Ghana elections: Mahamudu Bawumia’s ‘digital economy’ versus John Mahama’s ’24-hour economy’

Unable to get a job as an accountant since graduating 5 years in the past, Ghanaian Nathaniel Qainoo has been pressured to swap his calculator for a spanner.

The 29-year-old was busy repairing a taxi below the shade of a mango tree when the BBC met him at his residence within the small city of Kasoa, about 30km (18 miles) from the capital Accra.

He usually spoke of “the hardship” – a phrase that has turn into widespread in Ghana for the reason that nation plunged right into a deep financial disaster in 2022.

This was the 12 months when the federal government defaulted on its debt repayments, worldwide ranking businesses downgraded Ghana’s creditworthiness to “junk status”, and inflation skyrocketed to 54%. To add to the woes of Ghanaians, their foreign money, the cedi, has misplaced 70% of its worth previously eight years.

This pressured Ghana to safe a $3bn (£2.4bn) bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The financial restoration efforts have been pricey, leading to important losses for pensioners and buyers who held authorities bonds.

All this has made Mr Qainoo so despondent that he doesn’t intend to vote in Saturday’s presidential and parliamentary elections, although the electoral fee is assured that voter turnout will probably be excessive.

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

His thoughts is on emigrating to North America or Europe.

“I would like to leave the country, go outside, live better, work harder,” Mr Qainoo added.

He will not be alone. Many younger individuals – who make up virtually 40% of the inhabitants, in response to the 2021 census – wish to give up Ghana.

They see few job prospects in a rustic with an unemployment charge of 14%.

So it isn’t shocking that the economic system has dominated the election marketing campaign.

The two principal presidential front-runners are:

• Former President John Mahama, who’s hoping to barrel his method again to energy like Donald Trump, and

• Mahamudu Bawumia, who feels the time has come for him to step into the president’s footwear after eight years as vice-president.

The two are vying to succeed President Nana Akufo-Addo. He is stepping down on the finish of his two phrases, with Ghanaians hoping for a easy switch of energy to make sure that Ghana retains its repute as steady democracy.

Contesting the election below the banner of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bawumia’s main handicap is incumbency.

Holding a masters in economics from the UK’s prestigious Oxford University, he heads the federal government’s financial administration crew, and the collapsing economic system has tarnished his repute as an “economic whizzkid”.

He was mocked in 2023 as “our Maguire” – a reference to Manchester United footballer Harry Maguire, who had been performing badly on the pitch on the time.

On the marketing campaign path, Bawumia most popular to name himself “the driver’s mate” – a phrase utilized in Ghana to explain a industrial car driver’s assistant, as he sought to distance himself from selections taken below Akufo-Addo’s watch.

“We may be tired of hearing it, but there is no avoiding the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war resulted in the greatest economic depression in the world since the 1990s with most countries recording negative GDP growth,” he mentioned.

Bawumia has criss-crossed the nation in a blue-coloured bus, together with his picture emblazoned on it alongside his marketing campaign slogan: “It is possible” – a reference to the truth that he can win, and stimulate financial development.

No celebration in Ghana has ever gained greater than two consecutive phrases for the reason that nation restored democracy in 1992, a convention the NPP says it’s decided to interrupt by making certain that it wins a parliamentary majority and Bawumia the presidency.

The centrepiece of his marketing campaign is a promise to create a “digital economy”, with abilities coaching for a million younger individuals in a bid to place a dent within the unemployment charge.

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

“This will include creating innovation hubs, providing regulatory incentives, and supporting tech entrepreneurs with mentorship and business development resources,” it provides.

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

“Bawumia has transitioned from being a so-called economic wizzkid to a digitalisation champion and I think that’s one of the big things he is riding on,” Dr Nyarko mentioned.

“In fact, if you see his posters in town, he has this symbol of digitalisation, suggesting that he is the man to take Ghana forward,” he added.

As for Mahama, his marketing campaign has targeted on a promise to “reset” the economic system, with the essence of his message being, as Dr Nyarko put it: “Give me a chance. At least the economy didn’t crash under my watch despite the difficulties.”

But his critics have doubts, stating that Ghana plunged into an electricity crisis when he was in office from 2014 to 2017 so they don’t see how a person who couldn’t maintain the lights on can reset the economic system.

This – together with the truth that his authorities was dogged by corruption allegations, which he dismissed as politically motivated – led to him failing to win a second time period in 2017.

The energy cuts had been so unhealthy that Mahama joked on the time that he was referred to as “Mr Dumsor” – dum means off and sor means on within the native Twi language.

In this marketing campaign, Mahama – the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) – has promised to make Ghana a “24-hour economy” by means of the creation of night-time jobs in each the private and non-private sectors.

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

“They embody the United States, the place practically 30% of the labour power work at night time; the United Kingdom (19%); Germany (12%) and France (7%). In Africa, Kenya is considering a 24-hour economic system,” a document outlining his economic strategy says.

In order to ease the cost-of-living disaster, each candidates have additionally promised to scrap some taxes, together with the much-criticised digital levy on cell transactions and the levy on the carbon emissions produced by petrol or diesel-powered vehicles.

Economist Prof Godfred Bokpin told the BBC it was unclear how the two candidates would fulfil their promise as it would create a “fiscal hole”, at a time when Ghana was under an IMF-backed economic recovery programme that required the government to increase its revenue and slash expenditure.

“They will face a problem when it comes to navigating inside the IMF-supported programme,” he added.

Political analyst Asa Asante told the BBC that he expected a close race between Mahama and Bawunia.

“Politics is nothing however a contest of concepts and a referendum of your work. People are going to see which one will actually work the magic and naturally what are their data,” he added.

The political odds appear to be in Mahama’s favour, with an opinion poll released on Monday by Global InfoAnalytics giving him 52% of the vote to Bawumia’s 41.3%.

But with the poll having a margin of error of 1.9%, some analysts say Mahama could fall short of crossing the 50% mark, forcing a run-off.

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