The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Ofoase-Ayirebi, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has urged the government to demonstrate that its promises are translating into practical economic support for the people they were designed to assist.
He questioned the status of the Women's Development Bank and the one million coders programme and urged the government to provide a comprehensive account of the two programmes.
In a statement, Mr Oppong Nkrumah said the Women’s Development Bank was presented as a mechanism for improving women's access to credit and supporting businesses across the country.
He said it was expected to help women entrepreneurs, traders and other small-scale operators obtain financing to expand their activities, increase incomes and contribute to economic growth.
Progress
Mr Oppong Nkrumah questioned the progress made towards delivering the programme and demanded clarity on how many women had received loans through the initiative.
He said the government should provide information about the resources committed to the bank, its operational status and the number of women who have benefited from its intended lending arrangements.
He maintained that women who were promised access to affordable financing deserve to know when the programme would become fully operational and how they would access its facilities.
Coders
Mr Oppong Nkrumah also highlighted the One Million Coders Programme, which was announced as an initiative to train young Ghanaians in coding and related digital skills.
He said the programme was intended to provide opportunities for young people to acquire technology-related skills and improve their prospects of finding employment in the digital economy.
According to the MP, the initiative was presented as one of the government's major responses to youth unemployment.
He, however, questioned how much progress had been made towards achieving the programme’s objectives and how many young people had successfully transitioned from training into employment.
He, therefore, urged the government to provide a comprehensive account of the programme, including the number of beneficiaries trained, the resources spent and the employment opportunities created.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah said such information would help Parliament and the public determine whether the initiative is achieving the objectives for which it was introduced.
He said such an assessment would allow Parliament to evaluate the government's performance against its original commitments and determine whether the programmes require adjustments, additional resources or more effective implementation.
