The flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has justified his promise to incentivise churches and faith-based Organizations (FBOs).
Dr Bawumia made the promise during an engagement with the clergy as part of his tour of the Bono East Region.
This has since generated mixed reactions on social and traditional media.
But at a similar engagement in the North East Region, the vice president reiterated the promise arguing it’s the logical thing to do.
“Look at the number of hospitals the churches have built, look at the number of universities the churches have built and the faith-based organization have built…Can you imagine, just take a thought for a moment that you wake up tomorrow and all the schools and universities the churches have built disappear? How will Ghana be like?” Dr. Bawumia noted.
According to him, Ghana will be on the losing side if that happens.
“Ghana will collapse. Isn’t it? We will not survive in this sort of situation because there will be chaos” he added
He, however, used the opportunity to clarify that the promise is not to pay churches but to provide them with incentives.
Dr. Bawumia wondered why people support incentives provided to international development partners and not to local development partners like Churches and faith-based organizations.
“When we talk about our external development partners, we have given them all sorts of exemptions. But when we talk about our internal development partners like the Churches and faith-based institutions, we don’t give them any exemptions but they do more in terms of development than many more of our external development partners,” he noted.
Dr. Bawumia also put a spotlight on how churches can be incentivised.
“We should do more in the area of incentives such as tax exemptions on import duties when you are coming to build the hospitals or schools, to support the churches and other faith-based organizations because they are supporting government,” Dr. Bawumia explained.
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