President John Dramani Mahama has stated that his government has so far done so well in restoring investor confidence in the Ghanaian economy.According to President Mahama, there is renewed faith in Ghana's economy, democracy and stability and the country is reaping that dividend thus far.Speaking during a panel discussion at the annual summit of the Africa CEO's forum in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, yesterday, President Mahama said the rejuvenation of confidence in the economy was predicated on a broader reset agenda because a lot that had not gone well under the previous administration needed to be corrected."We had to present a budget that is austere to cut government financing, increased reve­nue to be able to look inward because we were shut out of the international capital market because of debt default."The focus is still on the macro economy, trying to stabilise the situation, build confi­dence, and bring back investments.

We are on the right track and I'm cautiously optimistic about that," President Mahama emphasised.He observed that a lot of the slippages that had occurred in the IMF programme, especial­ly on the primary balance, government needed to do a steep correction which was being pursued gradually."When we met with the IMF for the last review, we got a staff-level agreement because of the adjustments we've made."This has raised business confidence in the Ghanaian economy because everybody thinks we are on the right track.

So, so far, so good.

Easy does it"."The environment for investment in the oil and gas sector got toxic because the previous government did not prioritise the sector which made investors shy away for the country lead­ing to a decline of about seven per cent.Oil, in the view of President Mahama, is in transition and anyone who has that resource, needed to focus a lot more investment "like there is not tomorrow"."I'll lay a red carpet for anyone who wants to drill oil to so because in the next two decades, the world would have transitioned to renewables," President Mahama added.Ghana, President Mahama stressed, was re­solved to achieve 10 per cent renewable energy to the national grid as prescribed by the Re­newable Energy Act though solar contributes less than three per cent to the national grid.Moreover, President Mahama noted that the country was rich in sunshine and was taking steps including issuing licenses to companies to set up large scale solar facilities to attain the 10 per cent provided for by the Renewable Energy Act.In this regard, he said there was a gradual process to eliminate fossil fuel from the power production space."I believe that in the next four years with the kind of investment that are taking place, we should be able to generate 100 per cent electricity on natural gas," he assured. BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI