NPP stole our 'Kayayei' initiative- Tony Aidoo

The Head of Monitoring and Evaluation at the presidency, Dr. Tony Aidoo, has accused the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) of stealing a policy to provide housing for heard porters from the ruling party’s manifesto.

The porters who troop from northern Ghana to the south in search of unavailable jobs end up living in the streets while carrying goods in markets.

Nana Akufo-Addo, last month, promised his administration will provide free hostels for the porters popularly called ‘Kayayei when voted into power. But this promise has generated angry reactions from government.

President John Mahama described the proposal as insulting, saying it only meant the porters will “…continue to carry people’s goods.”

Speaking on Joy FM’s political talk show Cross Fire Wednesday, Dr. Tony Aidoo contradicted the president and revealed the policy was actually proposed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) during the 2004 electioneering campaign.

“In 2004, the NDC produced a manifesto and part of our social welfare programmes was to build what we called dormitories towards the creation of peri-urban agriculture farming unit.

“That is what they (NPP) have stolen to build hostels for kayayeis…” he insisted.