NPP will improve access to quality education, healthcare - Akufo-Addo
The 2016 presidential nominee of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has given the assurance that a future NPP government will pay a lot of attention to revitalising the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
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“It is important that we do so, and find sustainable methods of making sure that the financing of the scheme is secure,” he said while addressing a fundraising event in Hartford, organised by the NPP Connecticut Chapter, on Saturday, July 23, 2016.
Nana Akufo-Addo, however, stopped short of outlining policy initiatives aimed at securing sustainable financing for the NHIS, explaining that “I dare not say them in public, because if I do, tomorrow, Mahama will take them as his own. Every time I open my mouth to say something, the next day he parrots it. So I have to be careful.”
Additionally, he said the NPP would pay particular attention to providing the basic social infrastructural needs of Ghanaians by ensuring access to quality education and health care.
According to Nana Akufo-Addo, “while focusing on the industrial development of Ghana, which will create jobs for the masses, we cannot ignore the basic social infrastructural needs of our country.”
Explaining that under the Kufuor-led NPP government, “we were responsible for the largest piece of social intervention in our history such as the establishment of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the NPP flag bearer noted that “it has gone pear-shaped under the hands of Mahama.”
Free SHS policy
On the Free SHS policy, the NPP flag bearer reiterated that “we have not retreated from the policy of including secondary education as part of basic education. We are committed to making access as widely as possible by making it free for children in our public school system. It continues to be extremely important for the development of the country.”
In furtherance of this, Nana Akufo-Addo indicated that his government will put in place measures to address the 22,000 teacher deficit (from primary to senior high school level) currently prevailing in the country.
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To ensure the realisation of these policies, he explained that “we can only do so by rapid economic growth and expansion, and that has to be the way forward. We are going to do everything within our power as a government to provide incentives for the private sector in Ghana to really take off, because that is the solution to the social and economic development of our country. That is what our party stands for and that is what we are going to do when we come into office.”
He continued, “I cannot accept that the countries of East Asia can, within a generation, transform their lives from the same conditions as ours, and are today, in terms of economic activity and performance, first-world countries, whereas we are third-world players. I cannot accept that. We can do much better than our current circumstances.”
Nana Akufo-Addo committed himself to the formation of a “solid, first-class government, and a new direction for the people of Ghana. We will do it not for ourselves but for the current and future generations. We are going into office not to fill our pockets, but to provide service and leadership for our people. God knows they need it.”