Infrastructural development dipped under Mahama - Bawumia

Contrary to claims by President John Mahama that the country has seen massive infrastructural development under his government, data in the past years indicate a decline, vice presidential nominee of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has stated.

“The stock of capital expenditure as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been on the decline and it has come down from an average of 11 per cent during 2001 to 2008, to 5.7 percent,” he noted.

By his analysis: “This major decline in infrastructure spending means contrary to all government claims of an increase in infrastructure, projects are rather declining.”

According to the former deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana, the government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is investing half of what the NPP government under ex-President John Agyekum Kufour invested to develop the country.

Dr Bawumia added that the discovery of oil should have translated into more infrastructural development but “the government (NPP) that did not have oil had twice as much relative to GDP than the governing party.”

He alleged the Mahama government has “overpriced most projects” leading to job losses.

For him, leadership is about choices and Ghanaians should vote for a president with the interest of citizens at heart who will promise ‘1-village-1-dam’ and reject the “corrupt, incompetent leadership” who will rather choose to embark on a ‘1-chief-1-car’ programme.

Dr Bawumia made the comments at a public lecture at the National Theatre on Thursday, September 8, under the theme: ‘State of Ghana’s Economy – Foundation of Concrete or Straw?’ In his view, Ghana’s economic challenges were not about a lack of resources but the inefficient management of such resources.

He said no government since independence had had the amount of resources in terms of tax revenue, cocoa exports, and others as the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), yet President Mahama has nothing to show for it.

Dr Bawumia noted that in the eight years of the Kufuor administration, from 2001-2009, the total tax revenue collected was GHS15.2 billion, but between 2009 and 2015, the Mills-Mahama administration has collected GHS90 billion in taxes.

According to him, it was estimated that by the end of 2016, the government would have collected a total of GHS118.2billion.

“Under the eight years of the NPP government, from 2001-2009, taxes and loans amounted to GHS20 billion and without oil, economic growth increased from 3.7 per cent to 9.1 per cent. But in contrast, GDP per capita has declined by 12 per cent under John Mahama’s tenure as president when oil revenue and loans alone over the eight-year period of 2009-2016 would amount to GHS248billion,” he said.