By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The Suame Light Industrial Area, commonly called Suame Magazine, went into a frenzy when the Presidential Candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, visited the enclave as part of his campaign tour in the Ashanti region.
Dr. Bawumia and his entourage received a mammoth rally of enthusiastic artisans and visitors to the Magazine who chanted the campaign slogan of the party with deafening shouts of ‘Breaking the 8’.
Correspondent Nicholas Osei-Wusu reports that the NPP’s Flagbearer is in the Ashanti region on the last leg of his Regional campaign tour in phase 1 of the party’s electioneering activities.
Dr. Bawumia began day two of the campaign tour with an interactive forum with representatives of farmer-based organisations and herbal medicine practitioners.
The forum was to solicit the attendees’ input into the compilation of the NPP’s 2024 Campaign Manifesto.
The herbal practitioners suggested, among other things, the state’s provision of facilities for the production of herbal preparations to reduce cost, the inclusion of herbal medicines in the NHIS-approved drug list, and the simplification of the acquisition of certification for their products to avoid the constant harassment by law enforcers.
The farmers, on the other hand, asked for fair prices for their cocoa produce relative to the world market prices, implementation of the cocoa Farmers’ Pension Scheme, and improvements in the mass cocoa spraying exercise.
Dr. Bawumia told the herbalists that his government will establish a Funding scheme to support their activities as well as zonal production facilities for herbal medicine preparation.
He noted that herbal medicine constitutes about 60% of medication for health seekers in Ghana, suggesting that a good investment in that subsector of the health care system could increase Ghana’s export and foreign exchange earnings.
Dr. Bawumia reiterated his vision to modernise agricultural production in Ghana through irrigation, commercialization, and mechanisation, with credit support schemes to assist farmers in improving their production and speed up Ghana’s economic development.
The campaign trail then hit the Suame Light Industrial Area, commonly known as Suame Magazine, where he and his entourage were hosted by Zone 13 with an enthusiastic crowd of artisans and visitors to the area.
Dr. Bawumia, addressing the crowd, announced his plans to introduce friendly economic policies, including a flat import duty, to attract imports through Ghana’s sea ports.
He could not appreciate why a landlocked neighbouring Togo’s port charges should be lower than those of Ghana, a country with a sea port.
He assures that, if elected president, his government would address the concerns of importers to bring down the cost of doing business in the country.
The Presidential Hopeful then walked through parts of Suame Magazine to directly interact with the artisans.
