“We were voted in by the people to solve their problems and that is what we have begun to do.”

The President, who was on a three-day day visit to the Ashanti Region to thank the people for voting massively for him and his party – the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was addressing journalists in Kumasi.

Some Ministers of State accompanying him, earlier, had taken turns to speak about policy interventions calibrated to drive the government’s development agenda.

They included the Trade and Industry Minister, Mr. Allan Kyeremateng, Food and Agriculture Minister, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Education Minister, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh, Aviation Minister, Madam Cecelia Ama Dapaah, Transport Minister, Mr. Ofori Asiamah and Ms. Otiko Afisa Djaba, Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister.

Central to the key activities of their ministries is job creation to lift people out of poverty and make things better.

President Akufo-Addo said steps had been taken to revive the vibrancy of the agricultural sector and stimulate private sector growth.

He also made reference to the free senior high school policy and asked that those who expressed skepticism to have the humility of admitting that they were wrong

He again spoke of reforms to ensure the viability and sustainability of the National Insurance Health Scheme (NHIS) to assure everybody of access to quality healthcare.

He gave the assurance that the long delays in the payment claims to service providers would soon be a thing of the past – they were going to be paid timeously.

President Akufo-Addo pledged his resolve to deepen the interaction with the population to listen to their concerns and act to address them.

The government would not be cut off from the people and that they would be kept abreast – well informed of the “reasons for what we are doing”.

It would govern honestly – deal with the public purse honestly and eliminate waste so that there would be resources to deal with challenges confronting the nation.

In response to a question about the alarming destruction of the forest and water bodies through illegal mining, he stated that a comprehensive policy would be rolled out to deal with the phenomenon.

He added that it was not going to be a piecemeal approach but tackled once and for all.