Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has rallied supporters of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to be proud of the government because it has done a lot that could help break the eight in 2024.
He said the achievements of the Akufo-Addo government are unprecedented and have helped solved or tackled over 100 problems they inherited from the John Mahama administration in 2017.
He outlined some of the problem-solving policy initiatives by the NPP government as follows:
o The GhanaCard
o The Use of the Ghanacard Number as a Tax Identification Number (TIN), SSNIT Number, National Health Insurance Number
o Digital Property Address System
o Mobile Money Interoperabilty
o Paperless Ports
o Ghana.Gov
o No Guarantor student loans with Ghanacard
o Universal QRCode Payment System
o Registration for and renewal of NHIS membership on the phone
o One Constituency One ambulance
o Agenda 111
o Digitalization of ECG operations
o Digitalized Passport Applications
o E-Pharmacy
o Sinohydro Barter Agreement
o Zipline Drones for medical delivery
o Digitalization at the scholarship secretariat
o Unified digital common property tax platform
o Online filing and payment of taxes at the GRA
o Digitalization at the births and births registry
o Digitalization of football ticket sales
o Provision of Hydroyurea under NHIS for Sickle Cell Patients
o Zongo Development Fund
o Development Authorities
o Bank of Ghana Gold Purchase Program
o Gold for Oil Policy
o Abolishing the filling of embarkation and disembarkation cards at the airport
“When you look at this tall list of achievements, one cannot but admit that they are monumental! Let nobody tell you that we don’t have a message for 2024! I must hasten to add that this does not mean we have done everything we intended to do or ought to have done. There is clearly a lot more to do and we will work hard to do more,” Vice-President Bawumia said at the NPP international women’s conference in the UK on Saturday (June 10).
“It is important to note that many of the transformational policy initiatives that we have introduced since 2017 are being done for the first time since independence and most have benefited women! What is interesting is that because many of them have not been done before, many people shackled by a mindset of impossibility have argued that they are not possible, but we made them possible,” Bawumia said.
He also mentioned some of the things the government has implemented that critics thought they were impossible. These include:
o The introduction Zipline Drones for medical supplies
o The announcement that Ghana was the first African country to implement Mobile money Interoperability between bank accounts and mobile wallets.
o The announcement that Ghana was the first African country to implement a Universal QR Code payment system.
o The announcement that the Ghanacard to be used as a travel document for passengers traveling to Ghana from abroad.
o No guarantor student loan policy with the Ghanacard
o The announcement that mobile money interoperability will make it possible for all adult Ghanaians will have a bank account.
o The Free SHS policy
o The Free TVET policy
o The Digital Property Address System
o Sinohydro Bauxite barter agreement
o One constituency one ambulance
o Zongo Development Fund
o Gold for oil program
o Creation 2.1 million jobs in the last six years
o Construction of the Elmina Fishing Harbour
“All these initiatives were pooh-pooed as impossible, but we stayed focused and made them possible. We are dealing politically with people with shackled mindsets who always think in terms of things being impossible to do. When you try to move the country forward with new ideas, they mask their ignorance by mocking you, ridiculing you and calling you a liar. But in the process, they only expose their lack of understanding of the issues. My response to them is to stay focused, not get angry but rather make it happen! That is the best victory you can have over the naysayers! Make what they think is impossible possible,” Bawumia said.
He added: “What we have been able to accomplish so far shows that it is possible for Ghana to achieve many things that some believe to be impossible. With what we have done and continue doing in the wake of the global challenges, the outcome, thus far, points to an auspicious future.
“We have been able to stay afloat the stormy global economic developments and kept our lights on without any threat of dumsor. We have been able to ensure all year-round availability of diesel and petrol and no single Ghanaian had to queue for these essential products. We have never rationed food in our markets as a result of the global challenges. And not a single government flagship social intervention programme, be it free SHS or free TVET, school feeding programme, teacher and nursing trainee allowances, and so on was truncated.”