The Vice President and flagbearer of the governing New Patriotic Party has declared that, when given the mandate to govern Ghana as president, he would significantly reduce the number of ministers and deputies in his administration.
He is envisaging not more than 50 ministers and deputies compared to the current about 86 forming part of his boss, President Akufo-Addo’s government.
“I would have no more than 50 ministers and deputy ministers,” Dr. Bawumia said on Wednesday as he delivered a lecture at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), on Wednesday, February 7.
The lecturer centered on the achievements of the Akufo-Addo-led government, his role in government and his vision for Ghana as he vies for the number one gentleman in the Ghana.
“Enhancing the role of the private sector along with fiscal and administrative decentralization, improving our systems and the way our institutions function will lead to greater efficiency; cutting waste and ensuring value for money in procurement. The move towards the private sector provision of many public services would create fiscal space of at least 3% of GDP.
“This represents a major paradigm shift. Additionally, an efficient system of governance will require even fewer ministers. Therefore I would have no more than 50 ministers and deputy ministers.”
The Vice President touted his achievements in the area of digilization, noting that “apart from the obvious economic benefits of moving in the direction of a cashless society, the literature does indicate that the more electronic payments are used in transactions as opposed to cash, the more there is traceability and therefore the less the corruption”.
He further stated, “I would like to bring Ghana close to a cashless economy in the shortest possible time. So far the Bank of Ghana, has made a lot of progress in this direction by putting in place a lot of the systems and infrastructure required. These include mobile money interoperability, merchant interoperability, Universal QRCode payment system, Gh-Link, debit cards, Ezwich, and GhanaPay. We have put in place the necessary infrastructure for Ghana to go cashless.
“Recently the Bank of Ghana has completed a pilot of a digital version of the Ghana cedi note in Sefwi Wiawso. This is known as central bank digital currency (CBDC) or e-cedi.”
Dr. Bawumia added, “The e-cedi will quicken the pace of Ghana’s move towards a cashless or near cashless society. To move towards a cashless economy however, we have to encourage the population to use electronic channels of payment. To accomplish this, there will be no taxes on digital payments under my administration. The e-levy will therefore be abolished.
“Furthermore, I will cause to be published online details of all public contracts for public scrutiny.”