfare:

 

 

• The consumer is as important to the private sector as businesses are to the consumer; without consumers, there will be no businesses. Yet consumer welfare receives no attention in current private sector policies. We shall pass a Consumer Protection Law (CPL) to ensure that consumers get their money’s worth at all times.

 

 

• A decentralised system of consumer advocacy and adjudication at the district level will be established as part of the implementation of the CPL.

 

 

• Labour issues: Our private sector development policy will be linked to our labour policy in the belief that both industry and labour have a mutual interest in ensuring the welfare of each other. Workers will be expected to work hard to raise productivity, and industry would be expected to reward workers accordingly. A World Bank study of 19 countries in Africa ranked Ghana as last-but-one in labour productivity. Only Ethiopia performed worse.

 

 

 Global Competitiveness of Ghanaian Industry

 

 

1. Despite recent praise from certain international organisations about an improving business environment in Ghana, we believe that we can do much better to raise our international competitiveness. As shown in Figure 4 below, the proportion of Ghanaian companies in the export market is very low, compared with those in countries like Swaziland, Kenya, Malaysia and Thailand. We will work with the Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF) to raise the global competitiveness of Ghanaian industry by developing a set of indicators which together we shall work to attain. 

 

 Infrastructure Services

 

2. The CPP offers the only integrated approach to infrastructure development and services. By emphasising the services we obtain from infrastructure like roads, school buildings, medical facilities, etc, we ensure that we get the maximum economic and social benefits from the investments we make in infrastructure. We shall ensure that drivers and pedestrians, for example, get the full benefits roads instead of allowing those roads to be turned into markets and other social nuisances. Our integrated infrastructure approach, outlined in the table below, has the following key elements. 

 

 

Table 5. CPP's Comprehensive Approach to Infrastructure Services

 

Broad Infrastructure Type	Sub-Infrastructure Type		Description
PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES	I. Economic		May have dual use for both firms and households. Comprises industrial, financial, commercial and ICT infrastructure.
	(i) Industrial	Includes energy (electricity and petroleum); water and sanitation; transportation (road, rail, air, water.). Directly facilitates production and distribution of goods and services.
	(ii) Financial	Includes banks, insurance firms and forex bureaus. Indirectly supports production by channelling funds from savers to borrowers/firms. Through insurance schemes, it helps to minimize various risks, such as fire, in doing business. It also provides funds for long-term financing of development by both the state and private sectors
	(iii) Commercial	Includes lorry parks, open markets, and economic facilities like cold storage facilities in fishing communities.
	(iii) Information &Communication Technology	Includes both hardware and software for the collection, storage, management, and transmission of information either in text or voice for social and economic uses within a strong regulatory framework.
	II. Social	Caters primarily for household and community needs and ultimately facilitates the development of the human resource base required for national development
	(i) Household services	Includes educational, health, and housing services. These constitute the core of human resources required for a sound and strong economy.
	(ii) Civic services	Comprises such things as services from parks, zoos, museums, theatres, and historical monuments (either natural or man-made). They enhance the quality of life ("cultural development"), which indirectly affect economic growth and development through positive attitudes towards life and work. Directly, civic infrastructure may contribute to economic growth through tourism and its associated employment.
	(iii) Sports	These include stadiums, gymnastic centres, and other sports facilities. They contribute to the health of the citizens through physical training; they also serve as entertainment for the citizens through sport events and contribute to economic growth through development of sportsmen and sportswomen and its associated employment
INSTITUTIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE	I. Human Capital Development Programs		They include curriculum development programs at the learning institutions that are relevant for the development and management of the physical infrastructures
	II. Management Structures	Encompasses a society’s or community’s organizational capacity to provide and, more important, manage physical infrastructures to ensure optimum use. Without a well-functioning management structures, physical infrastructure cannot facilitate optimal economic growth and social development
	III. R & D Structures	These are institutional structures responsible for the researching and bringing out modern, efficient, effective and competitive ways of physical infrastructural development and management
	IV. Regulatory Structures	They are responsible for standardization and monitoring of the physical infrastructural development and management

 

