Bawumia's Plan to Collaborate with the Private Sector and Invest 30 Billion Cedis.

Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, claims he’s reached an eureka moment in his vision for economic growth. The presidential aspirant views the private sector as the “engine of growth to flourish.” Speaking at the ‘Bawumia for Jobs’ program, he outlined plans to leverage the private sector to drive Ghana’s economy towards prosperity.

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Dr. Bawumia explained his vision for reducing government spending by involving the private sector. This means encouraging private companies to take on roles typically funded by the government, which could include developing infrastructure or providing services. One approach is to incentivize the private sector. with this, he plans to encourage private businesses with incentives perhaps like tax breaks or subsides to get them more involved in providing infrastructure and services.

“My government will reduce the fiscal burden on government by leveraging the private sector. Under the two-term administration of His Excellency Nana Akufo Addo, we have put in place many social safety nets like free SHS, free TVET, and so on. With all these social safety nets in place, my government will now focus on jobs and wealth creation by the private sector for all Ghanaians. My administration will incentivize the private sector to complement government in the provision of many infrastructure and other services to reduce government expenditure and improve maintenance we are going to do something that has not really been done in   ghana before,” he explained.

He further explained certain areas the private sector will be involved. “We are going to move to engage the private sector to build roads, schools, hostels, houses for government and to rent or lease to own. The demand for rood construction is massive   and this has historically placed a huge burden on the budget” Bawumia stated stressing how the private sector will be heavily involved in infrastructure development. Another important point he suggested is that the private sector should be responsible for funding road construction and upkeep. “I believe that the private sector should finance the construction and maintenance of roads through PPP concession arrangements. Also, government will move towards leasing rather than purchasing vehicles printing equipment and so on. The private sector will have the responsibility for maintaining the equipment. With this approach the budget can save very significant outright cash expenditure.”

Dr. Bawumia also believes that leasing can help governments manage its finances better by reducing initial costs and giving them more choices on how to use its resources. He gave a hypothetical example to support his statement. He said, “If we need to buy 700 buses for schools, there's no point in the government trying to folk out all the money to go and buy 700 buses.  We will say to the private sector, government needs 700 buses for our schools. The private sector will then lease government 700 buses, and then we will pay over time.  We don't have to expend all the cash at once. So, every school will get a bus.”

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He also explained that under his administration, he intends to allocate a portion of the money that the government typically spends to private businesses or services and that 3% of GDP amounts to approximately 30 billion Ghana Cedis. He pointed out “We are proposing in the first four years that we are going to move immediately 3% of GDP of government expenditure to the private sector. 3% of GDP comes up to about 30 billion Ghana Cedis.   And we are moving that to the private sector.”

 Another thing Dr. Bawumia laid emphasis on how the private sector can reduce the number of uncompleted buildings in the country and reduce government pressure. He underscored “The private sector has an incentive.  Because the private sector knows that government is going to rent this building, if I build it, they'll build it quickly. And they'll rent it, and we will pay.   So, you will not have many uncompleted projects around the country.  Because the private sector has an interest in completing all of these projects whether it's hospitals whether it's schools whether it's roads because they know they will be paid and their banks know they will be paid and the pressure on government will be much less.”

In Dr. Bawumia’s words, this “has not really been done in Ghana before” however, what are the possible good and bad effects of moving some government jobs to private companies, and how could this change public services in Ghana?