'How many jobs did you create with your digitalization agenda?' Bawumia quizzed

Dr. Jacob Anankware, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (General Services) of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), has questioned the impact of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s digitalisation agenda and flagship programmes, arguing that they failed to deliver the promised economic benefits during the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.

Anankware said the former vice president must explain how the billions of cedis spent on digitalisation translated into jobs and improved living conditions for Ghanaians.

He cited youth unemployment figures, which he said rose from 14% in 2016 to more than 20% in 2024, as evidence of the gap between the previous administration’s promises and its results.

“After eight years and billions of Ghana cedis spent, what jobs were created from the digitalisation?” he asked on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana.

He also questioned the performance of the Ghana.gov payment platform, citing the Auditor-General’s findings to argue that it collected less revenue than the system it replaced.

Anankware said the previous administration’s flagship initiatives, including the One District, One Factory programme and the one-village, one-dam policy, had similarly failed to meet expectations.

He challenged Bawumia to provide evidence of the outcomes of those programmes instead of criticising the current government’s policies.

On the 24-hour economy, which Bawumia has criticised, Anankware said the initiative had already been launched and that a secretariat had been established to oversee its implementation.

He also noted that a bill on the programme had been presented to Parliament, arguing that it was too early to dismiss the initiative.

Anankware contrasted the current government’s plans with the previous administration’s record, questioning why Ghana had returned to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial support despite the digitalisation drive.

He said the previous administration’s failure to prevent the economic crisis undermined Bawumia’s criticism of the current government’s economic management.

-mynewsgh