Economic Infrastructure

a. Industrial Infrastructure Services
i. Energy – Ensure regular and uninterrupted service through better management, reduction in illegal connections, and prosecution of those who connect illegally. Laws will be passed to ensure that individuals who facilitate illegal connection get stiffer penalties than the beneficiaries.
ii. We shall launch a continuous public education on the virtues of conservation. For example, the reverse of all utility bills will contain tips for energy conservation and hotlines to call for any information
 Water. In addition to investing in the water sector, improving distribution, cutting waste and improving management, we will encourage water conservation through the following:
1. Approving the importation/manufacture of only water efficient cisterns
2. Require commercial establishments, such as restaurants and hotels, to build underground water storage facilities for rain-water harvesting. This will reduce the amount of water these establishments require for watering their laws, cleaning floors, etc.
3. Encourage households, architects and stakeholders in the construction industry to incorporate rain-water harvesting facilities in new and existing buildings.
Sanitation –Develop a modern sanitation system that will focus on sustainable management of liquid and solid waster throughout the country. Local government bye-laws on community and household sanitation will be strictly enforced.
Transportation – For industry, an efficient and diversified transport system is crucial for the timely distribution of goods and services as well as the movement of workers to and from work in an orderly and timely manner. This improves productivity and boosts the international competitiveness of Ghanaian industry. In this regard, the CPP will increase the quality and diversity of public transportation, comprising, land, air, rail, and water transport, including inland water canals to move heavy industrial material at minimum cost. The long-overdue National Transportation Policy will be launched.

Financial Infrastructure

i. Improve access through lower interest rates, for both industry and consumers
ii. Strengthen rural banks
iii. Strengthen insurance sector to raise long-term funds for industry
iv. Enforce existing laws on financial reforms/enact new ones as the need arises
Commercial Infrastructure

i. Provide modern and healthy markets in all communities;
ii. Require all district assemblies to publish monthly, quarterly and annual financial statements and management reports on how they utilise taxes collected from markets, lorry stations, etc.
iii. Work with farmers and fishing communities to provide storage and processing facilities to reduce post-harvest losses and thus raises incomes of farming and fishing communities
d. Information and Communication Technology Policy
There is currently a strategic plan for the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector. However, progress in implementation has been slow, leaving Ghana at a disadvantage as countries like Rwanda proceed rapidly to create world-class ICT infrastructure for national development.
The CPP will accelerate the existing plan and programmes within a broad ICT policy framework to attain the following:
i. Innovation - Encourage local research and application as well as appropriate international collaboration
ii. Accessibility - Ensure national coverage to cover all institutions, administrative regions and districts, as well as socio-economic groups.
iii. Affordability - Ensure continued reduction in cost through policy and developments in the technology sector
iv. Regulation - Ensure the smooth and effective growth of the sector while enacting and applying appropriate laws to protect consumers, such as children, and combat various forms of electronic crimes.
Some ICT-related initiatives to be undertaken by the CPP are:
a. Getting the National Communication Authority (NCA) to ensure that all operators connect to the Ghana Internet eXchange to ensure local traffic and keep cost down.
b. Working with Ghana Telecom to reduce the cost of bandwidth for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to internationally competitive levels. Currently, 1 Mega Byte of access costs US$5,000, compared to only US$150 in New York. This high cost differential has makes it virtually impossible for Ghana to attract the kind of offshore internet businesses that are going to India and elsewhere.
c. Getting NCA to further reduce license cost and the cost on VSAT to internationally competitive levels.
 

Social Infrastructure
Household Services

Household services have been discussed under various policies above but are summarised below within the context of infrastructure services:

Educational services: Enhance the quality of education from the provider’s perspectives, such as resourcing of schools and teaching and improving teaching methods, and intensify community involvement in the management of schools within the context of decentralisation.

Health services: Improve the quality of services by introducing and publicising a Patients Bill of Rights. Government will work with both state and private medical facilities to determine how best to implement this bill. Sanitation and related services will equally be improved.

Public transport services: For the CPP, an efficient and safe public transport system (by both the state and the private sector) is not only meant for the "poor" but for people of all backgrounds. To conserve energy, save the environment and promote good health, the CPP will build smart roads with special lanes to facilitate non-motorised transportation, such as biking, as well as wheel chairs for the disabled. Public transportation will be modernised to have specific routes and arrival times, which will be strictly enforced. This will improve the productive use of time for travellers and the nation.

To reduce accidents and fatalities on the nation’s roads, we shall intensify driver and pedestrian education, law enforcement, and institutional reforms complete with publicised targets for accident and fatality reduction.

 

Civic Infrastructure Services

 

 

• Parks, museums, zoos and other forms of civic infrastructures provide avenues for recreation (for families and social groups); knowledge acquisition, and the improvement of the quality of life of our people as they appreciate more the wonders of nature and the intricacies of society. Civic infrastructure also provides employment, especially for the youth, because they serve as tourist sites which provide a mix of permanent and party-time employment.

        In this regard the CPP shall:

• Strengthen the Museums and Monuments and the National Archives to carry their duties effectively.

