Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire – President of the Republic of Ghana, H.E. John Dramani Mahama, has reaffirmed Ghana’s commitment to economic recovery and reassured the international investment community that the country is on a steady path toward stability and growth.
Addressing global business leaders at the Africa CEO Forum 2025 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, President Mahama presented a bold vision for Ghana’s economic resurgence.
He outlined key strategic reforms and innovative financial policies that his administration is pursuing to rebuild investor confidence, stimulate growth, and ensure long-term debt sustainability.
The President emphasized Ghana’s readiness to welcome global investment and partnerships, highlighting the country’s dynamic recovery and renewed focus on infrastructure development, energy transformation, digital innovation, and job creation.
Read the full speech by President Mahama below:
Just to say, when I was inaugurated, I said Ghana is open for business again, and I truly meant that. It’s been a rough several years, and I’m sure that most of you know what potential Ghana has.
And so I’m not here to do a pitch, but it is a resilient country. It’s got a natural resource support base. All it needs is to create the right environment and atmosphere for the private sector to thrive, and that is where our focus is.
We came to office on 7th January, and the economy was worse than we thought it was.
We actually were told it was, but we put in place measures as quickly as possible with a focus of first stabilizing the macroeconomy, which is what we’ve been engaged with. Together with the IMF, you are aware we’re in an extended credit facility program.
And working together, we’ve managed to correct a lot of the slippages, and so we’re on track again with the program. We’ve completed the fourth review, and we re-started staff level agreements, and we are on track to finish the program by April next year. One of the major problems has not been the issue with macroeconomic stability.
It’s been the debt overhang. Our rate of accumulation of debt accelerated quite steeply,and we found ourselves unable to meet our obligations, and so Ghana declared debt default. And it’s one of the countries that have gone through the G20 debt treatment framework.
We are one of three countries, and we’ve reached agreements with all our creditors, except our commercial creditors, which account for just a small percentage of the debt left, and we’ve started discussions on that one. But so far, so good. The economy is responding positively.
There are a few areas and debts that we’re dealing with. We’re ring-fencing and making sure that we make adequate provision to be able to respond to them. We’ve reactivated the sinking fund.
We’re putting extra savings in there to meet any debt obligations that are coming up. We’re being innovative with our borrowing in order that we continue to push to improve infrastructure without burdening the public debt.
We have currently what we call the Big Push Program, which aims to put $2 billion every year in providing infrastructure, roads, bridges, health infrastructure, educational infrastructure, and other infrastructure that relates to safety and security in other sectors.
And so, so far, that is going well.
Our major flagship for economic recovery is the 24-hour economy policy, and that is to shape Ghana as a favorable destination for investment, to make sure we have enough power to power industry, to provide the right incentives for people to come and invest and keep businesses open 24 hours so that we can provide more employment for our young people.
There are several interventions we’re implementing, including the Million Coders Program. And my communications minister is here. We launched it successfully to provide Ghanaian youth with the digital skills necessary for the world of work. We have several other projects to upskill our young people and also to help entrepreneurial startups.
And so, so far, I think that things are good For those of you who have tasted investment in Ghana, you know that Ghana is a good place to do business. We’ve gone through the worst of the turbulence is over.
And so, as the pilot of the plane, I can tell you it’s going to be a smooth ride from now till 2028. And so, you’re all welcome to visit. Even if you haven’t made up your mind yet, just come and take a look.
And I’m sure by the time you have visited Ghana, you would make up your mind to put some investment there. Oil and gas is opening up again. We had a decline in production, but we have held meetings with our investors, those who have invested, and we’re smoothing the path for them to put in more investments.
There are many other oil blocks available that we want other investors to come and explore together. Our main focus is on agribusiness and agricultural value chain. Ghana has a lot of arable land, plenty of water, plenty of sunshine.
And so, there are two facets that one can look at. One in terms of import substitution to grow, to feed a huge market. Ghana is a 33 million population market, but if you look at the whole of West Africa, it means we’re about 400 million.
And with the new opportunities under the ETLS and the African Continental Free Trade Area, it means that it is possible to use Ghana as a platform to produce, to export into the rest of West Africa or into the 1.4 billion African markets. Incidentally, we host the African Continental Free Trade Area. And so, we are at the center of opening up the African markets to African goods.
There’s a lot of space for investment in infrastructure. We’re going to do the roads,we’re going to do the railways, we’re going to do the bridges. We’re expanding our ports.
We have a good partnership with AP Mola and other partners under MPS. And our intention is to create Ghana as their favorite maritime hub to receive goods in transit, including goods coming into Ghana and redistribute them along the West Coast. We’ve expanded our airports.
Every major airline flies into Accra. Most of them have one flight a day. British Airways has two flights a day to London, Gatwick and Heathrow.
And flights direct to Rome, to Amsterdam, to Brussels, to Dubai, to wherever. And where we don’t fly to, Ethiopian Airlines will take you through at least two flights a day. And so, very well connected.
And I think that the taste of the pudding is in the eating. And so, you’re all invited to visit us. We’ll roll out the red carpets and give you a typical Ghanaian welcome.
So, I thank you very much. Thank you.
Story by: Emmanuel Romeo Tetteh(#RomeoWrites
) / Ahotoronline.com | Ghana 
