Bawumia to engage stakeholders on economy on April 3 - Spokesperson

Dr. Gideon Boako, spokesperson of Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has explained the April 3 Town Hall Meeting will offer his boss an opportunity to engage key stakeholders on the economy.

Speaking in an interview, Dr. Boako said the event will provide a platform for the Economic Management Team to breakdown issues related to the economy as well as bring governance closer to the people.

Dr. Bawumia, who is also the head of the Economic Management Team, will be speaking on the theme “Our progress, Our status, Our future”.

Dr. Boako clarified that the Town Hall Meeting will not take the form of lectures held by Dr. Bawumia while in opposition, but will stress on measures being implemented by the Akufo-Addo administration to make the economy attractive to investors as well as build confidence.

“People expect that he should be holding lectures and speak about the economy as he used to do while in opposition, but that certainly cannot be done. Dr Bawumia in opposition was free to decide what he wanted to do because he wasn’t responsible for the entire country,” Dr. Boako said.

He added: “In opposition, you hardly get to engage institutions like AGI, Bankers Association and others so the only way the public could get to hear about him and what he had to offer was through press conferences and lectures. But now that Dr. Bawumia is in power and a Vice President, he doesn’t have the latitude of time and his life is regulated by the constitution of Ghana and his work well defined. It doesn’t happen anywhere in the world that a Vice President holds press conferences at will.”

He said the vice president remains focused and committed to help President Akufo-Addo succeed by offering Ghanaians a strong economy to empower people to do business, adding Dr. Bawumia will not be swayed by calls from the Minority to revert to his lecture series in addressing national issues.

“The Minority expects that Dr Bawumia will continue to hold press conferences, he’s not an opposition leader but Vice President of the country and so he has to organize himself as such. Recently that the cedi has depreciated, what Ghanaians expect is not long talk but solution. So we decided to put in place pragmatic measures to halt the situation, as we speak the Cedi is now GHC5.0, GHC5.1 as against the earlier GHC5.8. This shows the prudence in the management of the economy, this is not about giving long talks. Dr. Bawumia will hold a stakeholder town hall meeting about the economy on April 3, where he’ll among other things state the real cause of the cedi depreciation,” Dr. Boako stressed.

The much-anticipated engagement will be attended by civil society groups, economic think tanks, trade unions and stakeholders in the financial sector.