Economic waves not favouring NPP; they should be careful – Lecturer

A Senior Lecturer at the Kumasi Technical University Dr Smart Sarpong has warned the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) that discussions on the economy are not favouring the party.

He said the economic challenges are overshadowing the projects being undertaken by the government across the country.

Dr Sarpong believes that NPP and government communicators have a lot of work to do to draw attention of the people to the projects that are ongoing vis-à-vis the challenges.

“NPP should be worried to the extend that it looks like the communication wave is against the party. It is up to the communicators to draw the minds of the people to the running issues.

“If not, as it is now, I think the wave largely goes against the NPP in respect of the general economic hardship. It is overshadowing the ongoing projects.”

His comments come after the Ashanti Region Minister Mr Simon Osei-Mensah reacted to concerns that the region has not seen much development under the NPP.

Mr Osei-Mensah said the Akufo-Addo administration has not performed poorly in terms of infrastructural development in the region.

He mentioned the Kumasi Airport expansion and the Kejetia Central Market Phase II projects as some of the development initiatives ongoing in the region.

Addressing the media in Accra on Wednesday August 24, Mr Osei-Mensah said “As much as I admit that the government has bot been able to bridge the gap between the regional expectation of infrastructural development and actual delivery, I am of the strongest conviction that the NPP government has not performed badly in terms of provision of development facilities in the Ashanti region.

“We have the airport expansion project to be completed by the end of this year. Whatever the situation is, this project will be completed by the end of this this year. We also have the Kejetia Central Market Phase 11 project. If we can do any proper decongestion in Kumasi, it is this project that is going to solve it.”

But for the global crisis, he said, these projects would have been completed by now.

“But for the global economic crisis which has had the devastating economic effects on the country, most of these projects would have been completed. Thus bridging significantly, the gap between the actual and expected levels of development.”