Town Hall Meeting: These Claims By Bawumia are False, Misleading

Last Tuesday, August 18, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia made a presentation on the infrastructural records of the Akufo-Addo-led administration at a town hall meeting.

The presentation highlighted the infrastructural achievements of the government across many sectors of the Ghanaian economy.

Fact-check Ghana has verified some of the claims made by the Vice President. Below are the verdicts and explanation.

Claim 1: “Under the previous government for example, after 8 years in office, not a single major road was completed in many regions including the Upper East and Upper West Regions!”

Verdict: Completely False

Explanation: The erstwhile NDC administration (2009-2016) completed some major road projects across many regions in Ghana. Below is a list of at least one major road project that was completed by the former administration in some seven regions (out of the 10 regions at the time).

Northern Region

The 147-kilometre Fulfulso-Sawla road was completed and commissioned in August 2015

Eastern Region

9.3- kilometres Nsawam bypass was completed in 2012.

Volta Region

25-kilometres Akatsi-Dodze-Akanu (Lot1) which was completed in 2012.

Upper East Region

Completion of township roads in the Bolgatanga municipality in 2016.

Ashanti Region

60-kilometres Asante-Bekwai—Assin Praso road which was commissioned in February 2014.

Greater Region

5.7-kilometre Achimota-Ofankor three-lane dual carriageway with three interchanges and service roads was completed in September 2012

Upper West Region

The Gwollu-Hamile Roads were upgraded in 2012

Claim 2: “Thanks to mobile money interoperability, Ghana is now the fastest growing mobile money market in Africa.”

Verdict: Misleading

 Explanation:  Ghana is indeed the fastest growing mobile money market in Africa. This is a position the country has held since 2017 following the publication of the Global Findex Database 2017, a world bank data set on how adults save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk across the world, which is published every three years. The Global Findex Database 2017, in measuring how mobile money accounts had spread, compared data from 2014 to 2017 where Ghana rose from 13% to 39%.

Meanwhile, the mobile money interoperability was launched on Thursday, May 10, 2018. It became functional after it was launched. The mobile money interoperability is therefore not the reason Ghana has become the fastest growing mobile money market in Africa.