President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said, Ghana as a country has committed twenty-five million dollars ($25 million) to develop our domestic vaccine production capability. “We have committed twenty-five million dollars ($25 million) to develop our domestic vaccine production capability, and facilitate the capacity of domestic pharmaceutical companies to fill, finish and package mRNA COVID-19, malaria, tuberculosis and other vaccines, as a first step towards vaccine production Below are President’s statement I first came to your homes on Wednesday, 11th March 2020, five (5) days after our nation’s 63rd Independence Day celebration, a day before we recorded our first two (2) cases, with news of the measures Government was taking to limit the importation of the COVID-19 virus into the country. Even at that time, it was obvious to me, watching what was happening in Asia, Europe and Latin America, that, if it was not well-managed, it would disrupt our lives and livelihoods. 2. Since then, we have experienced four (4) waves of the outbreak. One hundred and sixty-thousand, nine hundred and thirty-two (160,932) people have tested positive from the 2.4 million tests conducted, and one thousand, four hundred and forty-five (1,445) people have, sadly, died. 3. Our comprehensive strategy has entailed living with restrictions that altered our daily routine; we have been restrained from shaking hands and hugging one another; we have had to keep a distance from each other; we have had to put up with the discomfort of wearing face masks every time we left our homes; we have had to endure distress caused by the poking of our nostrils and throats with swab-sticks, each time we underwent a PCR or antigen test; we had to endure, for three weeks, the painful lockdown in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and Kasoa and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area and contiguous districts; and we have all borne the brunt of the ravages of the pandemic. 4. As your President, I saw it as my duty to provide you with regular updates on the situation, the measures government is taking, and to seek your support and co-operation. That is why I have been a constant feature on your screens these past two years, in the addresses that have now become popularly referred to as “Fellow Ghanaians”, and I thank you for welcoming me so warmly into your homes. 5. You have listened to me, you have co-operated with Government and with the health experts, you have adhered to the enhanced hygiene and mask wearing protocols, and a considerable number of you have taken the vaccine. 6. I thank you for the opportunity you have given me to be your President in these difficult times. I do not take it lightly. The relative successes we have chalked in winning the fight against COVID-19 have been collective ones, which reinforce my belief that, if we are united, there is no obstacle or hurdle too high to surmount in our quest to build a progressive and prosperous Ghana. 7. Fellow Ghanaians, undoubtedly, like in every country in the world, the effects of the pandemic have been devastating for us, in Ghana. We have felt the brunt of COVID-19, with every aspect of national life affected. 8. I did say at the height of the pandemic that “we know what to do to bring the economy back to life; but what we do not know is how to bring people back to life”. We, thus, had to take drastic steps to protect lives and livelihoods by suspending, for the years 2020 and 2021, our pursuit of fiscal responsibility, which had made the Ghanaian economy the poster boy of rapid economic growth in the world in 2017, 2018, and 2019. 9. You would recall that, in response to the pandemic, I mandated the creation of the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme to support households and micro, small, and medium-size businesses (MSMEs). Its intent was to help minimise job losses, and stimulate economic revitalisation, by mobilising private and public sector finances to expand industrial output for domestic consumption and exports. 10. To this end, I instituted a GH¢1.1 billion health response package, which was used to procure supplies and equipment, and a relief package for health workers, which included tax waivers, allowances, transportation and COVID-insurance. Government also found the money to recruit, on a permanent basis, twenty-four thousand, two hundred and eighty-five (24,285) more health professionals. 11. GH¢1.6 billion was made available to support vulnerable households across the country, which went into food packages and hot meals, and the provision of free water for all, free electricity for lifeline consumers, and 50% rebate for all others. Some seven hundred and fifty million cedis (GH¢750 million) in soft loans and grants were also disbursed to micro, small and medium sized businesses to help maintain their economic activity. The Government Statistician tells us that this expenditure has achieved its purpose. 12. At the height of the pandemic, despite strong opposition in some quarters and the legitimate concern of some parents, we stood firm and were successful in ensuring that the education of our children was not truncated. 13. We spent some GH¢1.9 billion providing PPEs and hot meals for students, teaching and non-teaching staff, hand washing facilities, training of teachers on COVID, development of content for online classes, and disinfection and fumigation of schools. This made it possible for students to return in conditions of safety, sit for their respective examinations, and achieve successful results. Indeed, the spectacular results of the first and second batches of the Free SHS graduates, whom I proudly call the Akufo-Addo graduates, are testament to this. 14. I want to state, without any equivocation, that should our nation, God forbid, be confronted by such a pandemic again, and I, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, am, by the grace of God, your President, I will not shy away from taking such essential steps to protect you and your businesses again. 15. Whilst we count the costs, COVID-19 also inspired our domestic manufacturing capabilities, and deepened our
President Akufo Addo
