Former president and 2024 Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has said Ghana would have witnessed tremendous development if he had access to the amount of loan accumulated by the Akufo-Addo government.

He said the NDC is always focused on investing judiciously into the development of the country to impact lives unlike the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Addressing a mini rally in Ave Dakpa in the Akatsi North District of the Volta Region during his #Mahama4Change2024 Campaign tour, he said President Akufo-Addo has mismanaged the loans acquired under his tenure.

“One would have thought that after borrowing GH₵600 billion, we would be talking about AVESCO walls today. It should have been done. We will not be talking about the abandoned electrification projects where communities are still sleeping in the dark.

“If the NDC had GH₵650 billion in four years of President, we would have turned Ghana into Dubai”, he said.

Mr Mahama claimed that Dr Opoku Prempeh, the Vice Presidential Candidate of the governing NPP, oversaw the allocation of 4 billion cedis from the Daakye Bond while serving as Education Minister.

He criticized the lack of progress on the projects that were supposedly funded by this bond, highlighting that many remain unfinished.

He indicated that after assuming power in 2025, his government would parade public officials in the current Akufo-Addo government to account for their stewardship.

“When the current running mate of Dr Mahamudu Bawumia was the Minister of Education, they floated a bond called the Daakye Bond and they used to borrow $1.5 billion, and they said that they were going to use it to complete all the GETfund projects, all the E-block projects and to invest in other educational projects.

“They took that money, $1.5 billion and nobody can tell what they used it for. And that is why NPP must leave office so that we can audit things like this. What was the money used for? Was it misapplied? Or it was used for the purpose for which it was taken.

“And that is why I say NDC will come to power on 7th January 2025. And when we come, we are going to hold everybody accountable. We must know what you did with all that money”, he concluded.