The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) presented its manifesto for the pending December 2024 general elections, titled the “Selfless Leadership, Bold Solutions for Jobs and Business” Manifesto, on Sunday, August 18, 2024.

The 2024 NPP Manifesto, which was presented by the flagbearer of the party, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, outlined the policies and programmes, together with the intentions and motives the party believes will help transform Ghana should they be given the opportunity to form the next government of Ghana for an unprecedented third successive term.

As the name of the manifesto – “Selfless Leadership, Bold Solutions for Jobs and Business” – suggests, it focused on policies and programmes that the NPP believes will foster collaboration between the government and the private sector to help deal with one of the major headaches of the country – job creation.

The Bold Solutions for Jobs and Business also touched on policies and programmes for the education sector that would not only increase access to education, but also ensure that the Ghanaian youth get all the resources and training to make them job-ready, as well as job creators (entrepreneurs).

Here are the policies, programmes and initiatives of the NPP for the educational sector and job creation as captured in the highlights of their 2024 manifesto:

Job Creation:

• Train 1,000,000 youth in digital skills

• Create jobs through private-sector construction and infrastructure development, industrialisation, and agribusiness

• Create jobs through the Tax Amnesty Programme

• Create jobs for artisans (carpenters, masons, welders, etc.) and built environment professionals, to maintain public infrastructure, through a revived and resourced PWD

• Create SME jobs with the introduction of The SME Bank

• Create jobs through the minerals industry, and its value chain (aluminium, gold, lithium, manganese, salt, etc.)

• Employ more security services personnel

• Create jobs through the National Cybersecurity Workforce Development Programme

• Recruit more special needs teachers

• Set quotas for recruitment of PWDs for public sector recruitment

• Employ more lawyers for legal aid (at least 2 for each district)

• Create other jobs through Tourism, Creative Arts and Sports; “Jobs Abroad” Programme; “Youth in Seafaring” Programme; Aviation & Logistics; Green Energy Industries, including EVs, and

• Support businesses to drive and accelerate job creation by cutting 3% of GDP from government expenditure (GH₵30 billion), and redirecting it towards the private sector; using our tried and tested gold purchase programme; introduce a flat rate tax system in Ghana, like Estonia; complement the Flat Tax regime by using a Tax Amnesty Programme to enable industries to finance their expansion; recruit more employees, and energise economic activity, implementing a significant shift in electricity tariffs structure to a regime in which commercial rates are either equal to, or lower than residential rates; establishing an SME Bank to meet the special financing needs of small and medium businesses and establishing a Fintech Fund with seed capital of US$100 Million (GH₵1.6 billion).

Education:

• Increase the stock of student accommodation in our public universities and other public tertiary institutions to address the housing deficit on campuses, and make them affordable

• Introduce a Free Tertiary Education Scholarship for PWDs, to remove financial barriers to pursuing educational goals

• On scholarships: integrate scholarship databases across all the public sector institutions managing such schemes, to ensure full visibility, expand eligibility for the Student Loan Scheme to include all post-secondary students, including certificate and diploma programmes, and prioritise and direct a significant proportion of national scholarship schemes towards training and skills development

• Implement in full the Centralised Applications Processing Service (CAPS) for tertiary institutions: “You apply once, and pay once”

• Establish an Open University

• Those who, after completion of their tertiary education, have secured jobs would be exempted from national service

• Protect and enhance the free SHS/TVET, which is truly transforming lives and changing life outcomes for millions: since we started free SHS/TVET, enrolment has increased by 83%. We are building the foundation for a well-educated, prosperous society, with free SHS/TVET, we have achieved gender parity. More girls are getting secondary education, and the impact will be positive for society

• Recruit more teachers at all levels, with improved conditions of service

• Continue to develop additional infrastructure for our educational institutions to meet the increased numbers

• Offer incentives for teachers to buy one vehicle each with engine capacity of up to 1,800 cubic centimetres (cc)

BAI/AE

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