Captain Smart the host of Onua FM’s morning show has alleged that he once saved the life of President Akufo-Addo who would otherwise have died a miserable death.
Speaking about his recent arrest on the Thursday, October 20 edition of his show, the journalist whose full name is Blessed Godsbrain Smart indicated that he realised on the night of his arrest that he is very important than the President.
He said that even though there was traffic during the rush hour, he had a dispatch rider escort them to the NIB office at Kanda for interrogation.
“How can one Captain Smart be given a presidential escort?” he asked while recounting his ordeal on TV.
“The presidency is involved in galamsey,” Captain Smart reiterated the point that eventually led to his arrest.
“…the so-called security apparatus wants to scare journalists; me [they can’t]. They should go and ask Kan-Dapaah, Addo Kufuor, J.A. Kufuor or even Nana Addo, who I saved his life in 2006; like he would have died like a chicken, ask him. Ask him that when he was taken to his hometown, Kibi, and we were returning to Accra, ask him what happened on our way. I saved Nana Addo’s life, you are all sick, ask Akufo-Addo, he will tell you,” he said.
“After he told him that he would have given me one of his daughters, ask Akufo-Addo. That time, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko was in London sweeping the streets,” Captain Smart added.
He warned that nobody should worry him because he knows where he came from and where he is going.
“Ask Akufo-Addo who saved his life in 2006, when you meet him ask him. When we came to Accra he was asking what I wanted and I told him that I don’t need anything. My responsibility is to make sure that you live, because I believed in him from 2005…,” Captain Smart noted.
The Onua FM/TV morning show host was arrested by officials of the National Investigations Bureau (NIB) on Wednesday evening, October 19, while on his way home from work.
“BNI (now NIB) arrested Captain Smart earlier on his way home from the office(Onua 95.1 FM / @Onua TV premises)” a post by his media house, Onua TV on their Facebook page sighted by GhanaWeb stated.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, October 20, 3news.com, a portal belonging to the Media General group reported that he had been released after he was granted bail.
According to the report, after his initial arrest, Captain Smart “was later found at the Interrogation Unit of the Bureau.
“He was there and then interrogated in the presence of some senior officials of Media General. He was later released on bail.”
President Akufo-Addo has assured of government’s resolve to retrieve all public lands that have been encroached upon across the country.
He said government was prepared to take the necessary steps to reclaim the lands to be used for the intended developmentpurposes for which they were legally acquired.
The President issued the caution while responding to an appeal by the Management of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) when he addressed the 60th Anniversary grand durbaron Thursday.
In the case of the UCC, President Akufo-Addo observed that almost one third of the University’s lands had been lost to encroachers, describing it as unfortunate and unacceptable.
“I am saddened by this state of affairs, especially because it is happening in Cape Coast of all places, the cradle of Ghana’s education,” he said.
He, therefore, called on the chiefs and all stakeholders to immediately cease further sales of the university’s land to ensure its advancement through a raft of planned development projects.
“We must begin to see the university not only as a national asset and an asset for the Central Region but, most importantly, as an asset for the people of Cape Coast in particular.”
Established in October 1962, UCC launched its 60th Anniversary on Thursday, April 21, this year, on the theme: “60 Years of Quality Higher Education, Expanding the Frontiers.”
The university started with an initial intake of 165 with two programmes in Arts and Sciences in 1962.
It currently has more than 74,000 students pursuing 425 programmes of study including Law, Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing and Midwifery, and Optometry.
The anniversary is to celebrate its achievements and impact on Ghana and the globe in its 60 years of existence and reflect on its setbacks to re-strategise for higher feat.
The six-month-long celebration was marked by a number of activities including professorial and memorial lectures, health walks, college days.
The rest were media engagements, Chancellor’s Day, games and sporting activities, alumni homecoming, and awards and dinner night.
The colourful durbar, which crowned the celebration, was attended by hundreds of stakeholders including, Ministers of State, Members of Parliament and delegations from partner universities.
Minutes before the durbar, the President commissioned selected projects in the university including the School of Graduate Studies building, a six-storey guesthouse, and the School of Medical Sciences Laboratory and its Administration Block.
President Akufo-Addo commended UCC for its impact oneducation, business, agriculture and medicine and for blessing Ghana with a good number of competent personalities across all fields.
He commended Professor Johnson Nyarko Boampong, the Vice-Chancellor, for providing leadership to produce entrepreneurs in the face of complaints that universities were not producing enough practical-oriented graduates fit for the world of work.
“I assure you that government will do everything possible to ensure that this vision is realised not only at the UCC but also within the broader spectrum of our tertiary educational landscape,” he said.
“Indeed, this is the way to go if our university education is to remain relevant and continue to contribute to our national development.”
He charged the institution to remain “pure and unadulterated” in the provision of quality academic and intellectual discourseto find solutions to the complex problems across borders and disciplines.
Touching on the hardships bedevilling the Ghanaian economy, the President urged citizens to be patriotic and determined in unison to enable the country to surmount the difficulties hindering its journey towards prosperity.
Dr Sir Sam Jonah, the Chancellor of the UCC, urged alluniversities in Ghana to take active steps to wean themselves off government subvention if they were to remain relevant.
He observed that with the proliferation of tertiary educational institutions in Ghana, it was unsustainable for universities to rely on government’s scarce resources.
To maintain academic excellence and remain relevant, universities must find creative and innovative strategies for accessing funding.
“We should think out of the box in designing our fundraising initiatives. In this regard, we should tap into the alumni we have across the world,” he said.
“We must actively pursue public private partnership not onlyto expand infrastructure but also to increase the numbers of faculty staff. This calls for us to be even more entrepreneurial.”
Touting the achievements of the UCC, Prof Boampongexpressed pride in the university being adjudged the ‘Best University in Ghana and West Africa and Fourth in the world in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings’ for the second consecutive time.
He described the feat as unprecedented in the history of any university in Ghana, which demonstrated its contribution to education and impact on research in Ghana.
He said the authorities had undertaken a raft of initiatives including the construction of edifices to improve teaching and learning and enhance the quality of graduates produced.
Prof Boampong appealed to the President to give the school clearance to recruit new academic staff to improve academic work.
He observed that government’s Free Senior High School policy had resulted in a significant increase in class sizes for which reason new lecturers were needed to lessen the burdened on the overstretched academic staff.
He commended successive governments for their contribution to the growth of the University and pledged its resolve to continue to contribute to national development.
A Kumasi high court on Thursday adjourned the alleged bribery case, involving Mr Alexander Sarfo Kantanka, former President’s nominee for the position of Chief Executive for the Juaben Municipal Assembly in the Ashanti region.
Mr Kantanka was alleged to have paid monies to some assembly members to influence them to confirm his nomination by the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
However, after the assembly members voted against his nomination, he was alleged to have openly called the assembly members to demand the refund of the monies.
Some of the affected assembly members reported his conduct to the Office of the Special Prosecutor and after investigations he was charged and brought before the court.
The court presided by Justice Priscilla Odikro Ofori adjourned the case to October 27, this year for the trial to continue.
Mr Amadu Emmanuel Basintale, who represented the Office of the Special Prosecutor, told journalists after the proceedings at the court that the prosecution intended to call five witnesses for the trial.
They would include three assembly members, a police officer and an officer from the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
He said the first prosecution witness, Mr Simon Akwasi Agyei, assembly member for Esaase electoral area, mounted the box and was cross-examined by the counsel for the accused person, Mr Denis Osei Antwi.
Mr. Basintale said the prosecution also pleaded with the court to fix the trial for a week to help reduce the risk and cost of traveling from Accra to Kumasi for the trials.
A Supreme Court candidate, Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu Asiedu, has urged Ghana’s leaders to invest in legal education to increase its availability.
He explained that significant investments in legal education would pave the way for the creation of competent, professional lawyers.
“If it is decentralisation, then it is already in place. We have Makola School of Law, and one in Kumasi and Madina as well,” Justice Asiedu mentioned.
Justice Adibu Asiedu said this on Wednesday when he appeared before Parliament’s Appointment Committee as part of the ongoing vetting of Supreme Court nominees.
“The Kumasi Makola that I referred to, doesn’t have a campus of its own, so we need investment in infrastructure if we want to make headway,” He also advised prospective law students not to give up on their first attempt at the Ghana Law School entrance exams, he added.
