“Aside from the infrastructure deficit, there is the need to invest vigorously in various sectors of the economy,” he said. Mr Mahama said this at a media engagement in Ho last Friday as part of his campaign tour of the Volta Region.

Investments

The former President said investing in cocoa farming, oil palm and ginger production with mechanised and green house farming methods in the Volta and Oti regions, for instance, would help to create jobs for young people.

He gave an assurance that as a priority, the NDC would fix the Ho-Aflao road and put up modern markets in Aflao, Jasikan, Akatsi and Dzodze to promote brisk business in those areas.

He said Aflao Market would also compete with the Lome Main Market (Asigame) across the border to stimulate cross-border business between Ghana and Togo.

Mr Mahama said the next NDC government would not be business as usual because Ghanaians had been patient for too long, and were expecting a change to relieve them of the hardship they were going through.

On the environment, the former President said the natural landscape of the Volta and Oti regions were largely intact with rich soils, ideal for tourism and agricultural development.

He pledged that the NDC would collaborate with the chiefs of the area as well as the security agencies to ensure that unscrupulous individuals with greedy motives did not encroach on those natural features of the Volta and Oti regions.

Keta Port

Mr Mahama said the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) had no plan whatsoever to put up the Keta Port as it had touted but was only using the name of the project as a political hype to raise false hopes for the people.

He sought to know how a port project could take off with no warehouse, no breakwater, and no feasibility studies blueprint.

Mr Mahama said the NPP lacked vision and had no clue about how to steer the country out of the current economic woes.

He said the NDC’s return to power would offer all Ghanaians the opportunity to fix the economy by actively taking part in transparent national development programmes.

Mr Mahama pledged that anti-corruption institutions would operate freely without any political interference under his watch to ensure probity and accountability in the management of the affairs of the country.