Story: Donald Ato Dapatem
An independent presidential aspirant for the 2008 general election, Mr Kwesi Amoafo-Yeboah, has said a government under his presidency would focus on practical economic empowerment programmes which would enhance the living standards of Ghanaians.
He said providing medium-scale processing plants in many farming communities would enable farmers, for instance, add value to their produce as well as create wealth and boost the economy.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic on his vision for the country, Mr Amoafo-Yeboah hinted that he had started implementing some of his policies as part of his campaign strategies to let voters benefit from his vision before he was given the mandate as the chief executive of the country.
“As part of my campaign, I will not offer cash or hand out items to induce people to vote for me; after all, they are not beggars. I am going to help them with opportunities to make them economically independent and derive adequate benefits from their toil. And I know that when they have profited, they will spread the good news like wild fire in the harmattan season,” he said.
He explained that the economic programme included the ‘Green Movement’ which was already in operation, solving the problems of people, especially farmers, and the ‘Boafo Scheme’, all geared towards “teaching Ghanaians how to fish and not to give them fish.”
Mr Amoafo-Yeboah, who is also the Chairman of i-Tel Limited, distributors of cellular phone credits, explained that individuals who join the Green Movement, benefited from recruiting friends, family members and others customers to buy cellular units from the company.
According to him, currently the Green Movement that he began had caught on well with a lot of people who had benefited from the movement and become ambassadors, telling Ghanaians their success stories.
Mr Amoafo-Yeaboah, whose company introduced the mobile communication centres for the disabled to offer communication services as well as sell cellular phone credits, said the Green Movement was such that the more people you entice to buy the credit, the more you benefit.
The 55-year-old engineer said he decided to use economic empowerment programme as his campaign strategy because he wanted Ghanaians, especially the electorate know at first-hand how he would use the nation’s resources, given the mandate.
Mr Amoafo-Yeboah, who is responsible for the successful introduction of the Western Union Money Transfer Service to Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Zambia, said what the nation needed most was sustainable job creation to increase domestic consumption and boost the capacities of the local industries to be internationally competitive.
He said the other ripple effects of these policies would include enhancement of the government’s internally generated income which had enabled it to undertake development projects and improve the living condition of Ghanaian workers.
He said under his administration, local industries would be given the needed boost to provide employment, while at the same time the ‘Boafo Scheme’ would also be given the needed attention to raise capital to help people with viable business plans to establish their businesses.
Explaining how the ‘Boafo Scheme’ works, Mr Amoafo-Yeboah said the Ghanaian taxpayer would be given the opportunity to use taxes expected to be paid to government to fund economic ventures instead, and through that own shares in such ventures.
He said a percentage of the shares would, however, be owned by the government. With this, businesses would have access to interest-free capital and at the same time this would make individuals vigilant and interested in the businesses.
Sharing his view on how to increase taxes, he said his government would not overburden people and corporate entities in the formal sectors who were already paying the taxes, but would ensure that the tax net was widened to cover a lot more people.
Mr Amoafo-Yeboah said with the increased job creation the nation would generate, among others, enough taxes for the provision of adequate, accessible and quality education, health and security for the people.
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