What is Dr Bawumia's 'new vision'?

The much-anticipated event for Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to outline ‘his own vision’ to get Ghana out of the current economic quagmire and lead the country to the dreamland was held on Wednesday, February 7, 2024.

Rather than Dr Bawumia's visions for his presidency, conversations after his address pointed to the fact that he was more focused on the vision of his contender, former President John Dramani Mahama, as well as his promise to cancel taxes already being implemented by the current government, under which he also serves.

This article aims to throw more light on the section of Dr. Bawumia's address where he spoke about his vision for Ghana.

The vice president, during his address, appealed to Ghanaians to give him a chance at the presidency because “As Vice-President I am like a driver’s mate. But if, by the Grace of God, you make me President, I will be in the driver's seat with constitutionally mandated authority to pursue my vision and my priorities.”

He went ahead to state his vision as follows:

“My vision is to create a tent big enough to accommodate all our people, to tap into the resourcefulness and talents of our people irrespective of our different ethnic, political and religious backgrounds, to channel our energies into building the kind of country that assures a food self-sufficient, safe, prosperous, and dignified future for all Ghanaians, to create sustainable jobs with meaningful pay for all, and for Ghana to participate fully in the fourth industrial revolution using systems and data.”

To achieve this vision, Dr Bawumia enumerated a number of policies, programmes and systems which have been highlighted below:

1. Sustained Macroeconomic Stability
Dr Bawumia said that one of the major goals of this government would be to attain and sustain macroeconomic stability with low inflation, low-interest rates, exchange rate stability and
low budget deficits.

To do this he said his government would be prudently managing government expenditure, increasing revenue and leveraging the private sector.

Some of the policy measures under this section include: amendment and proper implementation of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2018 (Act 982) and giving incentives to the private sector so that they would be able to complement the government in the provision of infrastructure such as roads and hospitals among others.

The vice president also indicated that his government would implement a new tax system because the current tax system has failed so the government revenue generation can be increased tremendously.


2. Build a Digital Economy and make Ghana a Digital Hub
The vice president said that his government would focus on building the digital talent of the country which is required for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, particularly in Technical
and vocational skills and ICT education.

“This will mean providing digital and software skills to hundreds of thousands of youth. This along with other policies, will create jobs for the youth, including school dropouts. In collaboration with the private sector, we will train at least 1,000,000 youth in IT skills, including software developers to provide job opportunities worldwide,” he said.


3. Reducing the cost of living
He said that his government would put means in place so that Ghana produce most of the food and agriculture inputs it needs including the application of technology and commercial large-scale farming.

He also said that his government would work to reduce the cost of public transport between 30-40% with the adoption of electric vehicles for public transportation and also adopt a Housing for All policy which would ensure every Ghanaian can own a home.

4. Power Sector Reforms
The vice president said that his government will implement policies to have energy self-sufficiency at reduced cost through solar and other renewables with the application of market efficiency to the energy market.

He said that his government would diversify the generation mix by introducing 2000MW of solar power and additional wind power through independent power producers to reduce our dependence on oil and gas by the end of my first term in office.

This, he said, will significantly reduce the cost of electricity in the country.


5. A Golden Age for the Maximization of the Benefits from Natural Resources
Dr Bawumia said he would usher Ghana into a golden age for the maximization of the benefits from our natural resources like gold, lithium, and bauxite among others by ensuring value addition and Ghanaian ownership.

Some of the measures to do this include formalising, regularising and regulating environmentally sustainable small-scale mining.

6. Industrialization for Jobs
The vice president indicated that he would continue the current government's industrialization (in areas such as agro-processing (cocoa, cashew peanuts, etc.) salt, gold and lithium refining and manufacture of batteries, and automobile assembly and manufacture) and also empower the local business sector, especially startups and SMEs to drive investment and growth in Ghana, thus significantly boosting job creation.

7. Dealing with Corruption through Digitalization and a Cashless Society
He said that he would continue the government’s digitalization agenda to weed off corruption in the public sector.


“Accumulation of wealth is not and has never been my passion or ambition. This why throughout my public life I have pursued policies, especially through digitalization, to check corruption in places like the ports, 62 DVLA, NHIS, Passport Office, CAGD, etc. So, I have a solid track record in fighting corruption. And I have earned a reputation for doing so,” he said.


8. Developing a Credit System for Ghana
The vice president said he would develop a credit system which would enable workers to have easy access to credit to purchase basic items such as televisions, cars, and houses.

“In Ghana, such a credit system is yet to develop and therefore life is harder for workers. It is my goal to make it easier and 64 cheaper to access credit by Leveraging on our data and systems such as Ghanacard, GhanapostGPS, Mobile Money Interoperability, DVLA, GRA, Bank Accounts, etc. to build an efficient credit system and mortgage market in Ghana underpinned by individualized credit scoring and the digitalization of land titling and transfer,” he said.

9. Other policies the vice president listed includes:
The development of a National Development Plan to guide Ghana’s development process.

A review of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana including, “with key emphasis on issues such as ex-gratia, the rights of dual citizens, election of MMDCEs to deepen decentralization, and empowering institutions while reducing the power of the President”.

View more detail of Dr Bawumia’s vision in the document below (from page 40:



BAI/AE

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