He also advised aspiring law students not to give up if they fail the Ghana Law School entrance exam on their first attempt, but to keep trying until they get in.
He used his brother as an example of a prospective law student who took the entrance exam three times before getting his chance.
“Mr Chairman, I will not ask any young man to change the profession he aspires to attain. My brother wrote the law school entrance exams, the first time he failed, he wanted to stop and I told him that he should write it as many times as will get him to pass.”
“He passed on the third count…So the advice I will give to the young ones is that they should learn and learn, write and continue to write till they pass the exams so that they can enter the Law School,” he said.
President Akufo-Addonominated four people in July to fill expected vacancies on the Supreme Court: three justices of the Court of Appeal and one justice of the High Court.
Justice Barbara Frances Ackah-Yensu, Justice George Kingsley Koomson, and Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu Asiedu are the nominees from the Court of Appeal.
The only nominee from the High Court is Justice Ernest Yao Gaewu.
The Appointments Committee of Parliament began vetting four Supreme Court justice nominees on Tuesday.
Justices Barbara Frances Ackah-Yensu, George Kingsley Koomson, and Samuel Kwame Adibu Asiedu are judges that have been vetted so far.
Their nominations are now subject to approval or rejection by Parliament.
The man of God thinks Ken Ofori-Atta has failed horribly in carrying out his responsibilities as the finance minister but is still kept in his position.
In a popular video spotted by GhanaWeb, Prof. Oduro told his audience that he would have fired the under-fire minister and hired a different person who will produce results if Ghana were his own private company.
“Wrong is wrong. When you are wrong, I need to look into your eyes and tell you that you are wrong. It doesn’t matter [who you are]; that is what is killing this nation and it is killing churches…”
“This is the time, Your Excellency to make changes and that changes must be to the honour and glory of God…our finance minister, even though he is a Christian, has failed miserably and I am telling Your Excellency with all due respect, this is the time to make drastic changes. We cannot sit here when $1.00 is equal to GH¢12.00,” Prophet Kofi Oduro said.
“You can do whatever you like; I came with a fresh grace to tell you something. Look! What I have observed is that the current government hates being told the truth but I am telling you, you will take it. If Ghana is my private company and somebody is not delivering; I fire them; I replace them; I hire somebody else and then we are working…why can’t a nation do that?” he quizzed.
Ghana and Congo on Thursday decided to develop and create opportunities for trade and commerce between the two countries under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
This was the outcome of bilateral talks between President Akufo-Addoand his Congolese counterpart, Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, when the latter called at the Jubilee House, Accra as part of his three-day visit to Ghana.
The meeting which underscored the need for the two countries to deepen their trade relations and bonds of friendship noted that AfCFTA, which aim was to increase the volume of trade among countries on the continent, was a good opportunity for trade between Ghana and Congo.
Both leaders also discussed the growing threat of terrorism and violent extremism in West Africa and Central Africa and dwelt on the need to work together to fight the nuisance.
President Akufo-Addo said it was time the two countries Congo strengthened ties that dated back to when Congo achieved independence from Belgium in 1960.
“We know that relations between us go way back to Congolese Independence. The first serious foreign policy initiatives in Ghana had to do with the dispatch of Ghanaian troops by President Nkrumah to assist the then prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, under the UN peacekeeping mandate and ever since then, Ghana has become a strong peacekeeping country sending troops.
So, these are strong relations, and we think that the time has come to enhance and build those relations even stronger than they have been in the past. We are very happy to have you here,” he said.
Touching on the security situation on the African continent, President Akufo-Addo noted that those were matters of common concern in both countries.
“We have a lot of security issues in West Africa, which I am sure you are fully abreast of. The Jihadist menace which we have here come from the Sahel which is next door to us in Burkina Faso to the North of our country is a major concern for us.
“In the same vein, you have these same kinds of people in the central part of the Continent, which is also a problem for you. I think that that provides us with an opportunity to be able to have some clear ideas of how we can all work together to rid our continent of this menace,” he pointed out.
President Tshilombo also noted that the volatile security situation in his country was largely due to the support being given to rebels fighting his country by neighbouring Rwanda.
He appealed to President Akufo-Addo to help fight the resurgence of violent extremists in Congo, requesting that Ghana leverages its position on the United Nations Security Council Security Council (UNSC) to get Rwanda sanctioned for supporting non-state actors disturbing the peace in that country.
The Congolese leader also urged President Akufo-Addo to press the UNSC to lift the arms purchase embargo placed on the DRC to enable the country to purchase arms and ammunition to defend its sovereignty.
A Political Scientist Jonathan Asante Okyere has said President Akufo Addo’s statement that threats to vote against the NPP in the 2024 election does not frighten him, will surely affect the party’s electoral fortunes in the 2024 election.
The President in response to a question posed by his interviewer on a Kumasi-based radio station regarding what he made of threats by the people of Kwabre against the NPP in the 2024 election due to poor road infrastructure in the area, replied, “no problem. I am saying people make those kinds of threats; me they don’t frighten me.”
According to him, although he understands the masses may support a party with an expectation, he, however, does not see the need to threaten the government if it fails to deliver.
“If you decide to vote for the NDC in the general election, it is your choice and that is not my problem. No one will force you to vote for someone,” he stated.
He, however, admitted that he has been mandated with a responsibility to construct roads and will definitely execute it.
But commenting on the President’s pronouncement in an interview on Kasapa 102.5FM/Agoo TV, Political Science Lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, Jonathan Asante Okyere stated that the President was wrong in responding in such a manner.
“The President didn’t need to say that, these things are going to affect the electoral fortunes of the party, it’s obvious. The fact is that the economic quagmire the country finds itself in will not make the NPP retain power in 2024. It is even going to become more difficult for the party based on the fact that the President is disrespecting people who have stood solidly behind the NPP over the years.”
He added: “Is President Akufo-Addo doing this deliberately or out of frustration? Or it’s his arrogant nature that we already know about him that is now on full display publicly just because he’s had his two terms. If it is frustration, we can pardon him, but if it’s deliberate then he’s scuttling the chances of those NPP aspirants who want to lead the party to victory in 2024.”
Jonathan Asante Okyere urged the NPP National Council of Elders to speak to the President behind the scene on the need for him to be circumspect in his public political discourse so he does not cause more problems for the party going into the 2024 election.
In a Facebook post dated October 19, 2022, the outspoken lawmaker sarcastically listed nine major headaches the Country is currently facing and ‘attributed’ all of them to the doing of the NDC.
The issues ranged from the economic headwinds being faced, the stalled National Cathedral Project, recent booing incidents the president has suffered, even a rift with his former spiritual ally, Rev. Isaac Owusu Bempah.
Referring to Akufo-Addo as ‘fellow Ghanaians’ – a term the president used to open his COVID-19 addresses, Sam George wrote: “‘Fellow Ghanaians’ is begging. He won’t call you Jeremiahs or Naysayers again.
“He promises not to carry his chair around. He promises not to promise again. Can you just stop ruling the Country from opposition? He says you are forcing him to play nonsense too much.”
The NINE NDC instigated challenges listed by the MP were:
a. Changing the exchange rates at the Forex Bureaus.
b. Booing Akufo-Addo at Global Citizens Concert. You booed him in Kumasi.
c. Made the IMF to review their stance on the problems of Ghana’s economy.
d. Halted the building of a Cathedral to the glory of Akufo-Addo.
e. Asked GUTA to close their shops.
f. Asked public transporters to seek a 40% rise in transport fares.
g. Made the cost of a litre of diesel today more expensive than a gallon in 2016.
h. You have even made his personal Prophet to abandon him.
Please stop changing the exchange rates at the Forex Bureaus. Fellow Ghanaians is at his wits end.
You booed him at Global Citizens Concert. You booed him in Kumasi. You have made the IMF to review their stance on the problems of Ghana’s economy. You have halted the building of a Cathedral to the glory of Akufo-Addo, sorry god.
You have asked GUTA to close their shops. You have asked public transporters to seek a 40% rise in transport fares. You have made the cost of a litre of diesel today more expensive than a gallon in 2016. You have even made his personal Prophet to abandon him.
