Bawumia lists 25 interventions implemented by gov’t to cushion Ghanaians

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has touted the Akufo-Addo administration as a listening government.

He tabled measures that have been implemented to mitigate the suffering of Ghanaians over the last five years.

According to the Vice President, the record shows that the NPP led government is committed to addressing the challenges of Ghanaians.

He said an amount of GHC 62.3 billion (the equivalent of over $8.5 billion), has been spent on various interventions.

Dr Bawumia believes the investment has proven to be critical shock absorbers in the crisis period of rising prices for goods and services globally.

“Imagine what many households would be going through today if in addition to the price increases on the markets, they had to pay for school fees, textbooks, uniforms and feeding of their wards in senior high school and TVET.

“Imagine if they had to pay much higher increases in electricity and water bills, they had to pay examination fees for BECE and WASSCE students. Clearly, millions of households would have been in a much worse shape without these interventions,” he stressed.

Below are the measures he listed:

1. We have paid the bills of some $1 billion annually in excess capacity charges) to keep the lights on and “dumsor” away.

2. Reduced electricity tariffs cumulatively by 10.9% compared to a cumulative increase of 264% under the previous government.

3. Provided free water for households for a year during COVID

4. Provided free electricity for lifeline users and a 50% reduction for other users for a year. The electricity tariffs over the last five years have seen the lowest increase for any five-year period over the last thirty years!

5. We Doubled the Capitation Grant (From GH¢4.5 to GH¢10) for basic schools

6. Created jobs and stopped the freeze on recruitment in the public sector. Hundreds of thousands of people have been recruited

7. Unlike the private sector which laid off thousands of workers and reduced salaries., there were no layoffs of public sector workers during COVID. An additional 58,000 nurses recruited on a permanent basis

8. Increased the share of the DACF to persons with disabilities by 50%.

9. Exempted ‘Kayayei’ from market tolls

10. Expanded the LEAP by 150,000 beneficiaries.

11. Expanded School Feeding from 1.6 million
children to 2.1 million children, and also increased the amount spent on each child by 25 percent.

12. Restored Teacher Training Allowances

13. Restored Nursing Training Allowances

14. Established the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) of 100,000 graduates to build the job skills of our graduates to be absorbed into the workforce.

15. Abolished the three month pay policy for teachers who were paid for only 3 months after working for 2-3 years

16. Absorbing the cost of BECE and WASSCE exam registrations

17. Subsidized fertilizer for farmers

18. Abolished or reduced at least 18 taxes including excise duty on petroleum, VAT on financial services, real estate, domestic airline tickets, etc.

19. Reduced corruption associated with obtaining public services by digitization of service delivery

20. Provided GHC600 million of COVID funds for small businesses

21. made it easier for the renewal of NHIS membership through mobile phones

22. made it easier to clear goods from the port through the paperless process

23. Spent GHC25 billion to save the deposits of 4.6 million people and prevent a collapse of the banking system. Thousands of business enterprises would have collapsed otherwise with attendant job losses.

24. We have implemented free TVET

25. We have implemented the free senior high school initiative, providing free tuition, uniforms, textbooks and food to students and saving parents of over 1.2 million children significant amounts per child for each
year of senior high school.