President John Evans Atta Mills, today delivered the State of the Nation Address to Parliament and highlighted some of the major achievements of the Government over the last three years.

The address titled "STILL BUILDING A BETTER GHANA” touched among others the economy, agriculture, employment, youth and sports, oil and gas, education, health, security governance. The President said the country recorded the highest ever growth rate in the nation’s history with a provisional growth rate approaching 14 per cent. He added, "We recorded the most sustained single digit rates of inflation in decades, with the rate of inflation of 8.55 per cent for 2011 being the lowest in 42 years since 1970."

He informed the 230 member legislature, that achievements in managing inflation, budget deficit and realizing high GDP growth rates have reflected in the progress made in many key areas of national development. He said efforts have been made to bring an end to the school shift system which has been a drawback in the fight for quality education, noting, "contracts for the construction of over 1,700 classroom blocks for schools under trees have been awarded throughout the country."

In the area of job creation, President Mills said many jobs have been created outside the non-traditional areas of employment and that with the expected heavy infrastructure expansion and the building of the allied petro-chemical industries associated with our oil and gas find, many more jobs will be created by the time the tenure of this Government comes to an end.

Touching on Energy, the President observed that though the government inherited a total electricity generation capacity of around 1,800 megawatts in 2009, it has installed an additional 376 megawatts to the generation capacity adding, "additional capacity will be added this year through the expansion of the Takoradi International Company (TICO), the planned completion of the Bui project, the development of the Kpone Thermal Power Plant; as well as the completion of the Tema Osono Power Project.

He informed members that government has taken steps to improve the national electricity transmission system which is saddled with over-aged and obsolete equipment. According to him,  transmission networks and sub-station projects at Buipe in the Northern Region, Kpando, Ho and Asiekpe in the Volta Region, Sunyani and Techiman in the Brong Ahafo Region, Obuasi and Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, Tema and Accra in the Greater Accra Region, Winneba in the Central Region and Takoradi in the Western Region have all been completed.

He was hopeful that by the end of 2013, power generation should reach about 3,300Mw, an over 80 per cent increase in the generation capacity.
On security, law and order, President Mills called on security institutions to be in a state of readiness to ensure peace and calm before, during and after the 2012 elections.