A former Chief Executive Officer of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport Company Limited (BOST), Kwame Awuah-Darko has said that, the challenge that Ghanaians are facing is “poverty.”
In an interview on the Point of View, Mr. Awuah-Darko stated that, the flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama has pledged passion for alleviating poverty in the Country.
“You remember when the former President John Dramani Mahama was delivering his opening remarks he raised a number of issues in his introduction. He talked about poverty and how it is a stench; and how it must be dealt with.”
According to Mr. Awuah, an extensive research was put together to know what the average Ghanaian’s problem is, in terms of the development of the economy in the country.
“There were these women I met in the Afram plains. They were saying that they are tired of being poor. They burn charcoal and that is how they make their living. And so when you are talking to them about free SHS and whatever they like it but they also want but they want to have a decent life so the issues of what government have been doing with regard to focusing on poverty allievation, you can do that when you are 3 million or 6 million people. At 30 million people if 60 percent of your population there about is poor there is no amount of revenue you can generate to manage their poverty.”
The Manifesto spokesperson on Trade, Industry and State Enterprises, indicated that, when NDC is voted into power, there will be an evidence of an increase in the GDP by the average Ghanaian.
“Every Government from the PNDC all the way downwards has had this issue. The resulted effect is that, the Ghanaian ownership of our economy today has fallen from that high of 72 percent to somewhere 50’s and high 20’s.
“When you see a Finance Minister come and stand on tv and talk about how the economy is growing, and they make a reference to GDP. We as Ghanaians don’t feel it in our pockets and it has created a certain breach of trust between the politician and the people because you can’t keep saying that this eceonomy is growing. The average Ghanaian’s pocket is squeezing and squeezing”
Meanwhile, he was asked why the National Democratic Congress (NDC) during their long-term in office, could not tackle poverty in the country. He explained that, “Every era has its challenges for example in 2012 the defining issue was Power so a lot of the government’s effort went into solving the power crisis. We came to 2017 there was no power crisis so the government of President Akuffo Addo did not have to focus on that. The point is this Manifesto is focusing on where we are as a country in this point in time.”
In his ending remarks, the former Chief Executive Officer of BOST and Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) stressed that, the “People’s Manifesto” has a vision and gives a foresight of a better country.