‘Fellow Ghanaians’ is begging. He won’t call you Jeremiahs or Naysayers again. He promises not to carry his chair around. He promises not to promise again. Can you just stop ruling the Country from opposition? He says you are forcing him to play nonsense too much.
I just hope this appeal is not plagiarised. So help us GOD.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has presented its first witness in the case against President Akufo-Addo’s ex-Municipal Chief Executive (MCEs) nominee for the Juaben Municipal Assembly, Alexander Kwabena Sarfo-Kantanka.
The OSP, in May 2022, charged Alexander Kwabena Sarfo-Kantanka with 26 counts of corruption.
In a statement issued on May 24, 2022, the Special Prosecutor indicated that the charges against Sarfo-Kantanka are for corruption allegations regarding elections for his confirmation as MCE.
“The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has charged the nominee for the position of Chief Executive of Juaben Municipal Assembly, Alexander Kwabena Sarfo-Kantanka with Twenty-Six (26) counts of corruption in respect of a public election – arising out of two public elections conducted in September and November 2021 for the confirmation or otherwise of his nomination,” portion of the statement read.
In a tweet shared on Tuesday (October 20), the OSP said that its first witness presented his testimony during trials in court on the same day.
“The Trial of former MCE Nominee for Juaben, Alexander Sarfo Kantanka came off today at the High Court, Kumasi. Prosecution led the first witness Simon Kwasi Adjei to give evidence. He was crossed examined by Counsel for the accused person,” parts of the OSP’s tweet read.
It added that the hearing had been adjourned to Thursday, October 27, 2022.
Read the tweet from the OSP below:
Mr. Sarfo-Kantanka has been charged with twenty-six (26) counts of corruption. The charges are in respect of a public election – arising out of two public elections conducted in September and November 2021 for the confirmation or otherwise of his nomination.
— Office of the Special Prosecutor-Ghana (@ospghana) October 20, 2022
President Akufo-Addo is leading the trends on social media platform; Twitter, following the resignation of UK’s Prime Minister, Liz Truss.
Liz Truss resigned as Prime Minister of the UK some 45 days after she took office.
This comes about a week after UK-born Ghanaian Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng was sacked amid fallouts from the mini-budget presented before UK parliament.
Her resignation comes at a time Ghanaians are calling for the President and Finance minister to resign due to the current economic crisis the country is facing.
Following the announcement of Liz Truss’ resignation, Ghanaians have taken to Twitter to question why president Akufo-Addo has failed to resign despite the worsening economic crisis and corruption.
A twitter user, Vincent Aperko, said Liz Truss has resigned but Addo D is still president of Ghana after failing to #FixTheCountry. I still wonder how and why disappointed NNP members still defend Nana Addo outside.”
Another User, Kuffour will be soo disappointed in Addo D’s government . I now understand why he wanted Alancash to be president instead of Nana Addo”
Below are some of the tweets:
Liz Truss has resigned but Addo D is still president of Ghana after failing to #FixTheCountry. I still wonder how and why disappointed NNP members still defend Nana Addo outside. pic.twitter.com/XCF3avDWCc
You people say you no dey like Mahama, Bawumia too you no dey like. You say make Kennedy Agyapong too komot for der. Now some are even saying Alan Cash is part of Addo D’s administration so they don’t want him either. So now, who do you people want?
Anybody who says “Mahama is not an option” is a big Fool…with greatest of respects! Are you the option? People should not use their disappointment in Addo D and His cohorts to spew Nonsense. Ghanaians are fed up with the double standards ???? @ElikemKotoko@AnnanPerry
A former Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Prof Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, says he is grateful for the “numerous” goodwill messages and prayers he has been receiving since his appointment was terminated by the president.
“What gladdens my heart is that the messages are not dirges… I highly appreciate your unfathomable love to me,” he wrote in a letter to directors and staff of GES.
He took the opportunity to express gratitude to everyone who supported him during his tenure to change the faces of pre-tertiary education and the Service, saying “we worked as a team.”
President Akufo-Addo – in a letter dated October 17, 2022 – terminated the appointment of Prof Opoku-Amankwa and directed him to resume his position at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
One of the reasons cited for the decision was that “the exigencies that required [his] skills and expertise as Director-General of the Ghana Education Service do not exist any longer.”
Barely two days after his sacking, the president announced the appointment of Dr Eric Nkansah as acting Director-General of the Service.
His appointment took effect from Wednesday, October 19, 2022, pending receipt of the constitutionally required advice of the governing Council of the Service.
But Prof Opoku-Amankwa says he is excited at the “soothing and reassuring” words from the GES staff and the public.
“I wish to take this opportunity to thank every one of you for your dedication and the extremely good work relationship that existed between us.
You supported me in many ways to enhance my resumé to bring it to a distinguishing first class, world class CV, and I am highly grateful to you all,” he added.
Disappointment
The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) says it is worried about President Akufo-Addo’s dismissal of the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES).
According to NAGRAT, the development is disappointing.
The President of the Association, Angel Carbonu, in a media interview on Tuesday, said it also has left his members overwhelmingly disappointed.
“This is very disappointing. We are surprised because we had someone who was able to build a very positive relationship and rapport with the union,” Mr Carbonu said.
The outgone Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, has thanked all the directors and staff of the Service who worked under him for helping him better his résumé.
Making his first public statement since he was relieved of secondment duties at the GES by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the professor said that since his removal, he has received countless well-wishing calls and messages.
“I have and continue to receive your calls and numerous messages. I have not been able to pick up your calls or reply to your messages due largely to the sheer volume.
“What gladdens my heart is that the messages are not dirges but goodwills and prayers and very soothing and reassuring messages.
“I wish to take this opportunity to thank every one of you for your dedication and the extremely good work relationship that existed between us,” he wrote.
Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa added that it gladdens his heart that from his work at the GES, he has been able to upgrade his Curriculum Vitae (CV).
“I highly appreciate your unfathomable love to me. We worked as a team and together we’ve changed the face of not only pre-tertiary education but also GES.
“You supported me in many ways to enhance my resumé to bring it to a distinguishing first-class, world-class CV. And I am highly grateful to you all,” he added.
In a letter dated October 17, 2022, and signed by Secretary to the President, Nana Asante Bediatuo, President Akufo-Addo terminated the appointment of the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa.
This brought the appointment of the GES boss, who was appointed in 2017, to an end.
According to ges.gov.gh, Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa was appointed as Acting Director-General by President Akufo-Addo in April 2017 and he assumed office on the May 15, 2017.
He was subsequently confirmed as Director-General in October 2017.’
The Ashanti Regional branch of the opposition NDC has criticized President Akufo Addo’s just-ended tour of the Region describing it as full of tantrums and empty promises.
It argued that the Ashanti Region is no more a stronghold for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), but has now turned into a strangling hold for the governing party.
The opposition NDC said it observed a cold reception that turned into booing and jeering when the president visited the Ashanti region on his four-day working tour.
Addressing the media, the Regional Communications Director of the NDC, Nurudeen Abass contended the president had nothing substantial to show to the Ashanti region for all the revenues and votes the Nana Addo administration enjoyed from the region.
“Distinguished friends from the media, it goes without saying that President AkufoAddo’s latest tour of his favourite political backyard was nothing short of
underwhelming. With nothing by way of any worthy accomplishments, President AkufoAddo went about inspecting and commissioning mediocre and mundane projects which ordinarily should be the work of DCE’s and other government officials. To imagine that the President was driven in a convoy of nearly 70 V8’s to commission a magistrate court building at Toase, sums up what miserable spectacle of a tour it was.
“It is important to remind ourselves that when President Mahama and the NDC constructed a brand new High Court building at Obuasi in 2016, the then Regional Minister and MCE for Obuasi at the time did the honour of commissioning same. This is for us, the difference between the Nation-Builder, President John Dramani Mahama and the Family Builder, His Excellency William Akufo-Addo. Whereas one of them – President Mahama, built legacy projects in the Ashanti Region, such as the $234 million Kejetia Central Market project, the largest investment in the history of the Ashanti Region, the Kumasi Airport Phase II, Rattray Park, Konongo-Kumawu-Kwahu Water Project, the 500-bed Military Hospital at Afari, the 250-bed Regional Hospital at Sewua, the other – President Akufo-Addo, has very little to show for all his unprecedented borrowing and the huge votes he enjoys from the people of the region.
