The flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has promised to remove import duty on industrial raw materials when elected as president of Ghana in the upcoming general elections.

According to Nana Addo, the move would help re-ignite manufacturing and industrial activity in the country.

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He believes the high levels of import duties  imposed by government are counter-productive to business growth in Ghana.

Nana Addo said this in an address to  the business community in  the Ashanti region as part of his ‘arise for change campaign tour’ in the region over the weekend.‘One of the first things we want to do to stimulate industrial production in Ghana is to remove import duties on industrial raw materials, we are going to do, because we have to put Ghanaian enterprises exactly where we are talking about to make them competitive, these are the things government does, …so manufacturing equipment will be zero rated. So Ghanaian enterprises can successfully compete with Chinese, Korean, Malaysians, Taiwanese, because that is what we should be looking at etc that is why am calling you all to come on board,’ he said.He also bemoaned government expenditure of 6% of Ghana’s GDP on servicing loans secured from foreign partners whiles capital investment in the country for the past 5years remains 4% of the country’s GDP.