Mahmudu Bawumia’s ‘Digital Economy’ and John Mahama’s ’24-Hour Economy’

Unable to get a job as an accountant after graduating five years ago, Ghanaian Nathaniel Kainoo has been forced to trade his calculator for a spanner.

The 29-year-old was busy repairing taxis in the shade of a mango tree when the BBC met him at his home in Kasoa, a small town about 30km (18 miles) from the capital Accra.

He often talks about “hardship” – commonplace in Ghana since 2022 when the nation plunged into a deep financial crisis.

It was a year when the government defaulted on its debt repayments, international rating agencies downgraded Ghana’s creditworthiness to “junk status” and inflation soared to 54%. To add to Ghanaians’ woes, their currency, the cedi, has lost 70% of its value in the past eight years.

This forced Ghana to seek a $3bn (£2.4bn) bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Economic recovery efforts have been costly, causing significant losses for pensioners and investors holding government bonds.

All this has left Mr Kainoo so frustrated that he does not intend to vote in Saturday’s presidential and parliamentary elections, although the Election Commission is confident that the turnout will be high.

“I don’t know how this country is going to be saved from this crisis,” Mr Kainoo told the BBC.

His mind is migrating to North America or Europe.

“I want to leave the country, go out, live better, work harder,” added Mr Kainoo.

He is not alone. According to the 2021 census many young people – who make up about 40% of the population – want to leave Ghana.

They see few job prospects in a country with a 14% unemployment rate.

So it is not surprising that the economy dominated the election campaign.

The two leading presidential frontrunners are:

• Former President John MahamaThose hoping to return to power like Donald Trump, and

• Mahmudu BawumiaAfter eight years as vice president, he feels the time has come to step into the presidency.

Both are vying to succeed President Nana Akufo-Addo. As he steps down at the end of his two terms, Ghanaians are hoping for a smooth transition of power to ensure Ghana maintains its stable democratic reputation.

Having contested the election under the banner of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bawumia’s major handicap has been in power.

With a master’s degree in economics from the UK’s prestigious Oxford University, he heads the government’s economic management team and the collapsing economy has tarnished his reputation as an “economic whizkid”.

They are 2023 mocked as “our Maguire”. – A reference to Manchester United footballer Harry Maguire who was underperforming on the pitch at the time.

On the campaign trail, Bawumia preferred to refer to himself as a “driver’s mate” – a phrase used in Ghana to describe a commercial vehicle driver’s assistant, who tried to distance himself from decisions made under Akufo-Addo’s watch.

“We may be tired of hearing it, but there is no escaping the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war led to the world’s biggest economic downturn since the 1990s, with most countries recording negative GDP growth,” he said. He said.

Bawumia has criss-crossed the country in a blue-painted bus, emblazoned with his picture alongside his campaign slogan: “It’s possible” – a reference to the fact that he can win and spur economic growth.

No party in Ghana has won more than two consecutive terms since the country restored democracy in 1992, which the NPP says it is determined to break by ensuring a parliamentary majority and Bawumia winning the presidency.

Central to his campaign is his promise to create a “digital economy” with skills training for one million youths to bring down the unemployment rate.

“Dr Bawumia’s government plans to invest in a digital economic hub and provide venture capital funding to tech start-ups,” His campaign website says.

“This includes creating innovation hubs, providing regulatory incentives and supporting mentoring and business development resources for tech entrepreneurs,” it adds.

Ghanaian political analyst Clement Sefa Nyarko told the BBC that Bawumia’s promise to create a “digital economy” was his biggest electoral drawcard.

“Bawumia has transitioned from being a so-called economic wizkid to a digitalization champion and I think that is one of the biggest things he is riding on,” Dr Nyarko said.

“In fact, if you look at his posters in town, he has this sign of digitisation, which indicates that he is the man who will take Ghana forward,” he said.

As for Mahama, his campaign focused on a promise to “reset” the economy, his message gist, as Dr Nyarko put it: “Give me a chance. At least the economy didn’t collapse under my watch. Troubles.”

But his critics have doubts, points out Ghana was mired in power crisis while in power They don’t see how a person who can’t keep the lights on from 2014 to 2017 can reset the economy.

This – along with the fact that his government was mired in corruption allegations, which he dismissed as politically motivated – meant he failed to win a second term in 2017.

The power cuts were so bad that Mahama joked at the time that he was called “Mr. Dumsor” – dum meaning off and sor in the local Twi language.

In this campaign, Mahama – the flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) – has promised to make Ghana a “24-hour economy” through the creation of night jobs in the public and private sectors.

“All major and most prosperous economies in the world operate varying degrees of 24-hour economies.

“They include the United States, where about 30% of the labor force works at night; the United Kingdom (19%); Germany (12%) and France (7%). In Africa, Kenya is contemplating a 24-hour economy. ,” A document outlining his economic strategy says.

To ease the cost-of-living crisis, both candidates have promised to scrap certain taxes, including the much-criticized electronic levy on mobile transactions. A levy is levied on the carbon emissions produced by petrol or diesel powered vehicles.

Economist Prof Godfred Bockpin told the BBC that it was unclear how the two candidates would deliver on their promises, creating a “fiscal gap” at a time when Ghana is under an IMF-backed economic recovery programme, when the government needs to boost its revenue. And cut costs.

“They face a challenge in terms of navigating within the IMF-supported program,” he said.

Political analyst Asa Asante told the BBC he expected a close contest between Mahama and Bavunia.

“Politics is nothing but a contest of ideas and a referendum on your work. People see who really does the magic and what their records are,” he said.

A poll released by Global Info Analytics on Monday showed the political odds favoring Mahama with 52% of the vote to Bawumia’s 41.3%.

But the poll has a margin of error of 1.9%, with some analysts saying Mahama could force a run-off without crossing the 50% mark.

Bawumia’s campaign team has dismissed the poll as rigged, saying they are confident of propelling him to the presidency on Saturday – and making history by giving Ghana its first Muslim president.