 

• Revive and strengthen the Department of Parks and Gardens

 

• Revive and strengthen community libraries and community centre

 

• Work with the private sector to improve the presence and quality of bookstores nationwide

 

• Improve the quality of and access to the nation’s various zoos, game parks, water falls, etc.

 

• Require local governments to provide recreational sports facilities in districts and sub-metros as a matter of development policy.
Institutional Infrastructure

 

 

• Institutional infrastructure constitutes the organisational arrangements and social practices that determine how effectively physical infrastructure is used for the economy and society. It includes modern facilities management practices, standardisation and monitoring of physical infrastructure use, as well as the availability of certain social services to ensure a generally efficient society. Our policies in this regard will include:

 

•  Development and promotion of a maintenance culture
•  Respect for public property (civic duty)
• National ID card
• Street naming and house numbering

 Energy Policy
Within infrastructure development, the CPP singles out energy for special treatment because of its overwhelming importance to the economy and society. The Party’s energy policy will comprise electricity (or power) from all sources as well as fuel of all types. The ultimate objective of our energy policy is to ensure adequacy and security of supply at all times.
The key elements of the CPP’s energy policy will be as follows:
• Capacity building: Develop a modern and well-resourced energy planning system to ensure that we generate enough energy to keep pace with our economic and social needs. The Energy Commission, the Energy Foundation, Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, civil society organisations, and the relevant government ministries and agencies will play an active role in the development of this system. We will also fund the appropriate institutions to make a global leader in energy studies and research.
• Energy security: Diversity the sources and location of energy production, especially electricity, to minimise the risk of failure or disruptions in supply resulting from a disaster or a catastrophe in any part of the country.
• Regulation and ownership: Appropriate legislation will be passed to govern the production, distribution, and utilisation of fuel and electricity in the country. While we will welcome foreign partnerships in the generation and distribution of energy in Ghana, we shall ensure at all times that Ghanaians or their government have strategic ownership to preserve our control over strategic national assets
• Financing: All our energy plans will be accompanied with comprehensive and credible financing schemes to ensure that they are implemented and the resulting projects managed efficiently
• Access and affordability: (1) Structure production and distribution of energy to ensure adequate access for households and businesses at rates that are affordable and internationally competitive, and (2) Improve management of utilities by setting efficiency benchmarks and requiring utility companies to publish financial and management reports periodically.
• Conservation: Use legislation, public education, and fiscal policy, in combination with a Transportation Policy, to promote the efficient use by households, government, and businesses of the energy that we produce.
In terms of sectoral implementation, the policy will cover the following areas:
(1) Electricity generation: We shall explore, subject to cost, technical feasibility, and environmental considerations, wind, hydro, gas, solar, nuclear, and bio-mass sources for the generation of adequate electricity for households and businesses. We shall add between 100 and 150 MW of power every year until we reach sufficiency. In the short-term, we expect substantial state financing for the sector, following in the medium-to-long term with considerable private sector investment, while maintaining quality and security as well as consumer access and affordability.

(2) Petroleum products: We shall concentrate on production, refining, and exports as part of the development of a petro-chemical industry (as discussed in detail under Section 2.2 above).
2.10 Environment and Natural Resources
The CPP’s policy on the environment will be based on a Clean and Green Strategy of meeting present social and economic needs without depriving future generations of the right to the same environment and resources. In pursing this strategy, we shall emphasise conservation at all levels of society. With respect to the environment, we shall do the following, among others

Natural Environment –

• Aggressively enforce laws against deforestation
• Enforce noise pollution laws in cities and towns
• Keep the atmosphere clean and healthy by outlawing the open burning of garbage in communities and residential areas. This will help reduce the incidence of disease and thus reduce the national health bill.
•  Encourage community gardening and tree planting

The Built Environment -


The transformation of the physical environment for human habitation requires a lot of discipline that, unfortunately, we have lacked over the years. The result is shoddy construction works, unplanned development, and overcrowded cities and towns that lack adequate amenities like water and sanitation. To ensure that Ghana has 21st -century cities and towns, the CPP will do the following to ensure a more coherent and disciplined approach to development and the process of urbanisation.
• Develop a comprehensive urban development policy
• Establish an Urban Development Institute to study trends and factors in urban development, such as water provision and sanitation management, and advise national and local governments accordingly. The Institute will share its facilities and services with sister African countries as part of our efforts to promote African and continental cooperation.
• Set and rigorously enforce standards in the construction industry to ensure quality and safety.
 

