The New Patriotic Party's (NPP) flagbearer, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has clarified his statement about incentivising churches instead of imposing taxes on them.

He said it was a comment made in jest and had been taken out of context.

During a meeting with clergy members in the North East Region as part of his nationwide tour, the Vice President explained that his remarks may have been misunderstood.

"I made that statement within the context of acknowledging the significant contributions of churches and other faith-based institutions to the country, including the construction of schools, hospitals, and other vital infrastructure," Dr. Bawumia explained.

“Look at the number of hospitals the churches have built. Look at the number of universities the churches have built and faith-based organisations have built. Look at the number of people the churches and faith-based organizations take care of on a daily basis.

"Can you imagine, just take a thought for a moment that you wake up tomorrow and all the schools, universities and hospitals the churches have built disappear? They just disappear. How would Ghana be like? Ghana will collapse. Isn’t it? We will not survive in this sort of situation because there will be chaos.

“So at that point I was joking and I said, oh…people are talking about taxing churches. I don’t believe, and we will not tax churches. Because if you look at the work the churches have done, then I was joking then, maybe we should have actually paid them for what they did, not really trying to tax them. But I wasn’t really saying we should pay churches, no. I am saying that we should give incentives to churches to do more,” he clarified.

Dr Bawumia's remarks were initially made during a meeting with clergy members in the Bono East region on May 10, where he emphasised the need to partner with churches for national development.

The Vice President said, “Unless you don’t understand the work the church has done. If you are looking at the buildings, the way they keep the society together, the universities, the hospitals, the schools, it is massive. It is just massive. Many churches have hundreds of schools. So I don’t see and I will not have a situation where we are taxing churches.

“We will rather want to give churches incentives to support what the government is doing. I want us to be partners in the way that the development partners are with us. You are our domestic development partners and we will give you incentives to do more.”