Policy think tank, IMANI Africa, has scored the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government a fair score of 56.77% on their performance from 2016 to 2020.
This is higher than that of the Mahama National Democratic Congress (NDC) government which got 52.9% leading to their exit from office in 2016 after four years.
Both scores are still a far off from distinction with more room for improvement to develop the country.
The performance of the two major parties was based on 540 promises by the NDC in 2012, and 510 promises by the NPP in 2016, contained in the manifestoes of the political parties.
An assessment after three years in office placed the NDC on an overall score of 47 per cent, while the NPP accumulated 48 per cent.
The NPP has maintained that lead to the end of the first tenure outmuscling their opponents despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the NDC did not also enjoy a smooth ride as they were hit by prolonged spells of energy crises.
The latest report was released by IMANI on Wednesday, November 4.
IMANIFesto is a framework that assesses political parties’ manifestos using a coding system comprised of quantitative indicators.
The first edition was released in 2015 during the tenure of former President John Dramani Mahama and the second was launched on Wednesday, to assess the performance of the Akufo-Addo-led administration.
The assessment by IMANI was in sharp contrast to what the NDC did and scored their political opponents a meagre 14%.
MP for North Tongu constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who presented that report considered other promises he claimed the NPP had made increasing the number to 631.
This was after the NPP had scored itself 78%.
Details of NPP’s assessment
The NPP government’s 2016 manifesto upon which Ghanaians gave them the mandate was dubbed, “Change: An Agenda for Jobs, Creating Prosperity & Equal Opportunity for All”.
IMANI sourced its data and information from the national budgets (main and mid-year), annual progress reports, parliamentary hansards, websites of state institutions, articles, articles and reports.
Economy
A total of 162 promises were made under the Economy sector. Out of that, there were 87 under General Economy, Trade and Industry. Agriculture has 54 promises and Tourism 21.
“A total of 41 (25.3%) promises have been fully implemented, 101 (62.3%) partially implemented and 20 (12.3%) not initiated,” the report stated.
General Economy, Trade and Industry got 52.53% marks; Agriculture had 59.54%; and Tourism 73.81%.
Human Capital Investment
Overall, a total of 63 promises were made under Human Capital Investment.
Education scored 55%; Health accumulated 56.77%.
Governance
The NPP government scored 59.25% on this sector from the 160 promises.
The governance sector was broken down further subcategories which had the following after assessment:
Corruption and Public Accountability (43%); Local Governance (37%); Foreign Affairs (79%); Security (72%); Chieftaincy (81%); Religious Affiliation and Civil Society Organization (56%).
Social services
Under this, the government rolled out sports development, Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), women’s empowerment, children’s rights, among others resulted in a 58.85% score.
Infrastructure
The total number of promises were 148 out which the implemented ones got an assessment of 51.71%.
Energy
In the energy sector, IMANI gave the NPP 57.57%.
