Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has acknowledged that suffering still exists in Ghana, but emphasized that the government has made significant strides in reducing it.
Speaking at a media engagement at the Accra-Movenpick Hotel on Sunday, Dr. Bawumia admitted that challenges persist, but pointed to various initiatives implemented to alleviate hardships.
“I remember very well in my statement, teachers are suffering, doctors are suffering, nurses are suffering, journalists are suffering, and everybody is suffering… But I think that we have moved on significantly since 2016,” Dr. Bawumia stated.
“I think that, yes, the suffering is there, but we have done a lot of social interventions to ameliorate that suffering, it is not gone, but we can point to things that have gone in to reduce the suffering of our people,” Dr Bawumia stated.
He highlighted the government’s efforts to create jobs, increase per capita income, and implement social interventions to reduce suffering.
“And we can point to a few things, at the end of the day, you reduce suffering broadly, like creating jobs, so that you give people something to do. Or you bring in social interventions to ameliorate the problems, the hardships that are there.
“So, you need to look at what we have done. We have created at least 2.1 million jobs, and per capita income in cedi terms has gone up almost threefold. GDP has gone up, and per capita income has also gone up. We have kept all public sector workers employed.
“We didn’t lay anyone off during COVID-19. We have kept the lights on for 8 years, we suffered so much from “Dumsor”. Nursing and teacher trainees were suffering but we have restored their allowances. We have done quite a bit to reduce the suffering of people,” he added.
