Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has reiterated the resolve of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to implement policies and programmes designed to alleviate economic hardships faced by Ghanaians.

According to him, protests by members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the NPP has brought in a lot of discomfort in the country must be downplayed adding that the Akufo-Addo-led government has done a lot to ease the poor state of the economy.

“So we have done tangible things to reduce the hardships on Ghanaians. We can point to them. Today the NDC is going around saying that there are hardships. So what we want to ask them, and I want to challenge them, a simple challenge: tell us what you have done in your last 8 years of government. Tell us the social interventions you brought in to reduce the hardships of Ghanaians.” He dared NDC.

He added, “It’s a simple challenge. They may take a long time to answer, but we’re waiting. We have time.”

Boasting about some of the policies introduced and implemented by the NPP, the economic expert said, “If you ask me, I will tell you we have increased the portion of the District Assembly Common Fund for Persons with Disabilities from 2% to 3%, we have expanded the School Feeding Programme from 1.6 million to 2.1 million, we have expanded LEAP to cover an additional 150,000 people, and we are paying the BECE examination registration for students."



The Vice President, who gave a remark at the 2018 joint Annual Dinner and Dance of the United Kingdom branch of the NPP and the Young Executives Forum (YEF) on Saturday October, 20 2018, said the NPP, under President Nana Akufo-Addo, has a record to be proud of.

To make his point clear, he asked the audience to do a comparison of the state of the country while NDC was in power for eight years and that of the current 20-month-old government.

Also, while acknowledging that the needs of citizens are insatiable, Vice President Bawumia insists that government has done more to mitigate the effects of any difficulties affecting Ghanaians since it assumed office 20 months ago.

“Although as humans, we will continuously have needs, and thus keep expressing concerns of greater desires and pains, what is refreshing is that today, Teacher Trainees are receiving their allowances. Nursing trainees are receiving their allowances. BECE candidates have their registration fees paid for them. We have doubled the Capitation Grant; 100,000 unemployed graduates are now under NABCO.

Dr Bawumia indicated that the above-mentioned are things which did not exist before the NPP took over from the NDC. He said if the NPP had not addressed the issues, the unresolved will only compound the hardships in Ghana.

The Vice President, however, assured that government is on course in its resolve to implement policies and programmes designed to formalise and modernise the Ghanaian economy, adding, “there are exciting times ahead for Ghana.”