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Ghana's new finance minister sets wealth creation agenda

Xinhua, January 30, 2017 Adjust font size:

Ghana's new minister of Finance Kenneth Ofori-Atta has listed wealth creation as one of his top priorities for the country.

The minister, who assumed office here on Monday, said his immediate priority would be to protect the public purse, stabilize Ghana's macro economy, spearhead anti-corruption, increase revenue and introduce policy initiatives to grow the economy for the private sector to thrive and create jobs.

"We will create wealth and improve people's lives by ensuring economic freedom as the mainstay of the economy," Ofori-Atta said in a statement issued by the Finance Ministry.

The minister was among the first batch of 12 new ministers sworn in on Friday, January 27, by President Nana Akufo-Addo.

Ofori-Atta pledged his commitment to clean up the country's public finances, manage the enormous debt to create the needed fiscal space, invest in critical infrastructure, and empower the private sector to create jobs.

Prior to co-founding Databank in 1990, Ofori-Atta was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and Salomon Brothers on Wall Street in New York.

He has over the past 25 years since he returned from New York had business interests in insurance, retail banking, private equity, pharmaceuticals and real estate.

The minister said he would also work hard to get the economy growing eventually at double digits through policies and strategies that would increase revenue, reduce waste, control spending, and grow the economy to create jobs.

The country has since March 2015 had a three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The new minister promised to see the country through the program to achieve fiscal consolidation.

"I am committed to an IMF program which addresses our current predicaments and will ensure that we also meet all the necessary structural benchmarks that may be suggested. As our president has stated, we now need to 'get Ghana working again in order to create jobs'," he pledged.

Ofori-Atta said he would like to leave a legacy at the ministry as a professional institution with global standards in treasury and risk management to give effect to enforcing the Public Financial Management Act (PFMA). Endit