Felix Kwakye Ofosu, the former Deputy Minister of Communications
Felix Kwakye Ofosu, the former Deputy Minister of Communications has tabled evidence to rubbish some claims made by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia in a lecture at the Ashesi University on Tuesday, November 2, 2021.
Bawumia in his address which was themed: ‘Transforming An Economy Through Digitalisation: The Ghana Story,’ enumerated various projects undertaken by the Akufo-Addo government to better the lives of Ghanaians.
The Vice President, among other things stated that the Akufo-Addo led government has established more factories than any other government in history.
He also stated that under the fourth republic, no government has created more job opportunities than the current administration.
On the topic of digitalization, Bawumia took stock of some interventions which he says were implemented by the Akufo-Addo government.
They include the mobile interoperability, Ghana card, improved passport delivery, issuance of birth certificates among other interventions.
But in a 24-minute presentation on Metro TVs Good Morning Ghana program, Kwakye Ofosu shredded Bawumia’s claims with counter-evidence.
Armed with the erstwhile Mahama government’s ‘Green Book’ and other material evidence, Kwakye Ofosu broke down the thematic areas in the Bawumia address and punched holes in them.
He described as a ‘lie’ assertions by Bawumia that the Akufo-Addo government has set up more factories than any other government.
He argued his case from the viewpoint that the factories being set up under the One-District-One-Factory initiative are privately owned which makes it impossible for the government to claim credit.
He also dared Bawumia to provide names of the persons who have been employed by these factories and showed a list of some companies set up under the Mahama administration under a similar model to that of the 1D1F.
“Another lie is that they’ve set up more companies than any other government. That is also another lie. To begin with, Dr Bawumia and his boss Nana Akufo-Addo have not set up one company. All they’ve done is to attach themselves to people’s companies.
“Since 1997, there has been a government policy to give tax incentives to anybody who wants to set up and there have been 1000s of companies set up before Dr. Bawumia became Vice President. If you give me the opportunity, I will recite 147 companies that were established between 2013 and 2017 January. At least 11 of that so-called 1D1F that they tout were companies that we funded prior to the coming of the Bawumia administration.
“I’m challenging Dr. Bawumia directly to put out a list of everybody they claim they’ve employed. The so-called 750,000. I’m saying it’s 216,000 based on the budget. Even with that, I have added the projections they made in the 2021 budget so they must cut out the lies and (not) think Ghanaians are dullards so they say anything and get away with it,” he said.
On the issue of digitalization, Kwakye Ofosu credited the Kufuor and Mills/Mahama administration for providing the infrastructure for a successful take-off.
He also listed some of the interventions which commenced under the Mahama administration and berated Bawumia for taking credit.
Watch the video below