“Indeed, the popularity of the New Patriotic Party and President Akufo-Addo for that matter is so low in their own stronghold that they have resorted to emulating the NDC’s hugely successful membership drive in the Ashanti Region in order to try and revive their sinking fortunes. For a party that garnered as much as 1.8 million votes out of a total of 2.5 million valid votes cast in the 2020 elections to be conducting a membership registration drive in their supposed comfort zone two years down, is clear indication of their waning popularity in the region.”
President Akufo-Addo must immediately withdraw the appointment of Dr Eric Nkansah as the acting director-general of the Ghana education service, the National Association of Graduate Teachers has demanded.
Dr Nkansah’s appointment will be made permanent after the advice of the Governing Council of the GES and the Public Services Commission.
A letter from the office of the president announcing his appointment said Dr Nkansah is expected to indicate his acceptance of the role within 14 days.
However, the teacher unions say they are not happy with their new boos.
“The teacher unions started press conferences yesterday [Wednesday, 19 October 2022]. I did mine yesterday and this morning, my brothers in GNAT were supposed to do theirs until there was a development that annoyed and surprised all of us; that a new director-general has been appointed to the Ghana education service”, the President of NAGRAT, Mr Angel Carbonu told journalists at a press conference.
He said: “The authority to appoint a director-general is the president of the land. Unfortunately, contrary to what the teacher unions indicated – that we would want a director-general who is a professional teacher, who has passed through the mill, who can bring his knowledge, skills and influence to bear on the activities of teachers and non-teachers in the Ghana education service, contrary to that, the gentleman who was appointed yesterday, is not a teacher”.
“He is a banking officer who was a special assistant in the office of the minister, and has been appointed as the director-general of the Ghana education service”, he indicated.
“We are not happy with this development. It is as if we don’t have professionals and well-educated people who have gone through the mill in education in this country, to run education”, Mr Carbonu added.
He bemoaned: “It is as if we are being told that we, educationists in the Ghana education service, are not good to manage education in this country.
We are calling on the president to rescind this decision; that the gentleman who has been appointed, is not qualified by any standard, to be the director-general of the Ghana education service”.
Mr Carbonu said Dr Nkansah is an outlier.
“If you look at the history of directors-general of the Ghana education service, they are either senior officers within the Ghana education service or professors from universities who have an education background and we can take them one after the other and you’ll see and know their credentials”.
“The gentleman who has been appointed is qualified as a banking officer, who has done some small stints of teaching with Kumasi Polytechnic in those days”.
“When the minister was appointed, he became a special assistant to the minister and does not have any credentials or qualification to be director-general of the Ghana education service”.
The union of teachers demanded the withdrawal of Dr Nkansah’s appointment.
“We are calling for his removal, he is not qualified to be director-general of the Ghana education service and his presence will not motivate professionals who have been in this Service for more than 20 to 30 years and have risen to higher ranks within the Ghana education service”.
President Nana Akufo-Addo must immediately stop all plans to sell parcels of prime Giffard Road land to private developers, Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu has said.
According to the minority caucus, the ministry of agriculture and the lands commission intend to sell a portion of the area, which hosts the agriculture mechanisation centre.
“To think that this land will suffer the wanton dissipation of compulsorily-acquired state land breaks my heart and I think that President Akufo-Addo must stop this,” Mr Iddrisu said.
He said the president must call his “good friend” the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, “to order” if the latter has plans to sell the property.
“That land must be preserved in our national security interest,” he added.
“The President, if he has doubts as to what I am saying, must commence a full-scale public investigation into the status of this land.”
The President during a tour of the Ashanti Region lauded the roads minister, Kwasi Amoako Atta, saying the work rate and kilometers of roads constructed showed Amoako-Atta has no rival in the road sector.
“I do not think there is a minister who has a record like Kwasi Amoako Atta. There is nobody,” the President boasted.
President Akufo-Addo placed Amoako-Atta above the likes of Richard Anane, Joe Gidisu, Inusah Fuseini among others.
Mr. Amoako-Atta is who is a cousin of President Akufo-Addo during the tour joined the President to inaugurate the proposed 4-tier Suame Interchange which include 4 different overpasses at Abrepo, Suame, Maakro area and Krofrom as part of a US$750Million facility from the Afreximbank.
In the Ashanti region alone, Akufo-Addo explained that his government has completed 86 road projects covering 1,850 kilometres while 310 projects have been also been awarded on contract and currently being executed.
The president acknowledged that owing to Ghana’s budget constraints, all roads cannot be worked on simultaneously but gradually, a lot of roads will be covered in due course.
After praising his road minister, the President took a dig at his archrival former President John Mahama describing him and untruthful.
“When I took over the reins of government from John Mahama, he made an assertion that infrastructure development in his time was unprecedented. Soon after I took over, I embarked on a national tour and everywhere I went, Ghanaians told me of the bad nature of their roads. So it became obvious to me that the unprecedented infrastructure assertions by John Mahama were untrue”, the president stated.
The President of Ghana, President Akufo-Addo, is currently in the Ashanti Region as part of a tour of the region.
According to communication that was made public ahead of his four-day tour that started on Sunday, October 16, 2022, the president is expected to commission projects, inspect ongoing ones, and confer with traditional leaders of the area.
On Sunday, 16th October, President Akufo-Addo visited the Manhyia Palace to interact with the Asantehene and Asantehemaa.
As part of his itinerary, the president was also supposed to honour a number of radio appointments in the region.
Having already done three days of his tour, there have been a number of concerns raised by some Ghanaians over how the president’s activities in the region have gone so far.
Among those are a number of utterances the president has made in either his addresses at some of his scheduled engagements, and then others he made during his radio interviews.
In an earlier interview, the president also courted the disaffection of Ghanaians over some statements he made.
Below are some of the things Ghanaians wished President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo should not have said, or, could have said better:
I am not afraid to be voted against
During an interview on OTEC Fm in Kumasi, President Akufo-Addo made a comment that got many people literally in stitches.
In the interview, the president stated that he is not moved by threats of electoral consequences by some supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
He explained that he knows that people will vote for their preferred candidates in an election and that voters can also not be forced to make choices in a democratic dispensation, hence there was no need to threaten a government with votes.
The president was responding to concerns raised by people in Manso and Kwabre, who had threatened to vote out the NPP in 2024 if their roads are not fixed.
Their concerns were conveyed by the journalist who conducted the interview on OTEC FM.
“The people of Kwabre and Manso, we know they voted massively for Nana, they have asked me to inform the president that if their roads are not fixed, they will be pained and in 2024, they will vote against the NPP,” the journalist asked after the Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Attah, had responded to a question.
“No problem, no problem. I am saying people make those kinds of threats, me, they don’t frighten me. Somebody votes for you, somebody supports you, it is because they want you to do things for them, so I understand that,” the president quickly weighed in with a response.
I will shame you all
Still in the Ashanti Region for his tour, the president took an opportunity while making an address to send a statement to persons he believes are his political detractors in the region.
According to him, these people will be shamed one by one by the numerous work he has done for the people of the region, which is considered the ‘political world bank’ of the governing party; the NPP.
President Akufo-Addo stated that for the past six years that he has been in office, the people of the Ashanti Region have benefitted enough from his government, therefore, his detractors cannot say otherwise.
“And to those of you going around saying bad things about me in the Ashanti Region, one after the other, they are all going to be shamed convincingly, today, tomorrow and the day after.
“In spite of our present difficulties which I know will be gone as soon as possible, I continue to be excited about the future prospects of the nation and I urge all Ghanaians to join hands in building the Ghana that we want, we can realize it if we all work at it,” he said.
The president was speaking during a sod-cutting ceremony for the Suame Interchange, on October 18, 2022.
You can vote for NDC
While still speaking in his interview on OTEC Fm in Kumasi, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo made another comment about how unfazed he is about his party losing the next general elections.
He explained that while there are threats to vote against them, he is unmoved, adding that intimidations of voting against the NPP due to unfulfilled promises or lack of development under his tenure, is a personal decision he cannot be bothered about.
“People make those kinds of threats; they don’t frighten me. Somebody votes for you, and somebody supports you. It’s because they want you to do certain things for them. I understand that. But there is no need for people to say that if I am unable to do this and that… those are their own issues to deal with. Of course, I will do it (the road).
