Akufo-Addo gov’t has initiated 17,334 projects – Bawumia

Making a case for re-election, Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has told Ghanaians, the Akufo-Addo government’s infrastructural record has been “massive”.

He put the total number of projects initiated under the government at 17,334.

Breaking it down, Dr Bawumia said since the government was sworn in January 2017, it has completed 8,746 projects while 8,588 are ongoing.

The projects cut across agriculture, education, energy, health, housing, industrial, market, railway, road, safety and security.

He made this known at the Government Town Hall and Results Fair held at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences on Tuesday, August 18.

Infrastructure is a key electoral issue in Ghana’s politics.

Former President John Dramani Mahama has said that infrastructure under his tenure was unprecedented and went ahead to release the NDC Green Book cataloging the achievements in that area.

Acknowledging the importance of infrastructure projects to its electoral fortunes, the NPP government dubbed 2020 ‘The Year of Roads’.

While listing the physical infrastructure, the vice-president pointed out that soft infrastructure in the form of digitisation is essential in many instances more than physical infrastructure.

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has been called ‘Mr. Digital’ for his self-confessed interest in promoting a digital-based economy.

He said the government has embarked on projects by spending less in ensuring value for money hence a high expenditure on infrastructure will result in many infrastructure projects.

According to him, no government has achieved this in their first term as compared to the current Akufo-Addo administration.

Launch of website for government projects

As part of the programme, Dr Bawumia announced that the government had created a website (www.deliverytracker.gov.gh) to collate and compile a database of all infrastructure projects being undertaken.

He said the data which shows the government’s performance, could be accessed by everyone for further analysis.

He said it would enhance accountability and transparency as well as assist the government to track its promises and progress of each project.

According to him, Ghana is the only country in Africa that has implemented such a system to track developmental projects.

The launch of the government website follows the unveiling of another one by the opposition NDC (www.nppfailedpromises.com) to track failed government promises

The NDC listed 631 manifesto promises, out of which it said the government had achieved only 86.

Prior to that, the government had launched a website, www.deliverytracker.gov.gh, in February 2020, to monitor its manifesto promises.

Dr Bawumia who unveiled that website explained at the time that the government had achieved 78 per cent of its 388 manifesto promises.