NDC presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) seeks to invest $3 billion in the creation of additional digital jobs for the youth under its One Million Coders Programme, former President John Dramani Mahama has hinted.
“The One Million Coders Programme will be aimed at creating additional digital jobs for our youth, and we intend to spend $3 billion on investments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT),” he told the audience at a public lecture at the Christian Service University in Kumasi. He was speaking as the guest speaker for the lecture organized by the Christian Service University as part of its 50th-anniversary activities.
The former President said sound and prudent economic management founded on broad and far-reaching governance and economic reforms would take root in Ghana under the new leadership of the NDC.
He said his number one priority would be stabilizing the economy, halting the deterioration of the cedi, and restoring its value against other currencies.
“Our economic policy would be geared towards sustainable growth with an equitable distribution of the proceeds of growth among our citizens,” the former President assured.
He further indicated that “The basic structure of our economy, reliant on raw material export with little or no value addition, is no longer tenable.”
Significant growth and wealth creation, according to him, could not be realized, translating into the government failing to provide for the people if the situation continued. Mahama said the next NDC government would work to restore the country’s traditional export sector to its past glory, adding that incentives for cocoa farmers to increase exports and turn the sector around to take advantage of improved world market prices would also be a priority for the NDC.
“We will also increase production in our oil and gas sector. The last eight years have been wasted without one single oil well brought on stream,” he bemoaned.
He said oil and gas were in the transition period, with the world shifting towards green energy; hence, every country with oil was pumping it out in haste, yet Ghana had wasted eight years without developing additional wells.
“If we don’t bring these producers back on stream and take advantage of our oil and gas sector, the world would make the transition, and our gas and oil will become stranded assets,” he cautioned.
He gave the assurance that his government would seek to take greater control of Ghana’s natural resources and move towards processing such resources while attracting investments into areas such as farming, industry, and agribusiness. “This will increase our export potential and bring in foreign exchange so that it can lead to a stable currency,” he opined.
