With barely two weeks to the December polls, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has touted the achievements of the Akufo-Addo government asking for a second term.
“We have kept faith with you,” he said.
Cataloguing governments’ achievements, the Vice President said the future is exciting.
He said to reduce the burden on businesses the government has abolished 15 taxes and levies.
“We have reduced the cost of business in this country. We have abolished over 15 taxes and levies to reduce the burden on businesses and individuals, and this is unprecedented in the history of Ghana,” he said at a Nation Building Update in Accra, Thursday.
According to him, the government’s economic transformation programme is on course.
“We have created over two million jobs in four years for the youth in the formal sector through programmes like the Nation Builders Corps, Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), afforestation, and many others,” he added.
He said the government had bridged the personnel gap by employing more nurses, teachers, police, and other professionals in the public sector after many years of employment freeze under the erstwhile Mahama government.
“Another major challenge we sought to address was the hopelessness and despair that a lack of employment opportunities under the previous administration had plunged our youth into. The human cost imposed on a long line of the able-bodied, educated youth of this country by the economic mismanagement of the NDC government had grown to become a national security threat. Nothing is more dehumanising, and more frustrating, for young people, than being jobless.
“Again, we did not run away from the challenge.”
“We took the bull by the horns, and in four years, we have created over two million jobs in the formal sector, including through government programmes such as NABCO (100,000 jobs to unemployed graduates), NEIP, and Planting for Food and Jobs.”
We have also hired nurses, doctors, and other healthcare workers, recruited new teachers, police officers, and many others in the public sector after many years of employment freeze under the previous Government.”
He touched on the government’s industrialisation plans.
“As a result of our industrial transformation interventions, nearly 19,000 direct jobs have been created by the 76 operating 1D1F firms, and since helping it to restart operations, Anglogold Ashanti’s Obuasi Mine has employed over 4,000. We have revived the Ghana Publishing Company, WAMCO, as well as GhanaPost.
“Through the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (NEIP) and the President’s Entrepreneurs Living With Disabilities programmes, we are supporting medium and small businesses as another track for creating jobs and sustainable incomes.”
“We are impacting lives and livelihoods of Ghanaians every day.
“It took bold leadership to face these challenges head-on and to deliver.”
With these, he wants voters to give the government another nod to roll out more developmental projects in the next four years.
The country is heading to the polls on December 7, and this marks the last Nation Builders Update.
