Here Are The Key Policies In The NDC’s 2024 Manifesto

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) is launching its 2024 election manifesto at the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) campus at Winneba in the Central Region.

The NDC flag bearer, John Dramani Mahama with the support of his running mate, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang are headlining the event.

Hundreds of party supporters have gathered at the UEW campus for the occasion, which is outlining the NDC’s policies and strategies for the next government if elected in the December election.

 

Below are the highlights of the 32-page key policies contained in the NDC Manifesto being launched.

 

HIGHLIGHTS.

 

RESETTING THE ECONOMY FOR PROSPERITY

• First 120 days in office: Hold a National Economic Dialogue to draw up a 4-year fiscal consolidation programme.
• Rationalise taxes.
• Abolishing among others E-levy, COVID levy, and 10% levy on bet winnings.
• Review import duties and levies on vehicles and equipment meant for industry and agricultural purposes.
• Rationalise ports fees and charges.
• Implement emergency measures to stabilize the Ghana Cedi and the macro-economy.
• Use Price Stabilization and Recovery Levy to cushion consumers.
• Investigate NPP’s opaque Gold-for-Oil deal.
• Review the Gold Purchase Programme of the Bank of Ghana.
• Restore the licenses of wrongfully collapsed banks and financial institutions.
• Increasing indigenous participation in the banking and financial sector.
• Free statutory funds (GETFUND, NHIL, Road Fund…) for their mandated objects.

 

ALLEVIATING THE CURRENT ECONOMIC HARDSHIPS.

• No-academic-fee policy for first years in public tertiary institutions.
• Free Tertiary Education for PWDs
• Free Sanitary Pads for girls in school.

 

 

QUALITY HEALTHCARE FOR ALL

• Uncap the National Health Insurance Levy.
• Re-prioritise the health sector by ensuring timely release of payments to service providers.
• Establish the Ghana Medical Care Trust (MahamaCares) Fund to support persons with chronic diseases such as kidney failure (dialysis), cancers, Sickle Cell disease, diabetes, hypertension, and other heart diseases.
• Implement Free Primary Healthcare services from the CHPS compound level to the district level in the medium term.
• Expand health infrastructure to restore the automatic employment and timely deployment of health workers.
• Construct a state of the art 500-bed Specialist Children’s Hospital and Fertility Centre in Accra.
• Expand facilities at the Ho Teaching Hospital to provide comprehensive specialist services with the view to establishing a quaternary hospital in the Volta region to attract medical tourism.
• Build a Specialist and Trauma Hospital in the Oti Region for emergencies on the eastern corridor.
• Establish a modern dialysis centre in hospitals in regions that don’t have them.
• Build modern hospitals in Bawku, Yendi and other underserved areas.

 

24-HOUR ECONOMY

Formula 1:3:3

Same Job, Three Shifts, Three People

 

• Extraordinary problems require extraordinary solutions for extraordinary results.
• Businesses and public organizations to operate 24/7 in three shifts of eight hours.
• Boost production, promote productivity, generate well-paying jobs.
• Transform Ghana into an import substitution and export-led economy.
• Increase employment opportunities and revenue.
• Enhance access to public services.
• Focus on selected public institutions with large customer traffic:
  • Ports and Harbours
  • Customs
  • Passport Office
  • DVLA etc.
• Private sector focus:
  • Agro-Processing
  • Manufacturing
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Construction
  • Financial Services
  • Extractive industries
  • Sanitation and Waste Management
  • Hospitality Industry
  • Retail Centres
  • Transportation Services
  • Health Services
  • Security Services

 

SUPPORT PACKAGE FOR 24-HOUR BUSINESSES

• Stimulate demand for 24-hour economy goods & services.
• Supported by strategic investments in infrastructure, security, energy etc.
• Public and private security architecture.
• Cheaper and reliable electricity (Time-of-Use tariff system)
• Tax incentives for cost reduction.
• Support from Ghana Exim Bank for agro-processing & manufacturing to boost exports.
• Support SMEs operating below capacity with catalytic investments to grow & generate jobs.

 

ACCELERATED EXPORT DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL (AEDC)

• Chaired by the President.
• To promote exports under the 24-hour economy strategy.

 

WOMEN’S DEVELOPMENT BANK

• Special-purpose bank
• Low-interest loans
• Tailored financial services on very flexible terms.
• Empower ONE MILLION (1,000,000) Ghanaian women.
• Support women-owned and women-led businesses

 

 

NATIONAL APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMME (NAP)

• For self-employment

 

 

FREE TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING FOR YOUNG PEOPLE.

• Trained apprentices graduated with certification.
• Provide start-up capital & equipment.

 

 

“ADWUMAWURA’’ PROGRAMME

• Special business start-up policy with focus on the youth.
• Create, track and mentor 10,000 businesses annually.