“But if it comes to the election and you choose to vote for the NDC, that is your own issue that is not my worry because nobody holds your thumb to vote; it is your own work. The important thing is that I understand my responsibility, and we will deal with it,” the president said.
I’m not so sure if Aisha Huang was deported
In September, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo granted an interview to Stone City Radio in Ho during his tour of the Volta Region.
During the interactions, he made a statement about the case of the embattled Chinese galamsey ‘kingpin,’ Aisha Huang (En Huang).
The statement came under a lot of public scrutiny because it was determined to have contradicted what some of his appointees had said on the same subject, to the effect that Aisha Huang had actually been deported from Ghana in 2018.
But speaking in that interview, President Akufo-Addo said it is likely that the ‘galamsey’ queen may not have been deported, but rather fled the country in 2018.
“… I am not still sure whether she was, in fact, deported or whether she fled the country the first time and has now come back or whatever. There still seems to be some uncertainty about it.
“Whichever way it is, she has become a sort of nickname for all that the ‘galamsey’ represents and also, unfortunately, for the involvement of Chinese nationals in this illicit trade,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo has stated that calls for him to sack the Finance Minister were unjustified.
Speaking on Kumasi-based OTEC FM on Monday, President Akufo-Addo said there is absolutely no basis for him to relieve the Finance Minister of his position.
There have been several calls from some Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and other critics alike for the President to sack the Finance Minister as the nation grapples with harsh economic conditions.
But the President contends he cannot turn his back on the Finance Minister because he’s been excellent on the job.
However, commenting on the issue, Mr. Jackson says President Akufo-Addo should take bold decisions that will bring some economic gains to the country.
“If you are looking for a solution to the problem it is not the Minister or the person per se. It is the change of behaviour and the change of policy that will signal that you are serious. Remember that in the UK where a Ghanaian Kwasi Kwarteng was made a scapegoat and dismissed. It also followed immediately with a new appointment and a complete reversal of the policies that were planned,” he said.
“What matters to the market was not that Kwasi Kwarteng in particular was sacked, what matters to the market is that the policies were reversed. If the new person that had come and still put the same agenda nothing will have changed,” Joe Jackson told Starr News.
According to the Delex Finance Director, what can save the economic challenges of the country is slimming down the size of the government.
“For me what matters is not because a particular individual has been changed, it is that we change our behavior, we cut expenditure, we cut the size of the government. We signal to the market conclusively that we are prepared to take the hard decision. That is more important than changing a specific individual.”
Mr. Jackson also added that Ghanaians are looking at what is happening and observing will want to see positive signs from the President.
“I haven’t seen any definite signs yet, I want to see the size of the government cut down. I don’t want you to change and replace. I want you to cut the size of the government. It is not about changing individuals and replacing ministers with another. It is not about reshuffle, it is about significantly slimming down the government. Let’s not divert the argument to whether an individual should be changed or not.”
According to them, at the beginning of this year, 2022, the exchange rate on import duties was 4.6 however, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has inflated it to 10 in recent days.
They truly think Ken Ofori-Atta, the finance minister, is not top of his job because he should have been able to peg it at 6.8 amidst the dollar which is trading at GHc12.
“Exchange rate on import duties is too high. The government should have pegged it by 6.8 by now. Because in the beginning this year, it was 4.8 but it has been increased to 10 as we speak.”
They added that “The government is unable to give us money to work so what finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta and President Akufo-Addo must do is to reduce the exchange rate at the ports.”
The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa has been relieved of his duties.
His dismissal was announced in a letter from the Presidency signed by the Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante, on Monday, October 17.
According to the letter, the circumstances that required his skills at the GES no longer exist.
“The Ministry of Education has informed this Office that the exigencies that required your skills and expertise as Director-General of the Ghana Education Service do not exist any longer.
“The President thanks you for your service to the nation and wishes you the very best in your future endeavours”, the letter added.
Prof. Opoku-Amankwa was appointed on secondment from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in January 2021. His contract was extended again in June 2021.
However, according to his dismissal letter, the extension was in “contravention of the Human Resource Policy Framework and manual of the Public Services Commission as it purports to extend your secondment beyond the 3-year maximum limit.”
Before his appointment, Prof Opoku-Amankwa was the Dean of the International Programmes Office (IPO) at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) before he was replaced by Mr Jacob Kor who was Director-General of the GES from January 2015 – April 2017.
Prof Opoku-Amankwa has a PHD in Language and Education from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. He studied Social Sciences at the KNUST.
He was also was an Associate Professor in the Department of Publishing Studies at the KNUST and has knowledge about the social, political, economic, and cultural life in Ghana, having studied, worked, and researched in a number of communities across the country for over three decades.
According to him, he receives briefing on the situation routinely.
The President said he is ruling the country from within and not outside. So, whatever happens in the country, he is aware.
Speaking on Kumasi-based OTEC FM as part of his Ashanti Regional tour on Monday, President Akufo-Addo said his government is working assiduously to ameliorate the plight of Ghanaians.
He cited the government’s negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of the plans to resolve the crisis.
“I know times are hard for Ghanaians. The data comes to me. So I’m very much aware. I know things are hard for Ghanaians. But two things I can say is that we have a plan and programme to help us resolve this.
“That is why we are in negotiations with the IMF. It’s part and parcel of a larger programme of development we want to embark upon to solve the current hardship in the country.
“So it is not like the government is not doing anything about it,” the President said.
Meanwhile, he has assured Ghanaians that his government is committed to ensuring they are cushioned.
“We are working hard to try and find a solution to these problems because we know Ghanaians are suffering.”
Earlier, the President said he is not threatened by calls for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to be voted out of office in the 2024 election.
He said such threats do not frighten him.
“No problem. I am saying people make those kinds of threats; me they don’t frighten me.”
According to him, although he understands the masses may support a party with an expectation, he, however, does not see the need to threaten the government if it fails to deliver.
“If you decide to vote for the NDC in the general election, it is your choice and that is not my problem. No one will force you to vote for someone,” he stated.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Unique of Kingdom Communication Limited, Dr. Jonathan Kwame Amofa has quashed reports by Gh Mouthpiece saying that she was dismissed from Kingdom FM on the orders of President Akufo-Addo.
According to him, those reports are false, untrue and they must be treated with the needed contempt it deserves.
Dr. Amofa said, he is really surprised by the kind of posturing being put up by Gh Mouthpiece and Ola Michael hence is a calculated attempt to disgrace President Akufo-Addo and himself.
“Is never true President Akufo-Addo ordered the sack of Gh Mouthpiece, the truth of the matter is that she resigned from Kingdom FM citing personal reasons for her resignation which we could not stop her. Gh Mouthpiece sent a WhatsApp message to the General Manager of Kingdom FM citing her inability to continue her job in which I have WhatsApp evidence to support that, I don’t understand why she decided to bring President Akufo-Addo’s name into this issue to disgrace him. I never sacked her she resigned herself, “Dr. Jonathan Kwame Amofa told Fiifi Pratt on Accra-based Kingdom FM 107.7.
“Ola Michael and Gh Mouthpiece should be very careful in life because in these media jobs you don’t where you will end one day. Today you can trend on social media but one day it will affect you in your life why must you tarnish someone’s image to trend on social media? “he asked.
Background
A former radio presenter at Kingdom FM, known as Gh Mouthpiece, has alleged that Ghana’s president, Akufo-Addo pressured her director to sack her over comments made against his government and economic hardship under his leadership.
According to Gh Mouthpiece, the CEO of Kingdom FM, Jonathan Kwame Amofah, was put under pressure to take her off air based on an “order from above”, he told Neat FM.
The 4-tier interchange project, to be constructed in two phases within 30-months, will include five overpasses at Krofrom, Abrepo, Anomanye and Magazine New Road as well as Abusuakruwa Junctions.
It will also result in the widening of sections of the Kumasi ring road and the Offinso road into 3-lane dual carriage way whilst additional 15 kilometer stretch of local roads would be developed.
The project has suffered several setbacks after it appeared in the national budget thrice.
Nonetheless, residents of Kumasi especially, those in Suame can now heave a sigh of relief as President Akufo-Addo, has been joined by the Roads and Highways Minister, Akwasi Amoako Atta, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Majority Leader who doubles as Member of Parliament for Suame, ministers of state and traditional leaders to break ground for the project.
