Failed 1V1D, other wasteful projects will be eliminated if elected — Mahama

Mahama

Former president and the flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has vowed to eliminate one district one factory, one village one dam and other projects initiated by the NPP if he becomes president.

In an exclusive interview with Joy News on June 16, 2024, while speaking about the Father's Day celebration, John Mahama spoke passionately about the economic crisis facing Ghanaians, leading to lower standards of living.

According to him, the Akufo-Addo-led administration has made several mistakes, including taking the nation to the IMF though government attributed the nation's economic challenges to COVID-19 instead of admitting its mistakes.

He said even before COVID-19, the signals were glaring, stressing how the NPP government was unwilling to cut expenditure and increase revenues to boost the economy again.

"When I announced the last IMF programme, I said it will be the programme to end all programmes and that it was my hope that we will not go into another IMF programme ever again. Unfortunately, the prophecy did not come to pass, this government made many mistakes and we find ourselves in this crisis again. They always attribute it to COVID-19 and all that but we could see the signals even before COVID-19. One, we need to cut down expenditure, this government is not ready to cut down expenditure. In crises, you smash expenditure and increase revenues but all they are doing is increasing expenditure without revenue," he said.

Mahama vows that if elected as president, he would reduce government size, cut down expenditure, increase revenue and also tackle all wasteful projects introduced by NPP.

He mentioned the failed One Village One Dam project as a key example. He noted, " That's why I said we will cut the size of government, we will reduce the number of ministers and eliminate all those wasteful projects, 'One Village One Dam' and all those things that they've spent billions on so that we can use that money on productive sectors to make the economy grown again."

Mahama also spoke about how his government will expand the Planting for Foods and Jobs initiative by investing in agriculture and supporting local farmers and companies to buy from local producers instead of importing from other countries.

"We will use local government financial muscles to help indigenous Ghanaian local companies and so government will buy first from Ghanaian companies rather than to import from outside. I think that if we do that it will create more employment within our country. And then most importantly, we would invest in agriculture and agro-processing, we've never ever fully invested in the full value chain, we always give support to farmers to produce more like planting for food and Jobs, all these programmes aim at the farmers to increase his production," he emphasised.