Natural Resources


Our natural resources range from fish stocks to forests to minerals in the ground. Our very existence depends on them. We shall therefore spare no effort to ensure their efficient, equitable and sustainable use. The Navy, for example, will be enlisted to patrol our shores to combat illegal fishing by foreign trawlers. At the same time, when outside investors are required to exploit any of these resources, we shall insist upon ownership of strategic share while ensuring that appropriate taxes are always paid to the state.
 

 Waste Management


Sound waste management is essential to maintaining a safe and healthy environment – both built and natural. For example, improperly treated solid waste can leach into rivers and pollute drinking water sources, or pollute the air in affected communities. The CPP’s policy on waste management will be multi-sectoral, involving the Ministries of Local Government and Health, among others, and will focus on waste minimisation initiatives, that deal with industry and households, as well waste-as-wealth initiatives

that emphasise re-cycling. Where some of these initiatives are already in place, the CPP will accelerate and intensify them, in view of the waste-management crisis currently facing the country.
 

Agriculture and Rural Transformation


As with industry, government’s attitude towards agriculture has been one of neglect and continued decline. Between 1997 and September 2007, agriculture’s share of domestic business credit fell from 12.8% to 4.2% as banks shied away from the sector because of government’s failure to provide a conducive environment for financing and marketing in the sector. Despite the many water bodies and long coastal line of Ghana, we import US$200 million of fish every year. In 2008, 63.0% of the budget for the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) is expected to come from donors.
The CPP’s agricultural policy will focus on attaining food security and nutritional for the nation, income security for farmers and fishermen, and self-sufficiency in industrial sectors that depend on forest and agricultural produce for their work. The emphasis will be on the use of science and technology to revolutionize agriculture.
Specific policy initiatives will include the following:

 Produce, Fisheries and Livestock


• Facilitate easy acquisition and utilisation of land for agricultural purposes, including fish farming and ranching.
• Provide appropriate state assistance, such as subsidised inputs, technical assistance and price support to farmers and fishermen, etc.
• Provide adequate resources to various agricultural colleges and research institutes, such as the Food Research Institute, the Crop Research Institute and Soil Research Institute to enhance their support activities for the sector.
• The University of Development Studies will be encouraged and resourced to expand specialist studies of rural economies and societies to shape public policy.
• Introduce crop insurance schemes as part of a broad programme to improve farmers’ access to credit
• Restructure the agricultural sector to include a Food Distribution Board and Agricultural Marketing Agency. The board will focus on post-harvest issues such as preservation, processing, and distribution to secure national food and nutritional security, while the Agency will deal with income security for farmers, fishermen and allied workers like fishmongers by finding domestic and international markets for their produce. MoFA will continue to support production through extension and technical services
• Support the development and strengthening of Farmer-Based Organisations as well as co-operatives to give farmers easy access to affordable credit and offer them other forms of capacity-building assistance, such as subsidised literacy and numeracy classes as well as basic business management skills.
• Develop, in collaboration with farmers, agricultural infrastructure, such as irrigation systems; fish preservation and processing facilities; silos; kilns, as well as standard infrastructure like electricity, telephones, water, roads, and affordable housing.
• Develop a National Nutrition Policy based on common foodstuffs in Ghana as a way of promoting healthy lifestyles while raising the incomes of our farmers and fishermen. The Food Research Institute will be tasked to improve food preparation methods to make preparation of Ghanaian cuisine less time-consuming.
• Develop a Farmers and Fishermen Income Security Scheme (FFISSH) to protect them against old-age poverty, especially in the rural and coastal areas.
• Adopt a fisheries policy to guide the development of sector.
• The Forest Products Research Institute will be funded to enable the establishment of a pulp and paper industry using local raw materials to satisfy the country’s pulp and paper needs and for export, while the Industrial Research Institute and Food Research Institute will be adequately funded to undertake research up to the pilot plant scale to (i) replace the use of imported barley malt and malt adjuncts such as flaked rice, oats and corn using locally produced sorghum and corn, (ii) produce corn/cassava syrup for our soft drink industries, and (iii) pharmaceutical grade starch.
2.11.2 Cocoa Sector
We shall undertake a comprehensive assessment of the entire value chain in the cocoa sector, including production, purchasing, quality control, transportation, shipping and administration, to guarantee the continued viability of the sector and ensure that all stakeholders in the sector, especially farmers, get their fair share of returns from cocoa sale.
 

Forestry and Tree Crops Sector


We shall intensify current programmes to preserve our forests, such as replanting and the provision of alternative sources, such as livestock breeding, to rural dwellers to preserve our forests. However, we will go beyond that to introduce a nation-wide tree planting exercise geared as much towards saving the environment as it is towards creating employment, providing alternative energy sources, and raising incomes for a large section of the population, especially the youth, in a relatively short period. Assemblies will be required to enact or implement bye-laws on deforestation.
 

