Government struggling to fund Bawumia’s albatross, ‘kwatrikwa’ ‘one student, one laptop’ promise – Ablakwa

Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has accused Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia of creating a crisis for government with his "free laptops for SHS students.”

Mr. Ablakwa noted that the promise is putting pressure on government which is struggling to fund the project.

In a social media post on Thursday, June 8, Ablakwa said government has failed to present the 2023 GETFund formula to Parliament for approval, "despite featuring on Parliament’s Order Paper for Wednesday, June 7, 2023."

"With the NHIA and DACF Formulae approved by Parliament much earlier...the current troubling situation represents the longest period it has taken for a GETFund Formula to be presented to Parliament by any government since the GETFund was established,” his post partly read.

Hon. Ablakwa claimed insiders say Dr. Bawumia's laptop promise will cost at least GHC1.4 billion, "however, after 6 years of mismanaging the GETFund, only some GHS200million is expected to be available in the fund this year."

"Government's conundrum now, thanks to Bawumia’s incorrigible appetite for populist promises, is where to find the GHS1.2billion deficit,” added the North Tongu MP.

The outspoken MP continued, "Negotiations between the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education and GETFund as to how Bawumia’s latest albatross could be accommodated have been rather tempestuous, to put it mildly."

He concluded that "Objectively, after gross mismanagement and the dubious daakye bond experiment, GETFund was already comatose but it’s only logical to conclude that Bawumia’s ‘kwatrikwa’ free-laptop-affair was the last whimsical pronouncement that left GETFund completely lifeless."