Job creation target ambitious but achievable – Akufo-Addo
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said that his government aims at increasing the country’s export volumes under AGOA to $500 million in 2020 to create hundreds of thousands of jobs, a target which is ambitious, but certainly achievable.
According to him, his government is in the process of finalising Ghana’s new Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) export strategy and action plan, to boost the volumes of exports to the United States to $500 million by 2020.
The President made this known when he launched the expansion project of Dignity-Do-The-Right-Thing (DTRT) Apparel, at the Adjabeng Free Zone enclave, in Accra.
Dignity DTRT is a Ghanaian-American joint venture initiative, which is currently employing some 1,600 people, and is set to export $30 million worth of clothing to the United States of America by 2018, under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
To spur on the creation of jobs in the country, President Akufo-Addo noted that his government has set out to build the most business friendly economy in Africa, and is moving quickly to create an environment that will unleash the innovative and entrepreneurial instincts of the Ghanaian people to drive rapid growth and job creation.
The President reiterated that the goal of his government is to “to unlock the full potential of the private sector and the Ghanaian sense of enterprise to create jobs and prosperity for all Ghanaians, and to position Ghana as a preferred investment destination.”
President Akufo-Addo noted that his government is working to put in place measures to ensure that the country takes full advantage of the U.S. market through the AGOA initiative since, Ghana has been unable to sufficiently exploit the AGOA opportunity, and, thereby, not realising any significant gains, having only exported items worth only $29 million to the United States in 2016.
He, thus, pledged the support of his government for textile and garment businesses and enterprises across Ghana, to create jobs that provide security for individuals, families and communities.
“falls squarely within our overall vision of making the development of the textile and garment industry a strategic anchor industry for Ghanaian industrialization”, he added.
Source: otecfmghana.com
