Ghanaian president to deliver State of the Nation address

Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo will deliver his State of the Nation address to the nation’s parliament today. He was re-elected for a second term in December.

Akufo-Addo’s address will serve as a roadmap for his presidency’s priorities, including his response to the COVID-19 pandemic and job creation as he seeks to build a “Ghana beyond aid.” On March 1, Ghana became one of the world’s first states to administer vaccines from the COVAX vaccine alliance as it seeks to immunise 20 million of its 30 million citizens by 2022.

Akufo-Addo faces a hung parliament after his New Patriotic Party and the opposition New Democratic Congress (NDC) each won 137 seats in the December election. An NDC challenge to overturn the results was recently rejected by Ghana’s supreme court.

In his address, expect Akufo-Addo to outline continued COVID-related assistance, likely select utility fee waivers, and to emphasise his vision for Ghana post-pandemic as it awaits further foreign vaccine shipments. Though his economic recovery plan, Ghana CARES, focuses heavily on job creation, Akufo-Addo will likely tout other poverty reduction projects emphasised during his campaign, including free basic education. As he rebuilds Ghana’s post-COVID economy, expect Akufo-Addo to remain open to all development models, not solely Western-style democratic-capitalist ones.