On Thursday, October 15, 2020, think tank, IMANI Centre for Policy and Education hosted Presidential Candidates of minor political parties in Ghana ahead of the elections on December 7.
The second presidential debate featured questions on the vision of presidential aspirants, law and order, economy, corruption among others.
The event featured presidential candidates from five political parties: the All People’s Congress (APC) Mr Hasan Ayariga, Mr Ivor Greenstreet of the Conventions People’s Party (CPP), Mrs Bridgete Dzorgbenuku of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), and the People’s National Convention’s (PNC) Mr David Apasera and Kofi Akpaloo of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG).
Below are IMANI's selected notable quotes from the presidential candidate of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Ivor Kobina Greenstreet, which were contained in his answers to the key issues facing the country during the debate.
Vision
“We need to restore trust and faith in the Government of Ghana. It is possible for Ghanaians wherever they may be able to achieve their dreams and lay a foundation for successive generations to achieve their dreams. We believe with hard work, faith, determination, right ideas and leadership, it is possible to achieve the goal for this country and our destiny as a people and make this nation a place we want it to be.”
Law & Order
“The Security Agencies will be given further investments, capabilities, and training in order for them to carry out their mandate.”
Economic Recovery
“We will pay all outstanding arrears and not take on new debts for new projects in order to provide a stimulus to move this nation forward.”
Unemployment & Job Creation
“There will be an overarching national development plan that is subjected to rigorous analysis/assessment to identify areas where comparative advantage exists and based on skills of persons to create jobs: We will also give fair and guaranteed market prices to farmers for their produce.”
National Debt
“We will have an industrial policy to mobilise internal revenues, control capital inflows, earn more money from natural resources, and be more efficient in government practices, according to a detailed national plan.”
Improving Business Climate & Ghana’s Performance on Ease of Doing Business Index
“We will ensure State intervention to provide long-term availability of capital in a deliberate manner with the intention of achieving desired results.”
Corruption
“We will re-intensify efforts of State Agencies and further utilize the supply commission and procurement methods to deal with the root cause of corruption.”
Financial Crimes/Delisting of Ghana
“Each case of Ghana being blacklisted by different countries/Institutions will be dealt with according to the specific state/circumstances. We will look at the terms of why we have been blacklisted and determine whether it is in our interest to comply with them.”
Natural Resource Management/Mining Revenues/Agyapa
“The scope of the Agyapa contract seems to be far wide and unclear: We will concentrate on how much we can earn from gold resource now before concentrating on the future.”
Energy
“We will have insisted that all arrears owed the ECG be paid as part of the COVID-19 relief packages. We will ensure the Energy Sector receives State support/intervention due to its strategic importance.”
Flooding/Poor Sanitation
“I will ensure increased investments over a short period of time. I will also implement plans and existing programs to deal with the problem.”
Housing
“We will ensure Government intervention to make sure we have low-cost housing and grant tax reductions to serve as incentives. We will construct houses particularly in urban centres and maximise technology to reduce the cost of housing.”
Data Pricing Regime
“We will abolish the Communications Service Tax (CST) and instead introduce an ad valerom tax on each mobile phone unit: We will reduce VAT from 18% to 10% and encourage the NCA to undertake intensive analysis and study to ensure the reduction in data costs.”
Ivor Greenstreet is CPP flagbearer for the December polls