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President John Dramani Mahama took his made-in-Ghana project to the United States of America last week, making a strong case for America and the rest of the world to taste Ghanaian ingenuity.

He said the project, which would formally be launched on a bigger scale, was not only to encourage Ghanaians to patronise local products, but also “to sell our products to the world”.

“We are planning a major launch, which will be a means of branding Ghana and putting a seal on our products,” he said.

President Mahama was speaking on “Ghana and its role in global society, with a focus on the 'Made-in-Ghana' campaign​,” at a special event at the Centre for Public Diplomacy of the University of South California last Thursday.

The interactive session, hosted at the Annenberg Hall of the university, was attended by faculty members, students, some Ghanaians and Los Angeles residents.

Answering questions from the audience, he said Ghana, which is Africa’s most friendly nation, had developed into a model of democracy on the continent.


Free media

Touching on the free media and free expression landscape in the country, he said, “The fact that people are able to say what they want to say is a good thing.

“You just have to build consensus and continue to discuss and reach agreements with all in the political divide.”

The development, he noted, had contributed to the significant progress chalked up by the nation.

“More than two decades of positive growth and that is good. There have been challenges but I think we are heading in the right direction,” he stressed.


FDI

Answering a question on Foreign Direct Investment in Africa, President Mahama said it had been growing.

“Foreign Direct Investment in Africa has been growing because a lot of African countries have begun to emerge and Ghana is one of them,” he explained..

Ghana has a very significant portion of the FDI coming into Africa and part of it is from the growing oil and gas industry.

Going into some specifics, he said this year, the country had signed an $8 billion investment into the oil and gas industry.

The power sector is also not left out in that equation. Ghana has a fast growing demand for power, which the President attributed to decades of economic growth.


China’s influence

On the scope of China’s influence on Ghana and Africa’s development, the President stated that China’s engagement with Ghana had been good.

He also said China was one of the important destinations for Ghana’s gold exports and added that there were Chinese investments in Ghana.