The Municipal Chief Executive for the area, Maxwell Ofosu Boakye tells JoyNews that the project has come as a relief to him and the people he represents.
“The wait is over; the much anticipated interchange is here and I am elated as MCE. I am very, very happy,” he said.
“The entire region has been anticipating and waiting for this project for about 3-years now.
It featured in our budget for three consecutive times and the good thing is that this project has a period of 30-months to complete, and it’s a project that has it’s source of funding and everything intact,” he said.
He is convinced the project will not suffer delays since all the necessary arrangements have been made for its smooth running.
According to him, the contractor has no excuse to delay the project.
“It isn’t that we are now going to source for funding. The funding is sitting in an account in Ghana as I speak. So, the contractor has no reason to delay.”
President Akufo-Addo has yet again been subjected to public jeering owing to the dire economic situation Ghanaians are facing.
On Monday, October 17, the President who took to the streets of Adum in Kumasi to inspect the Phase II of the Kejetia/Central Market Project as part of his four-day tour of the Ashanti Region was met with a hostile crowd.
Unlike the usual cheers and waving of approval, residents of the area known to be the stronghold for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) were not pleased seeing their president.
In a viral video sighted by The Independent Ghana, a group of market women, hawkers and artisans, were seen voicing their displeasure as the President’s convoy made its way through the market.
The economic downturn and its attendant increasing hardships appear to have eroded all of that love.
This is the second time the President has been booed in public. During the Global Citizens Festival, the youth who gathered at the concert jeered at him.
Social media users joined the discussion on whether or not booing President Akufo-Addo is was justified.
Where are the NPP Propagandists??
I hear boos of shame, etc
Is this also instigated?
Who continues to advise this failed govt to maintain the sickening motorcade in this chaotic environment of inflation, high petrol prices, IMF, depreciating Cedi
Meanwhile, the President has commissioned a 20-unit residential facility for justices of the Appeals Court in Kumasi.
The project, which comprises four bedrooms each, a swimming pool and recreational facilities, has been completed on schedule.
It is expected to ease the accommodation pressure of the justices and fast-track adjudication of cases at the Appeals Court in Kumasi.
This means justices of the court, who commute from Accra to Kumasi, can be accommodated in Kumasi to help reduce the cost and time to promote justice delivery.
Ahead of the commissioning, Project Manager of FeDems Limited, consultants for the project, Benjamin Fosuhene Asante, told JoyNewsthe facilities are tailor-made for the justices.
About three weeks ago (September 24, 2022) President Akufo-Addo was treated to a similar unfriendly reception by youthful partygoers at the Global Citizen Festival in Accra.
During the festival, the president who had been introduced to tout the government’s initiatives in prioritising vital causes in line with the organisers’ mission for social justice, was interjected by the youthful revellers who simply wanted him ‘away’.
The facility would accommodate justices who usually commute from Accra to Kumasi to sit on cases
Some government communicators later described the development as the doing of the opposition National Democratic Congress while, a Deputy Tourism Minister called the jeers as cheers for the President.
The project, which is an integral part of the West Africa Power Pool Project, seeks to reinforce the Ghana Transmission System, and ensure the export of, at least, 100 megawatts of electricity to Burkina Faso, as well as increase the reliability of the Ghana-Burkina Interconnection project.
To help achieve this objective, GRIDCo also constructed a 330kV Transmission line from the Aboadze Power Generation enclave through Prestea to Kumasi.
The 330 kV Kumasi-Bolgatanga Transmission Line Project consisted of the construction of approximately 550km of 330kV Transmission Line from Kumasi to Bolgatanga, the construction of 330kV substations at Kumasi, Kintampo, Tamale and Bolgatanga, as well as the expansion of the existing 161kV Substations at these locations, and the implementation of Environmental Mitigation Measures and a Resettlement Action Plan for the Project.
The French Development Agency (AFD) financed the project at a total cost of US$173.9 million.
Not only has the project succeeded in supplying 150 megawatts of power to Burkina Faso, but it has also increased transmission capacity to meet growing demand in Ashanti, northern Ghana and beyond.
The Minister of Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, also noted that the projects have also contributed to the reduction of transmission line overloads and associated high transmission losses and improved voltages, particularly in Ashanti, Bono and Bono East regions.
He stressed that the 330kV transmission lines have also helped to improve the quality and reliability of power supply in the country.
History of WAPP
The West Africa Power Pool ( WAPP)projects commenced with the Coastal Transmission Backbone Projects (CTB) which involved the construction of 330kV Aboadze-Volta (Tema)-Momehagou (Togo) Transmission Line and associated substations as well as the upgrade of Power Generation facilities in Ghana.
The projects were jointly implemented by the Volta River Authority (VRA), Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) and Communauté Electrique du Bénin (CEB) of Togo/Benin and completed in 2014.
The developmental objective of the CTB project was to increase access of WAPP “Zone A” coastal states (Cote-d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin & Nigeria) to more stable and reliable electricity to alleviate power supply deficits and to reduce their collective vulnerability to drought-induced power supply disruptions.
The subsequent project was the Interzonal Hub Transmission Project. The development objective of the first phase of the project was to reduce the cost of and improve the security of electricity supply to Burkina Faso while increasing Ghana’s electricity export capacity.
The Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi, was on Monday, October 17, the scene of jeers and catcalls for President Akufo-Addo, who was inspecting the Phase II of the Kejetia/Central Market Project.
On their way to the Kumasi Central Market, the president’s convoy was met by scores of traders at Adum in the central business district who had displayed their wares for sale.
On seeing the vehicles conveying the president and government officials, the group of market women, hawkers and artisans wasted no time in voicing their displeasure with the prevailing economic situation.
In a video posted on the microblogging platform, TikTok, the traders and passersby are seen in the chorus of boos as the convoy advanced.
In good times, the stronghold of the ruling New Patriotic Party would be most welcoming of the President, with residents waving their approval, with some offering their cloths for a carpet for him to walk on.
The economic downturn and its attendant increasing hardships appear to have eroded all of that love.
This is the second time the President has been booed in public. During the Global Citizens Festival, the youth who gathered at the concert jeered at him.
Social media users joined the discussion on whether or not booing President Akufo-Addo is was justified.
Meanwhile, the President has commissioned a 20-unit residential facility for justices of the Appeals Court in Kumasi.
The project, which comprises four bedrooms each, a swimming pool and recreational facilities, has been completed on schedule.
It is expected to ease the accommodation pressure of the justices and fast-track adjudication of cases at the Appeals Court in Kumasi.
This means justices of the court, who commute from Accra to Kumasi, can be accommodated in Kumasi to help reduce the cost and time to promote justice delivery.
Ahead of the commissioning, Project Manager of FeDems Limited, consultants for the project, Benjamin Fosuhene Asante, told JoyNews the facilities are tailor-made for the justices.
About three weeks ago (September 24, 2022) President Akufo-Addo was treated to a similar unfriendly reception by youthful partygoers at the Global Citizen Festival in Accra.
During the festival, the president who had been introduced to tout the government’s initiatives in prioritising vital causes in line with the organisers’ mission for social justice, was interjected by the youthful revellers who simply wanted him ‘away’.
The facility would accommodate justices who usually commute from Accra to Kumasi to sit on cases
Some government communicators later described the development as the doing of the opposition National Democratic Congress while, a Deputy Tourism Minister called the jeers as cheers for the President.
President Akufo-Addo says the decision to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout was one of the most difficult choices he had to make to save the economy.
He cited the rising cost of crude oil on the international market as one of the factors that compounded the country’s economic woes, and one of the reasons government ran to the IMF for support.
Despite being a tough choice to make, Akufo-Addo says it was in the interest of the country and the economy to go to the Fund.
“You can imagine the difficulties that there were for the Bank of Ghana. So instead of now finding 64 dollars for each barrel of oil, the Bank of Ghana was now having to find 100 plus [dollars] and it stayed like that. In fact, it is only very recently that the price of crude oil has come down.
“I am just using this one very important fact to tell you what drove the government to this very difficult decision of going to the IMF. I don’t have any difficulty in admitting that it was a difficult decision for me to take but I felt that in the interest of the country, in the interest of our economy, we had to make that decision,” he said in an interview on Kumasi-based OTEC FM.
