Suffering was all former President John Mahama left Ghanaians but the Akufo-Addo administration has changed all that, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has claimed.

In an interview with AfricaWatch, the flagbearer of the governing New Patriotic Party insisted Ghanaians are better off today than they were under the flagbearer of the main opposition National Democratic Congress.

"Sure. I can say without any fear of contradiction that notwithstanding the recent economic challenges, which have resulted in hardships for many Ghanaians, the fact remains that the lives of Ghanaians have improved significantly after seven years of our government from what they were during the government of John Mahama

There is no dispute about it", Dr Bawumia asserted.

"Why do I say so? Because the data says so! You would recall that in the previous government, we endured four years of power outages (which we called 'dumsor'), which collapsed many businesses and increased unemployment," he explained.

He added that during Mr Mahama's administration, “There was no chalk in schools, and teacher and nursing training allowances were cancelled. There was a near-collapse of the National Health Insurance Scheme and the National Ambulance Service. There were increases in electricity tariffs by an average of 50% annually. And many parents could not afford the fees to send their children to senior high school”.

Since coming into office of the NPP, Dr Bawumia said: "We have implemented many policies to reduce the suffering of Ghanaians".

"The electricity tariffs over the last six years have seen the lowest increase (11%) for any seven-year period over the last 30 years! We also provided free electricity for lifeline users for a year and a 50% reduction in tariffs for all other consumers during COVID-19. We have restored the cancelled teacher and nursing training allowances. We have created more jobs than any other government,” he enumerated.

He added: "Ghana’s per capita income increased from GH¢7,756 in 2016 to GH¢19,464 by the end of 2022. In dollar terms, it increased from $1,978 to $2,353".