1D1F not wasteful projects — Boakye Danquah tells Mahama

The spokesperson for government on governance and security, Palgrave Boakye Danquah has expressed his disappointment in former president John Dramani Mahama for describing One District One Factory (1D1F) and other NPP-led projects as wasteful.

Reacting to Mahama's comments on JoyNews Desk, Mr Boakye Danquah said he's disappointed and surprised that someone like the former President who has passed through the ranks of Ghanaian politics, starting as an Assemblyman to become president will mislead Ghanaians.

"The former president is misleading the Ghanaian people and I'm surprised that the one who has been an Assemblyman, MP, Minister, vice president and a president is calling 1D1F a wasteful project. I'm really disappointed because people come into governance to ensure that we elevate the plight of the people. You cannot call social interventions like the 1D1F, Ambulances, Drones and all the projects we have done wasteful projects," he stated.

On government expenditure, Boakye Danquah said the NPP government has cut the expenditure of officials, including the executives, ministers, and deputy ministers.

Boakye Danquah highlighted that the highest government expenditure in terms of a percentage of GDP reaching about 28% was recorded under former president John Dramani Mahama's administration in 2012.

"Let me school him( Mahama) a little bit if cares to know, the government cut down 30% of salaries of the executives, CEOs, Minister and Deputy Ministers. For instance, the highest number of expenditure as a percentage of GDP reaching about 26.8% was observed in the physical year of 2012. In contrast, the highest expenditure-to-GDP ratio recorded under our government was 24.6% in 2020 and so remarkably, if you want to compare that since 2009, the lowest levels of expenditure relative to GDP have been achieved under the administration of President Akufo-Addo and Alhaji Bawumia between the figures of 19.1% in 2017, 18.9% in 2018 and 19% in 2019 respectively and so very clearly, you can see that the better management this Ghanaian economy is none other than but the New Patriotic Party under the leadership of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and husband vice Alhaji Bawumia. The former president does not know what he's talking about," he explained.

In agriculture, Boakye Danquah said the NPP government also introduced the 1D1F to boost local production. "What the government of Ghana is doing is making sure that we are using the local needs to feed the local people. In our quest to do 1D1F, is the local needs, local raw materials that we are using. We are not heavily depending on importation because the goal is that the more you import, the more it affects your currency and so the goal of government is that we are rethinking in the box and thinking outside the box which is why we brought 1D1F, localising industrialisation and that also means we have looked at the forest reserve, which is why as a thinking government, we have brought gold for reserve. We are allowing the central bank of Ghana to buy more gold reserve so that when our currency becomes inefficient, we can use it to top up our currency so the former president does not know what he's talking about and I don't think the Ghanaian people should even give him the nod because he's not even well prepared to come back again," he emphasised.