He said it was a way to create more jobs and educate more people, especially the youth. The government has so far created 2.1 million jobs in the last seven years, an unprecedented feat in the Fourth Republic, he said.
Job creation
Dr. Bawumia, the incumbent Vice President, said there was emphasis on job creation as another way to alleviate hardship as many people are unemployed and have no income.
“Our hardships would be alleviated if we introduce a credit-based system in the country instead of a cash-based system and increase consumption opportunities for the people,” he added.
Responding to questions when he met separately with Imams and Christian clerics in Tema and Ashaiman yesterday as part of his visit to the Greater Accra Region, Dr Bawumia said government would continue to do more to address the huge youth population in the country.
The Greater Accra tour is the 15th region the Vice President has visited as part of his interactions with groups and organisations seeking input for inclusion in his manifesto.
Agriculture
He said his government will now focus on expanding agriculture and food production to bring down food prices and minimise hardship for his people.This is why he believes commercial, technology-driven, precision, irrigated and mechanised agriculture is the way forward for Ghana.
The NPP leader said that was because no country could develop without solving its food problems. He said the country has therefore made great strides, such as reducing rice imports by less than 50 percent.
But he said more needed to be done to improve food production.
Electric bus
“I have also proposed to shift public transport to electric vehicles and hope to start trials this year. Shifting public transport to electric vehicles would reduce public transport costs by at least 40 percent,” he added.
Dr Bawumia said because electric vehicles do not use fuels such as diesel and require minimal spare parts, “we are introducing about 200 buses through Metromass and will be piloting them in Greater Accra to see to what extent these electric buses can reduce transport costs.”
He explained that the two main causes of high transport costs in the country are fuel and spare parts. Speaking about government interventions to alleviate the hardships faced by the people, Dr Bawumia said: “If SHS education had not been made free, you can imagine the hardships that people would be going through right now who had to pay school fees for their children, but those fees have been taken away.”
He said the same was true of the free vocational training the government had introduced: “We had to restore the training allowance for teachers and nurses, without which they would have had a much harder time,” he stressed.
Dr Bawumia also touched on the relationship between religious organisations and churches in running schools in the country, saying schools run by churches and other religious organisations have instilled a lot of discipline which has contributed greatly to the country.
“It seems like we’re losing discipline, and I think now is the time to talk about how we can use churches and faith-based organizations to improve school operations and bring more discipline to our schools,” he said.