Ghana Vision 2020: A Middle Income Country by the Year 2020

Ghana seeks to become a middle income country by the year 2020.  This ambitious objective, embodied in the Government's Vision 2020, requires an average annual growth rate of 8% from 1995-2020.  Maintaining the present policy framework, and thus its historical growth rate, will only achieve Half of what is required--Ghana must work twice as hard.  The accelerated growth needed to attain the Objective of Vision 2020 can only come from a radical and sustained shift in the policy framework, to One that effectively implements an outward-oriented growth strategy.  To achieve the required growth rate, exports must grow at least 10% per year--doubling every seven years.  But traditional exports, currently accounting for 85% of total exports, are projected to grow at most by 5% per annum.  This means that non-traditional exports must be the new engine of growth, growing at more than 15% per year from now to 2020.  Export growth rates of this magnitude will result only if the entire economy is Focused on international competitiveness.