 

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

• Exempt new small businesses from corporate and personal income tax for the first two years after their incorporation.
• Review Customs (Amendment) Act, 2020 (Act 1014) to scrap the ban on importation of salvaged vehicles.
• Save the local automotive industries—Suame Magazine, Kokompe, Abossey Okai.
• Support the redevelopment of the Abossey Okai, Suame, Kokompe and Cape Coast Artisanal enclaves.
• Implement a ‘Made in Ghana Agenda’ for production and consumption of Made-in-Ghana goods.
• Launch an “Export Ghana Policy” (AfCFTA & other external trade programmes).
• Enhance the role of Ghana EXIM Bank in financing non-traditional exports.
• Mo-Ne-Yo Pension Scheme for informal sector workers.
• Commercial drivers and motorcyclists (Okada).
• Small scale miners, farmers, fishermen, traders, market women

 

DIGITAL JOBS INITIATIVE

• Partner the private sector to invest $3 billion to leverage ICT for jobs through:
  • One Million Coders Programme: Coding, WebApp development, software engineering etc.
  • Stimulate demand for made in Ghana software.
  • Government using locally developed software will employ our coders and reduce foreign exchange payments for subscriptions to overseas vendors.
• Establish Regional Digital Centers for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).
• Invest $50million in a FinTech Growth Fund to promote digital entrepreneurs.
• Set up Zonal ICT Parks to make Ghana the hub for innovation, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity in Africa.
• Re-develop the Dawa ICT park into a world-class centre of excellence.

 

GHANA FIRST FLAGSHIP PROGRAMME FOR JOBS

• Work with private sector to make Ghana the Pharma Hub of Africa.
• Develop an integrated aluminium industry for industrialization.
• Invest in the production of plastics, fertiliser and other synthetic materials.
• Expansion of the automotive and vehicle assembly sector.
• Promote light industrial manufacturing, especially of apparel and electronic products

RAPID INDUSTRIALIZATION FOR JOBS

• Promote value addition & diversification for domestic consumption and exports.
• Establish strategic industries and revive defunct ones.
• Revamp the textile and cotton-allied industry.
• Set up Agro-Industrial Zones in all regions.
• Establish mini-processing plants for cassava, tomatoes, fruits etc.
• Set up cashew processing factories in the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo regions.
• Establish cocoa processing factories in Western, Western North, Eastern, Central, Ashanti, Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Volta and Oti regions.
• Facilitate the construction of twenty (20) medium-scale animal feed processing plants and revamp the collapsing poultry industry.

 

 

AGRICULTURE for JOBS.

• Make agriculture attractive through modernisation to ensure food security and job creation.
• Reduce food inflation to lower the high cost of living through our Agriculture for Economic Transformation Agenda.
• Roll out a Feed Ghana Programme – to boost food production, guarantee food security and supply raw materials to industries.
• Establish Farmer Service Centres to support farmers with modern agriculture equipment, technologies and inputs in all districts.
• Create Farm Banks within agriculture zones to ease access to land, and irrigation facilities for agricultural purposes and encourage young people into farming.

PROMOTING GOOD GOVERNANCE AND COMBATTING CORRUPTION

• Remarkably reduce the size of government (sixty (60) Ministers)
• Address the benefit disparities between Article 71 office holders and the wider public service.
• Scrap payment of ex gratia.
• Establish an Independent Emoluments Commission by merging the Presidential Commission on Emoluments and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission.
• Ruthless War Against Corruption: “Operation-Recover-All-Loot” (ORAL).
• Prohibit political appointees, politically exposed persons and all serving public officials from purchasing state assets.
• Reopen investigations into major unresolved cases including the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election violence, 2020 election killings, unresolved murder of Ahmed Hussein-Suale and Silas Wulochamey.

 

TRANSFORMING EDUCATION

• Dedicate equitable attention to all levels of education.
• Improve Free SHS
• Provide dedicated and sustainable source of funding for Free SHS
• Decentralise the procurement of food for SHS to boost local economies.
• Implement a ‘No-Academic-Fees’ policy.
• Use 5G and Low-Earth Orbit systems to improve the quality of education across the country by extending course tutorials to students everywhere through on-demand learning platforms sanctioned by the GES.
• Provide continuing students with financial assistance by re-introducing the Student Loan Trust Fund Plus (SLTF+) and a reformed scholarship regime.
• Provide Free Tertiary Education for all Persons with disabilities (PWDs).
• Implement a ‘Bed-for-All’ programme by building on-campus affordable students’ hostels & expanding accommodation facilities for tertiary students through PPPs.
• Legislation to streamline and regulate the award of government scholarships.
• End collateralisation of the GETFund.
• Abolish the teacher licensure examination and integrate the licensing process into the final year examination.
• Institute the “Teacher Dabr3” Project to provide accommodation facilities for teachers within their schools.
• Implement a 20 percent (basic salary) special allowance for teachers & health workers who accept postings to rural and underserved communities.
• Expand infrastructure to ensure prompt employment of nurses, health workers and teachers.
• Assist teachers to own vehicles of their choice by offering flexible duty payment arrangements and employer guarantees in partnership with teacher unions and the banking sector.

 

AGE OF MODERN RAILWAYS

• Western and Eastern lines connected to land-locked countries under PPP including BOTs.
• Construct Urban intracity railways and Bus Rapid Transits (BRT) for largest population centres.

 

PROMOTING RESPONSIBLE MINING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

• Ban issuance of new mining leases and activities in forest reserves.
• Amend the Mineral and Mining Law to impose stiffer punishment on mining in water bodies.
• Decentralise regulatory and licensing processes for artisanal miners.
• Establish Mining Cooperatives in all mining districts.
• Set up a novel Ghana Gold Board (GOLDBOD) to regulate small-scale mining.
• Implementing a ‘Tree for Life’ re-forestation policy with cocoa, palm and rubber.
• Implement a Blue Water Initiative to heal and harness the environment by turning areas and water bodies degraded by illegal mining into hubs of economic and ecological recovery.

 

Click on the link for the full document of NDC’s Manifesto 

Mahama_Key-Policies-brochure_240823_103150

 

Attached below is a live video from the event.

 

 

 

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