The presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has promised to prioritise reducing the cost of living in Ghana if elected president.
The Vice President says the world is facing what is commonly referred to as the “global cost of living crisis.”
He said that even though inflation has dropped by half this year, prices still remain high.
As part of efforts to help reduce the cost of living, Dr. Bawumia promises to manage a country where we will attain food security through the application of technology and irrigation to commercial large-scale farming.
“We will also promote the use of agricultural lime to reduce the acidity of our soils, enhance soil fertility and get more yield from the application of fertilizers. Ghana has an abundance of limestone to do this. I will prioritise the construction of the Pwalugu Dam by using private sector financing to crowd-in grant financing,” he said.
Speaking at the launch of the manifesto of the NPP, he promised to ensure food security by stabilising the prices of foods produced locally (through financing and guarantees from the Development Bank Ghana (DBG) and the Ghana Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (GIRSAL).
This initiative will mainly involve: upscaling the production of staple foods, investing in the preservation of staple foods, meat, poultry and fish products, and establishing agricultural enclaves which will have irrigation, processing and storage facilities in each region for crops or grains in which the regions have a comparative advantage.
Aside from this, he also promised to reduce the cost of public transportation by:
promoting and supporting Electric Vehicles (EV) public for transportation, expanding the Gold-For-Oil Programme (G4O) to continue stabilising the price of fuel; Stabilising the prices of spare parts through the “Flat Rate Duties for all importers” policy which will bring predictability and stability on prices of imported goods.
He also reiterated his pledge in making the Driver’s license valid for 10 years and extending the renewal period to 5 years.
He added that “Under a Housing for All policy, I will also have a major focus on the provision of Public Housing in the same manner that Singapore did. We will partner with the private sector to build large housing estates without the government having to borrow or spend. Also, the National Rental Assistance Scheme (which is working so well) will be enhanced to deal with the problem of demands for rent advance of two years and more.
We will ensure a variety of accommodation types to meet different pockets and needs as follows: Social Housing: including homeless shelters (overnight stay for the vulnerable) and an expanded Rental Assistance Scheme for low-income workers. Affordable Housing: including District Housing projects through incentives to the private real estate industry, as well as expanding the services of the revived State Housing Company (SHC) and TDC, and National Homeownership Fund (NHF), and
Improving Housing Finance: through an expansion of the mortgage lending market, as well as rent-to-own schemes
He continued: We will use a variety of ways to deliver access to the various types of accommodation. For example, for Social Housing, we will provide public lands within our main cities to private developers, and, in order to benefit, make it mandatory for them to “set aside” between 20% to 30% for low-income social housing units with subsidised rents
− significantly improving the availability and affordability of power by bringing on board 2,000 MW of solar power, and incentivising users by buying excess power they generate from solar systems and paying with “free electricity” from the national grid when they need power (through net metering) − continue to make accessing services easier. Once you have a Ghanacard, all public and private organisations will not be required to collect your basic data.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
