Vice president, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive, Yohane Amarh Ashitey
The Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive, Yohane Amarh Ashitey, has described as a "whipping of former president Mahama", the recent interaction with organised labour by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
In a long post on social media, the MCE who is also the ruling New Patriotic Party's (NPP) Parliamentary candidate for Tema East in the December 2024 elections says that Dr. Bawumia provided organized labour with cogent policy deliverables that make Mr. Mahama’s earlier encounter with organized labour a joke.
“I call them cogent policy punchlines! All you have to do is go back and abreast yourself with Mr. John Mahama’s meeting with organized labour and compare it to the deliverables that Dr. Bawumia outlined and you will see that Dr. Bawumia is far ahead of his challenger from the NDC,” the MCE wrote.
Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, also the 2024 presidential candidate of the NPP, met with organized labour last week and outlined his vision.
This meeting came several months after former president John Mahama, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s presidential candidate for the election had earlier met representatives of organized labour and presented his vision on the 24-hour economy.
But between Mr. Mahama’s proposals and Dr. Bawumia’s own, the Tema MCE says that Dr. Bawumia tally outshined the NDC flagbearer.
“John Mahama could not explain well, let alone convince anybody about the 24-hour economy policy. However, come and check Dr. Bawumia out, the policy punchlines were on point every time,” the MCE wrote.
Among others, Dr. Bawumia promised that if by the end of this year, the Labour Act (Act 651) is not reviewed, he would make sure it is reviewed and passed under his administration to protect workers.
He also reiterated his plans to implement a flat tax rate in 2025 after granting tax amnesty to every individual in the country.
On stabilising the cedi from further depreciation, he said the Bank of Ghana (BoG) having adequate gold reserves would provide the stability the Ghanaian currency required to prevent frequent depreciation.
The Vice President also promised that his government would make sure all gold concessions would be owned by Ghanaians while gold processed in the country was sold to the central bank to shore up the country’s reserves.
According to him, his government would resource the Geological Survey Authority and technical universities to explore the country's seven gold belts to ensure that the gold concessions produced positive outcomes.
He repeated his plans to establish a Minerals Development Bank to support small-scale miners in sourcing funding for their businesses, noting that the sector could generate three billion dollars annually. Regarding improving fiscal discipline, the NPP presidential candidate assured the administration that he would ensure the Fiscal Responsibility Council operated independently, overseeing the Ministry of Finance.
He promised to downsize his government’s expenditure by 3% of the gross domestic product (GDP), which amounted to about GHc30 billion every year.
Dr Bawumia reaffirmed his commitment not to appoint not more than 50 Ministers under his administration.
On constitutional matters, the NPP Flagbearer pledged to review Article 87 of the 1992 Constitution and National Development Planning Commission Act, (Act 479) to align with the development aspirations of the nation.