Amid a free-falling cedi, a rising cost of living, and skyrocketing fuel prices, the government is at the doors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to prevent a full-blown economic turmoil.
Meanwhile, the Minority on Parliament’s Finance Committee has cast doubts over government’s chances of closing a deal with the IMF by end of year.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta had indicated that government was working hard to get a deal by November this year.
But speaking to Joy Business’ George Wiafe in Washington DC at the just ended Annual IMF/World Bank meeting, Ranking Member on the Committee, Dr Ato Forson said Ghana can only secure a deal with the IMF by the first quarter of 2023.
You might’ve heard Shatta Wale hit back at critics after he was left out of the Global Citizenevent in Accra few weeks ago.
Well, he has finally disclosed that he didn’t really feel bad about the snub.
Shatta Wale spent time on Showbiz A-Z on Joy FM last Saturday, and among the many things he touched on, was his feelings about his non-involvement in the Global Citizen Festival.
“I didn’t feel bad at all, it’s just that I felt everybody in the country really slept on Shatta Wale, including the President”, he stressed.
Considered an A-list artiste, Shatta Wale was disappointed that President Akufo-Addo who made an appearance on the night, didn’t seek to find out, prior to the event, whether or not he was billed to perform. A grand platform with a top ranking artiste as himself would have been beneficial to the Ghanaian entertainment industry in the long run, he reckons.
The disappointment also stems from his association with the President, one which he describes as a father-and-son relationship. “The President is my [man]. He knows all the problems [in the entertainment industry]. I’m even tired of explaining things to them”, Shatta Wale revealed, with belief that his addition to the line-up would’ve been a boost.
He likened himself to a precious material. “It’s like an investor arriving in Ghana and presenting us with an opportunity to advertise our raw materials. Then we present to him bauxite, cocoa, and all the other raw materials, and leave out gold (him). That’s how I feel”, Shatta Wale bemoaned.
President Akufo-Addo has indicated that he should be blamed for the current economic difficulties that Ghanaians are going through.
According to him, even though as the President the buck stops with him, the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the Russia-Ukraine war cannot be left out of the contributory factors to the economic headwinds.
During an interview with Kumasi-based OTEC FM as part of his four-day tour of the Ashanti Region, the President admitted there are hardships and explained that the country’s micro-economy continues to be challenged.
“I am the leader and I take responsibility,” President Akufo-Addo said.
Akufo-Addo was, however, optimistic that the economy will recover before he finishes his term “I hope the IMF support is concluded in the middle of November so we can feed it into our budget,” adding, “my hope is to take Ghana out of IMF before I finish my term.”
Ghana currently has a delegation in the United States led by Ken Ofori-Atta to conclude the IMF negotiations.
The Finance Minister led the Ghanaian delegation to the G7 meeting with African Finance Ministers but stated that will be staying after the meeting to conclude negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, IMF, before coming back to Ghana.
“We still are working through and as you know, we are staying beyond the Fund, the World Bank meetings through, maybe the 20th, so we will continue with the Mission and the work. We pray that that may give us enough time to be able to come to some fair decisions on the outlook.
“I can tell you that the Fund staff is very motivated, which is good and we are 24/7, so the combination of their own enthusiasm and our clarity on the work that has been done to fulfil the President’s promise.
“If you look at the turnout of discussions for this annual meeting clearly, the world is recognizing that something different has to be done,” Ken Ofori-Atta said as quoted by Accra-based 3news.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has clarified why Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister is still at post despite numerous calls for his dismissal from his government over abysmal performance.
According to him, Ken Ofori-Atta after the ruling party was sworn into office in 2017, was able to ensure that the economy which was on the verge of collapse grew at an average of 7 per cent.
He said he cannot turn his back on someone who was able to achieve that feat for the country.
He noted that he is keeping Ofori-Atta in office because his performance for the past six years has been excellent.
“I came to office in 2017 when we were under an IMF programme. This same Ken Ofori-Atta was able to manage the economy for the first 3 to 4 years. We were then one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. We had an average growth rate of 7% a year.
“For someone who has been able to do all these, how do I turn my back on him? For me, his performance has been excellent. That is why I have great difficulty in understanding what is going on,” President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said while speaking on Kumasi-based OTEC FM, Monday, October 17.
The calls for Ken Ofori-Atta’s dismissal intensified when Kwasi Kwarteng, his counterpart in the UK was dismissed by the Prime Minister following a fallout from the country’s mini-budget he [Kwarteng] presented.
One such individual who is of the view that the minister is relieved from his duties is Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, North Tongu MP.
To him, just as Kwasi Kwarteng has been dismissed by the Prime Minister Liz Truss as the UK Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta should also go.
In a tweet, Ablakwa said, “Kwasi Kwarteng hasn’t done a fraction of the damage has caused the Ghanaian economy but he gets to be sacked and Ken is showered with praises from his family member, President Akufo-Addo as Ghanaians languish in more pain. Sad — no justice in the world.”
President Akufo-Addo has proclaimed that he is unperturbed by threats of electoral consequences by some supporters of the New Patriotic Party, NPP.
He is of the view that not everyone will vote for a particular candidate in an election and that voters can also not be forced to make choices in a democratic dispensation hence there was no need to threaten a government with votes.
Akufo-Addo was responding to concerns raised by people in Manso and Kwabre, who according to an OTEC FM journalist had threatened to vote out the NPP in 2024 if their roads are not fixed.
The journalist was hosting the President in an exclusive interview as part of his official visit to the Ashanti Region where he inspected and launched a number of projects.
“The people of Kwabre and Manso, we know they voted massively for Nana, they have asked me to inform the president that if their roads are not fixed, they will be pained and in 2024, they will vote against the NPP,” the journalist said after the Roads Minister Kwasi Amoako-Attah had responded to a question.
The president quickly weighed in with a response: “No problem, no problem.” He continued: “I am saying people make those kinds of threats, me, they don’t frighten me. Somebody votes for you, somebody supports you, it is because they want you to do things for them, so I understand that.
“There is no need for people to say if I do not do it, this or that. That is your own problem. Of course, I will fulfil my promises.
“But if it so happens that you decide to vote for the NDC, that is your problem, that is not mine. Nobody will hold your hand to thumbprint for any candidate, the most important thing is that I understand the responsibility and we will deal with it,” he stressed.
Over 6000 youth passed out on Friday (14 October 2022) under the Youth Employment Agency’s (YEA) Community Health Worker (CHW) module across the 16 regions of Ghana.
For the very first time, the beneficiaries are going to receive a monthly allowance of GHC500, an improvement on the GHC250 that was received by their previous cohorts.
CHW is a module of the YEA that is focusing on the selection of young indigenes of the various communities, trained and posted to work in selected districts, sub-districts and communities across the country to assist community health officers, nurses and midwives in their health service delivery, particularly in the area of health promotion, disease surveillance and disease prevention.
The current CHW module, in partnership with the Ghana Health Service, is an improved version of previous ones with a new focus of improving the impact of beneficiaries in their communities, improve the wellbeing of citizens, and most importantly contribute immensely towards supporting the beneficiaries to identify their career paths.
Speaking at the national passing out ceremony in the Eastern Region on Friday, the CEO of YEA, Kofi Baah Agyepong, announced that for the first time, formal arrangements have been made with the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service to give a special dispensation to the beneficiaries during admissions into nursing training schools, premised on the requisite field and practical knowledge.
He eulogised President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his commitment to youth employment and development, and further dedication to the sustainable development goals. He said even in the face of severe economic hardships, both locally and globally, funds to run the CHW and other modules have been made available by the government to ensure that the youth have jobs.
The visibly elated beneficiaries praised President Akufo-Addo for the opportunity, especially the 100% increment of their allowance.
Agyepong admonished the beneficiaries nationwide to be very hardworking and diligent in their work as the agency will not countenance truancy, laziness and misbehaviour during their engagement period.
Agyepong also hinted that over 15,000 personnel will also be recruited in the YEA’s Community Protection Assistants Module in the coming months.
The Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Kwame Acheampong, assisted by some MCEs praised the government for the numerous interventions geared towards creating more opportunities and alleviation or reducing the impact of the current global economic crises on Ghanaians, especially the youth.
