The Founder and 2020 Presidential Candidate of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Kofi Akpaloo, has indicated that a new government under his leadership will implement a child benefit policy to support children.
According to him, as part of the policy, every child would receive a monthly allowance of GH¢300, which would be paid either to their parents or guardians to support their upkeep.
“The allowance will be paid based upon the number of children a parent is having and if a parent is having, for instance, four children, each child will receive GH¢300 every month in line with the policy,” he said.
Conference
Mr Akpaloo said this in an interview with a section of the media during the party’s regional conference in Bolgatanga.
Before the conference, Mr Akpaloo, who was accompanied by some leaders of the party, toured some of the constituencies to interact with party members and energised the party’s base as part of preparations for the 2024 general election.
As part of the conference, new constituency executives for the 15 constituencies in the region and new regional executives were sworn into office.
Only 7.2 million children
Asked how a government he leads would find the money to implement the ambitious child benefit policy, he said, “The government will stimulate the economy to generate demand activities out of which taxes will be generated to implement the policy.”
He stated that paying monthly allowance to about 7.2 million children in the country was not a difficult thing to do, stressing “the total number of children is not overwhelming and that the LPG-led government will find the money to support their proper care”.
He stated that the policy was not difficult to implement and that the required policy framework will be put in place to ensure its smooth implementation and added “just as children in other advanced countries are paid monthly, we will learn from that system and do the same thing here”.
New factories
He said a new LPG government would put in place a comprehensive plan towards revamping the defunct Pwalugu Tomato Factory and meat factory in the region to provide thousands of direct and indirect jobs to the youth.
Additionally, he disclosed that five new factories would be built in the region to improve its local economy for the benefit of the people, saying “at least $100 million will be needed to build each factory and that the government will find the money to build the factories”.
He explained that the establishment of the factories in the region would be a game changer, as it would provide decent jobs to the people, thereby preventing the youth in particular from migrating to the south in search of non-existent white-collar jobs.
Change voting pattern
He appealed to Ghanaians to change their voting pattern of alternating between the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) since both political parties had taken them for granted for a long time.
He indicated that the NPP and the NDC continue to deceive citizens when they win power and that it was time for Ghanaians to change their voting pattern to allow the LPG to steer the affairs of the country.