Photographer: Cristina Aldehuela/Bloomberg
Former Ghanaian President John Mahama said he’ll spend $10 billion on infrastructure over the next five years if he defeats the incumbent in elections next week.
Mahama plans to build roads, dams and schools, and extend an airport and hospital, should he defeat President Nana Akufo-Addo in the Dec. 7 vote, he said in an interview Wednesday. The West African nation is the world’s second-biggest producer of cocoa after Ivory Coast, and Mahama will work to ensure half its output is processed domestically, compared with 38% now.
“We’ll be able to take care of social and economic infrastructure without necessarily escalating debt,” Mahama, 62, said in an interview Wednesday. A fund will be created using proceeds from oil, value-added tax and annual budget funding, and many of the projects will pay for themselves over time, said the candidate who led Ghana from 2012 to 2017.