Agro-industry


Value addition to primary produce like cashew, shea nuts, coconut, oranges, pineapples, and other fruits will be aggressively promoted by ensuring that existing and new manufacturing firms develop relationships with out-growers that ensure steady supply of raw materials for their firms.
 

Rural Transformation


Rather than viewing the rural areas as a permanent source of cheap labour for the cities, we shall guide the transformation of those areas from deprived communities to well-developed ones by providing them with a wide array of infrastructure, such as modern roads, electricity, irrigation systems, and medical facilities, to facilitate both agricultural and non-agricultural activities. Rural industries will be encouraged with government assistance. Factories for making door and floor mats, bamboo factories to manufacture bamboo cups and trays, rattan factories and wood factories will be encouraged. This strategy will stem the current flow of rural-to-urban labour and lead to balanced development of the country.
 

Services Sector


At 30.6%, the services sector is second only to agriculture (34.7%) as a share of the total economy. As with agriculture, however, the services sector is dominated by low-skilled labour in a largely informal economy, resulting in low productivity, low incomes, and a disproportionately high incidence of poverty.
The CPP’s long-term objective for the sector is to create high-value-added service jobs, such as the following:
• Telecommunications and ICT services for local and foreign markets. This will facilitate the growth of the industrial sector while providing an opportunity for Ghanaian firms to gain a foothold in the global economy
• Construction, architectural and engineering services for local and foreign markets. While the domestic component of these services will improve the quality of infrastructure development, the foreign component will yield possibly billions of dollars in foreign exchange.
• Educational and health services for local and foreign markets through increased enrolment of foreign students in our higher institutions of learning and world class medical services for clients in the sub-region and beyond. Both will yield foreign exchange while spurring us to maintain our educational and medical facilities at international standards.
• Tourism: We shall continue to develop the tourism industry as an instrument of national development (job creation and income growth), while combating the undesirable aspects of tourism, such as the sex trade and other social vices. As respect for the memory of our ancestors, we shall grant free access to the nation’s slave castles to the descendants of slaves from the America’s and elsewhere. They will however be given the opportunity to contribute to the general upkeep of these castles that hold so many unpleasant memories of our history.
• Hospitality industry: Work with various stakeholders to make hotel rates internationally competitive while raising the quality of restaurant and other hospitality services to world-class standards.
 

Productivity Revolution


Our limited resources and our growing developmental needs require that we use those resources wisely and efficiently. So far, we have failed to do so. In this regard, the CPP will restructure the Management Development and Productivity Institute as the centrepiece for a national productivity revolution. To ensure that this productivity revolution is broad-based and successful, we shall solicit the opinions of the public on various socio-economic problems and how they believe we can solve them at the least cost possible. The resulting combination of expert knowledge and popular opinion will serve as the bedrock of our productivity revolution. Examples of basic everyday day problems that the productivity revolution would seek to address are:
o How long it takes on average to be served at a bank
o How to increase farm yield and thus raise rural incomes
o Duration of courses in our schools
o How long it takes to get a building permit
o How long it takes to obtain a passport
o How long it takes to go through the airport
o How long it takes for students to obtain their examination results.

o How long it takes to obtain telephone services, water supply, and electricity for home or business
o How long it takes to register a business
o How long it takes to pay one’s taxes
We are sure that a national productivity dialogue involving Ghanaians from all walks of life will yield an even longer and more impressive list. By working together to improve the way we do things, we will save scarce resources, including time, and thus raise productivity and national income. This is the first step towards making Ghana a high-income country.
 

Financing Development


• Set up a National Infrastructure Financing Authority (NIFA) to source funds through municipal, national, and international bonds and other means to finance capital projects, such as modern highways, under-ground and above-ground rail systems, ports, waterways, and other forms of public transport.
• Reform our budgeting process and introduce Inter-generational financing, based on NIFA, to replace the present pay-as-you-go system, which is non-sustainable and is responsible for the massive under-investment in our development.
• Promote public-private partnership in infrastructure development, by giving financial institutions tax incentives to build schools and other facilities, which national and local governments will then lease over a specified period, after which they become public property.
• Weed out waste in the public sector (part of the productivity revolution) by introducing transparency in public expenditures by asking all ministries, departments and agencies to publish financial and management reports in the media every three months.
• Increase revenue by cracking down on tax evaders, tackling corruption in tax administration, and imposing stiff penalties.
• Customer care: Simplify tax paying procedures and thus reduce the cost and inconvenience of compliance to businesses and individuals.