Akufo-Addo’s 18 months more useful than others’ 8 years - Bawumia

Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has described the 18 months spent so far by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House as more profitable to Ghanaians than the 8 years seen under some past governments.

Dr. Bawumia was speaking Saturday when he met with some paramount traditional authorities at Navrongo where he began his one-day Ramadan tour of the Upper East region.

“The President assumed office with a very difficult economy. He has been at work for the past 18 months now. By the grace of the Almighty God, he has been able to do a lot of things he promised this country he was going to do.

Many people thought what he promised was not possible. He has been able to do many of the things within 18 months. He was able to relieve a lot of our farmers by introducing the Free Senior High School [Policy] which has brought tremendous relief to many people who have their children in senior high schools.

“He was able to reintroduce the Teacher Trainee Allowance, which many thought was not possible. He has been able to reintroduce the Nursing Trainee Allowance. He has been able to reduce the price of electricity. He has done so much in 18 months that many other governments were not able to do in 8 years,” the Vice President said.

The Navrongo Traditional Council announced the final funeral rites of the departed Paramount Chief, Navio-Pio Pe Asagipare I, would be held on June 29, pending the installation of a new chief “before 15th of July”.

A lot of Dams to be constructed soon — Veep

The dams promised every local government area in northern Ghana by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) before the 2016 polls, according to the Vice President, will be constructed very soon.

“Nana Akufo-Addo is delivering. Under the Planting for Food and Jobs [Programme] a lot of our farmers have access to fertilisers and seeds. We are working very hard to make sure that the One Village One Dam Programme is also something that sees the light of day.

“We have awarded the contracts. You will see a lot of dams being constructed very soon all across the three northern regions. We promised to establish the Ministry for Zongo and we have done so. We promised to establish a development authority for each of the three parts of Ghana— the Northern Development Authority, the Middle Belt and the Coastal. We have established them. The boards will be inaugurated on Monday. The CEO of the Northern Development Authority is here. The Deputy is also here. We expect them to work very hard so that all our constituencies see the benefits of the development authority. They will be the [entities] through which we will channel the one million dollars per constituency,” Dr. Bawumia assured.



In the Vice President’s company are the Upper East Regional Minister, Rockson Ayine Bukari, the Minister for Inner City and Zongo Development, Alhaji Boniface Abubakar Saddique, a Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakariah, the Chief Executive Officer of the Northern Development Authority (NDA), Alhaji Abdel-Majeed Haroun, and CEO of National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Hassan Tampuli, among others.

The Vice President joined fellow Muslims to take part in Ramadan prayer sessions held at the central mosques of the areas toured in the region.