Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has taken a swipe at the National Democratic Congress (NDC), insisting that the Mahama administration created unemployment instead of employment, whereas the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government reduced the level of unemployment in the country.
According to him, the NPP government has created “975, 000 jobs in the private sector, 1.2 million in the public sector and this is a verifiable and identifiable data which is available”.
“During the NDC administration, there were no jobs, they created unemployment instead of employment. But these days, there are jobs everywhere. I have been looking at the data lately and we have created 2.1 million jobs.”
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia
Dr Bawumia stated that the NPP government is not done yet because there are more jobs for it to create. Moreover, he noted that when it comes to job creation, no government since Independence has created more jobs than the government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. To this end, he challenged all and sundry to provide data in proving otherwise.
“But we want to do more, we want to get to the Promised Land. We can be a Dubai, we can be a South Korea, we can be a Singapore; it is possible.”
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia
No transformation policy by NDC government
Furthermore, Dr Bawumia, noted that former President John Dramani Mahama has no single transformational policy to his credit after spending over 30 years of his adult life in Ghana’s political space. He highlighted that the NPP unlike the NDC has implemented several policies which have benefitted and continue to benefit the majority of Ghanaians.
Additionally, the Vice President revealed that Mr Mahama will be fondly remembered by Ghanaians for the power crisis [dumsor] and the Guinea Fowls that were never recovered under the SADA project.
“Do you know that John Mahama has been in politics his entire adult life? Over 30 years. He has been an assemblyman, deputy minister to minister then Vice President and then President. But can you mention a single transformational policy that he has implemented? Just mention one but there is none, only Dumsor and guinea fowls, that’s all but with the NPP we have mobile money interoperability, one district one factory, digital address, free SHS, Zongo constituency fund, there is so much we have done.”
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia
On his part, the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Justin Frimpong Kodua, urged Ghanaians to maintain faith in the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia administration since measures are in place to restore the economy to its former glory. He assured that the NPP is the only party capable of resolving the current economic crisis.
“Akufo-Addo has stated that the NPP has the men to turn the economy around. We are confident that by the end of the year, the economy will be in good shape. We just need your support because the alternative is worse, it is empty and hopeless.”
Justin Frimpong Kodua
Ghana’s unemployment rate has been the subject of discussion among key stakeholders and political personalities over the years, with the latter hoping to score some brownie points among the Ghanaian populace by touting the achievements of their party in that regard.
It will be recalled that in March last year, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, disclosed that Ghana’s unemployment rate stood at a whopping 13 percent. He underscored that the recent figures are from the 2021 population and housing census.
Mr Baffour-Awuah explained that the 2021 population census put the labour force, which was the economically active population of 15 years and older, at 11,541,355, adding that out of the figure, 9,990,237 were employed and 1,551,118, unemployed.
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