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Former President John Mahama
The presidential candidate of the Democratic National Congress (NDC), former President John Dramani Mahama, has said he will focus on creating sustainable jobs for young people if he wins the December 7 presidential election.
Speaking in an interactive engagement with professional groups at the third edition of the Leadership Dialogue Series organized by the Center for Social Justice (CSJ) in Accra last Monday, he said Ghanaians could trust him to fulfill their agenda of job creation due to its track record. .
“In my first administration as president, I promised to deliver first-class infrastructure projects and I did and it is visible across the country. In my next administration, I have said that we will focus on job creation,” he said.
Some meeting participants
Dialogue
Mr. Mahama, who made himself available for scrutiny by the leaders of the various professional groups in the country, responded to questions posed by the founder of the Alliance for Women in the Media in Africa, Ms. Shamima Muslim, and the Head of the Department of Public Affairs, Management and International Relations at the Ghana Institute of Public Administration and Management (GIMPA), Dr. Lord Wawuko-Yevugah, at a panel discussion.
She also responded to questions from professional groups, including the Greater Accra Market Women’s Association, the Ghana National Association of Private Schools, the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), the Ghana National Union of Students (NUGS), as well as individual professionals, such as lawyers, teachers and doctors, who were present at the event.
According to a member of the CSJ, Dr. Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, who delivered the welcome speech, last Monday’s engagement was planned as a debate between the former president and president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
He said that the dialogue series was created by the CSJ to give various interested parties the opportunity to have special meetings with the candidates who participated in the presidential elections on December 7.
“We conceptualize today’s dialogue as a face-to-face presidential debate between the leaders of the two main political parties. However, the discussions that we initiate are not yet conclusive.
“In the absence of a debate, we are grateful to Mr. Mahama for accepting that his proposals be considered by the CSJ panel and the audience present physically and on social media,” said Dr. Sodzi-Tettey.
Redirection
Mahama said his administration will reorient and reorient the Ghana Exim Bank operations to promote exports and sustainable job creation.
He noted that the operations of the bank, which was established by his administration in 2016, had been plagued by “lack of transparency and blatant abuse of bank funds in secondary activities, neglected by many poor and legitimate viable businesses.”
“I am saddened by business plans that ask for credit,” he added.
He said that under his supervision, the EXIM Bank of Ghana, in addition to other sources of financing, would support agriculture and agribusiness for the domestic and export market by creating production and processing zones for agricultural products in all major producing areas. of crops in the country.
“We hope that these interventions will make Ghana self-sufficient and a major exporter of finished products, such as cashews, cocoa, shea, palm, cassava, pepper, ginger, fruit and rubber, to put money in the pockets of farmers and entrepreneurs. Indian.
Camaraderie
Mr. Mahama echoed the NDC’s vision of partnering with the private sector to create around one million jobs in four years under the “Edwuma Pa” policy by creating 250,000 sustainable jobs annually. to improve the livelihoods of Ghanaians.
The plan, he explained, fits into Goal Eight of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which says decent work and economic growth must be achieved by 2030.
“In order to promote fairness, transparency and accountability in the distribution of available job opportunities, we will enact an Employment Law to provide a comprehensive framework for job creation and the collection of labor market statistics,” added.
Health care
On health, the former president mounted a strong defense of the NDC’s free primary health care.
He argued that Ghana’s annual population growth rate of 2.2% was not proportional to the average growth of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
“As it is today, only 40 percent of our population is in the NHIS and only two percent of the poor in Ghana, as defined by the United Nations, are in our health insurance. This implies that a staggering 98 percent of those classified as poor in Ghana who are most susceptible to various communicable and non-communicable diseases are excluded from the social protection provided by the NHIS, ”he said.
For this reason, Mr. Mahama encouraged Ghanaians to “support the policy of free primary health care contained in the NDC manifesto.
He also announced that if he won the people’s mandate in the elections, his administration would develop 5G technology in Ghana, as well as train more computer programmers to make e-commerce flourish.
He said it would build on skills development by improving technical and vocational education to attract more young people.
President challenged
Mahama challenged what he called claims by President Akufo-Addo that the NDC bequeathed the current government a disorderly economy and empty coffers.
“I left him with $ 270 million in the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund, more than $ 207 million in the Stabilization Fund and about $ 300 million in the Sinking Fund, with which the final payment of the Kufuor Eurobond was paid. at maturity in 2017, ”he said. .
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