Bawumia Tackles Mahama: Ghana Needs Upgrade, Not Reset

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has rubbished John Dramani Mahama’s call on Ghanaians to elect him back to power to reset the country.

The NPP flagbearer posited that what Ghana needs is an upgrade, not a reset.

At his media engagement on Sunday, August 25 in Accra, attended by his running mate, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the NPP flagbearer also mentioned 14 commitments he will undertake if he is elected President.

“I represent the future, Ghana needs an upgrade, not a reset. I have also outlined my 14 key commitments to the Ghanaian people. These are to sustain and expand Ghana’s rebounding economy, create new jobs, implement wide-ranging tax reforms, and build Ghana into a world-class digital economy.

“Reduce the cost of living, expand public infrastructure, provide better healthcare for all, implement Affirmative Action for girls and women, provide good governance, care for the elderly, and expand educational opportunities for all, protect our borders while keeping our neighbourhood safe,” he stated.

Economy
Dr Bawumia also tackled a question about NDC flagbearer, John Mahama questioning the claim that he ( Bawumia) is an economic messiah.

He stated: “Sometimes, I get a bit amazed when he talked about economic mismanagement. We don’t have short memories what he left us with. He left us with abysmal record. We have endured dumsor for four years and industries collapsed. GDP growth had declined to 3.4%.“

“There was a freeze on public recruitment. Banking sector was virtually on its knees. We had many challenges he left us with. If we juxtapose what he left us with our delivery, we have done better. Our supposed bad economy is better than his good economy he left us. We created at least 2.1 million jobs , we’ve kept the lights on for eight years, nursing training teacher trainees we’ve restored their allowance.”

Fundamentals
Dr Bawumia repeated his assertion that once fundamentals are weakened, you see it in exchange rates. “But the fundaments have strengthened , and we are beginning to see improvement. There has been the strengthening of the fundamentals.”

Gold for Oil
He said the economy was on the verge of collapse in 2022. “This is where Gold for Oil came in handy to rescue the economy . I will institutionalize the policy if I win the elections.”

Banking sector
“We saved the deposits of 4.6 million bank depositors who really were going to lose their deposits if those banks were not saved. I don’t understand whether the former President has taken his time to understand the banking sector. Some atrocious things and this is why these banks had to be saved.

He said the banks were not collapsed, rather they were merged into other banks and no banking depositor lost 1 cedi. “But very bad things happened, some of the banks broke all the rules and extended loans way above the single obligor limits.”

“They were given, in some cases 1 billion by the Bank of Ghana to help them out of the mess and they only got deeper into the situation. Other banks were given capital to save the situation, and they used that money to set up Capital Bank, instead of rescuing the problem that they had. “They took the money from the central bank and set up another business which also collapsed. Some took money and invested in private properties.”

“So, it was against this background the governor came to report, and this was one of my nightmares in the last eight years. Most people didn’t understand how close we were to a collapse of the entire banking system.  This is how we had to merge many of these banks and we saved 4. 6 million depositors.”

“I’ll ask the former president if he hasn’t read, to go and read the receiver’s report or the BoG’s report and acquaint himself before making any further comments on matters he clearly doesn’t understand.

“He needs to get an understanding before making further comments and he cannot hand over a bank’s licence to them, this is subject to legal procedure.”