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Some members of the Presidential Press Corps under Ex-President John Mahama on Thursday, March 8, 2018 called on former Vice President Amissah- Arthur in his office as part of the 61st Ghana Independence anniversary.

The press corps expressed their gratitude to the former Vice President for his continuous assistance and goodwill to them, and also interacted with him on national issues.

Mr. Amissah-Arthur is the only former government official who has taken the opportunity to meet with the outgone Press Corps.

During his meeting with the press corps, Mr. Amissah-Arthur also touched on the “Ghana Beyond Aid” initiative by the Akufo-Addo constitution describing it as a mere rhetoric.

According to him, the government is yet to provide adequate information about the initiative and this raises uncertainty about what exactly it seeks to achieve.

“I’m comfortable if ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ is saying we will only borrow for capital investment and not recurrent obligation. But the problem has not been defined for me to understand it. It is just the rhetoric. It sounds nice but what goes into it? People will support it if they understand what the objective is. As at now, everybody is left to define it how he understands it, and then to decide to support it or to oppose it,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo since assuming office has reiterated his resolve for economic growth and development by ensuring Ghana becomes independent on foreign aid.

The President has on both local and international platforms emphasized his belief that Ghana, like many other African countries, is endowed with enormous resources to guarantee its growth.

The Vice President, Dr. Bawumia, who is the head of the country’s economic management team, has been tasked with the responsibility of ensuring all key government projects aimed at making the concept of ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ a reality but his predecessor believes the government has not done enough to show it is serious about the concept.

Amissah Arthur stated that the government must provide timelines for the achievement of the policy to make it measurable.

“It is good to have a policy, but you must also have a time-frame".