The national event took place in the Eastern Region, hosted by the Eastern Regional Director of the Youth Employment Agency Jerry Osei-Poku and his team, whilst all other regions held
President Akufo-Addo has stated that threats of voting against him or the New Patriotic Party(NPP) due to unfulfilled promises or lack of development under his tenure, especially, is a personal decision which he cannot be bothered about.
“People make those kinds of threats; they don’t frighten me. Somebody votes for you, and somebody supports you. It’s because they want you to do certain things for them. I understand that. But there is no need for people to say that if I am unable to do this and that… those are their own issues to deal with. Of course, I will do it (the road).
“But if it comes to the election and you choose to vote for the NDC, that is your own issue that is not my worry because nobody holds your thumb to vote; it is your own work. The important thing is that I understand my responsibility, and we will deal with it,” the president said during an interview on Kumasi-based Otec FM.
The president was reacting to a message sent into the radio programme by a listener who stated that residents of Kwabre and Manso would vote against the NPP if President Akufo-Addo’s government failed to construct their roads.
The message, as read by the host of the programme, Captain Koda, stated that the residents of the area, being a stronghold of the NPP, voted massively for President Akufo-Addo.
“Our plea through you (roads minister) to the Mr President is that when you look at the voting pattern, residents of Kwabre voted massively for Nana. They said I should tell the president that they will be pained if you don’t construct their roads for them in 2024; they will vote against the NPP,” the host, sending the message through the Minister for Roads and Transport, Kwasi Amoako Atta, who was in the studio with the president, said.
The Deputy National Youth Organiser of the National Democratic Congress, , has urged President Akufo-Addo to as a matter of urgency increase the allowance given to personnel of the National Service Scheme (NSS).
In a letter addressed to the president, which was sighted by GhanaWeb, Agbana said that the GH¢559 allowance has not been increased for the past 6 years despite the worsening economic conditions in the country.
He added that the fact that the Akufo-Addo government has not increased the allowance since 2016 is very worrying because every government since the inception of the scheme has increased it to help improve the livelihood of the personnel.
“Your excellency, there can be no doubt that the country is facing unprecedented economic challenges. This is evidenced by the rising inflationary pressures on basic food supplies, fuel and transport, the depreciation in the value of our local currency and the ripple effect these have on other vital sectors of the economy.
“For the young people of this country, national service personnel, in particular, there seems to be no end in sight as they reel under the pangs of the economic hardship. A monthly allowance of about US$43, being the equivalent of GH¢559, is simply unsustainable as the value of the cedi plummets against the rising cost of living.
“More than ever before, Mr. President, we must match the enthusiasm and hard work of our national service personnel with improved allowance packages to cushion them and enable them to navigate these hard economic times,” parts of the later read.
Meanwhile, the Management of NSS has announced the release of the 2022/2023 National Service postings.
A total of One hundred and fifteen thousand, two hundred and forty (115,240) prospective national service personnel enrolled to undertake their mandatory national service for the 2022/2023 service year.
A statement issued by the NSS said: “The prospective service personnel include the year 2022 eligible Ghanaian graduates from accredited tertiary institutions in the country, defaulters who submitted their applications for postings, and private registrants.”
The NSS urged prospective service personnel to log onto the scheme’s website, “to check their placements.”
President Akufo-Addo says there is no basis for him to sack the Finance Minister Ofori-Atta.
According to him, Ken Ofori-Atta has discharged his duties “excellently” and he cannot relieve such a person of his position.
President Akufo-Addo speaking on OTEC FM on Monday said he has full confidence in the Minister who is his cousin.
He insisted that Ofori-Atta cannot be blamed for the current economic woes the country is facing.
“I came to office in 2017 under a stringent IMF programme. This same man was able to manage the affairs of our economy in such a way that in my first term, we were one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
“An average growth rate of 7% which allowed us to initiate programmes such as Planting for Food and Jobs. So somebody who has been able to do that. The current difficulties are not his fault. So how do I do it (sack him)? What will be the basis? What will be the rationale.”
President Akufo-Addo thus said calls for him to sack the Minister is unjustified.
“If we were to say he didn’t do well in the first term, then why did I renominate him for my second term? So for me, his performance in my first time was excellent. Let me use that word. Excellent,” he added.
Some Ghanaians have called on the President to relieve the Minister of his duties due to the poor state of the Ghanaian economy.
Ghana is currently seeking support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stay the economy afloat, but despite the gloom, President Akufo Addo insists he will keep the Finance Minister.
Meanwhile, the Ghanaian cedi exchanged for ¢12 to $1 in many places on Friday, selling at ¢12.10 at most forex bureaux or the retail market.
This development comes within a week after the cedi earlier depreciated against the dollar.
Meanwhile, scores of Ghanaians have taken to social media to bemoan the situation; urging the government to take urgent steps to address the persistent depreciation of the country’s currency.
Deputy Minister of Education, John Ntim Fordjour, has urged BECE candidates to do their best during their 2020 examination.
According to him, several investment plans have been put in place to give them great opportunities after their examination.
This investment, he says, includes the flagship Free SHS/TVET policy, which has been put in place by the Akufo-Addo administration.
In a Twitter post, he said, “best wishes to all 552,276 BECE candidates across the country. The future is bright with you. The massive investment awaiting you through government flagship Free SHS/TVET policy is to give you a future of great opportunities and economic empowerment. Now therefore, put in your best possible efforts and make us proud.”
A number of 552,276 candidates will on Monday 17th begin the 2022 Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE).
The candidates include 276,988 males and 275,288 females.
The exams will end on Friday, October 21, 2022, and will be taken across 2,023 designated centres across the country.
In a statement issued and signed by the Head of the Public Relations Unit, GES, Cassandra Twum Ampofo advised candidates to play by the rules governing the conduct of the examinations and abide by them in order to ensure incident-free examinations.
“All Candidates and Stakeholders are assured that Management has worked very closely with the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to ensure the smooth conduct of the examinations throughout the country.
“We wish to remind all Candidates, Parents, Invigilators, and Supervisors to appreciate the fact that the basis of success in life is honesty and hard work and therefore urge all Candidates and Stakeholders to eschew all forms of examination malpractices before, during and after the exams and to indicate that all cases of reported examination malpractices will swiftly be investigated and dealt with decisively,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo has refuted claims by his critics that mismanagement by the ruling government has led to the current economic hardships in Ghana.
“I am opened to all manner of criticisms but I won’t take those mismanagement accusations from anyone”. The president said.
The President in an exclusive interview on the Kumasi-based OTEC 102.9 FM’s breakfast show Nyansapo on Monday, October 17, 2022, said Ghana’s current economic turmoil was caused by external shocks.
“We are all aware of the difficulties we went through during the COVID-19 era and the subsequent invasion of Ukraine by Russia, these shocks from the two unforeseen factors have heavily impacted the economy and are to be blamed for the country’s woes and not mismanagement by the government.”
“Like everybody on this planet you have been hurt by exogenous shocks. First the pandemic, then Russia-Ukraine. And then we need to realise it is not because of bad policies in the country, but because of this combination of shocks,” he told the host of the show Captain Koda.
The President, once again assured the people of Ghana that his government is determined to bring relief to the Ghanaian people and return the economy back to the high rates of growth that characterized the management of the economy in the three years preceding the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.
President Akufo-Addo has reiterated his commitment to end illegal mining popularly called galamsey in the country.
He disclosed that no government in the history of Ghana has embarked on a more rigorous galamsey fight than his government.
He made this known at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi at the start of a four-day tour of the Ashanti region.
He said the galamsey menace that has been generated in recent times explains the importance Ghanaians attach to the issue.
According to him, “We are here to eradicate galamsey and surely, it would be eradicated…No government has shown that resilience in the fight against galamsey.”
“One issue that has generated negative public criticism is galamsey. Though it attracted less public discussion before my tenure, it is the talk of the town, even among traditional leaders.
“This means the issue is common and calls for all hands on deck to bring it to an end, he stated.
Earlier, the President said he was being truthful in his commitment when he proclaimed in 2017 to end galamsey.
He disclosed that his fight against the menace five years ago cost him and the NPP “significant losses in the mining communities” during the election 2020.
Galamsey is heavily criticized in Ghana due to its detrimental environmental effects which many believe outweigh any possible economic and cultural justifications.
The practice of galamsey activities contributes tremendously to the local economy of the communities within which the practice is conducted.
The number of galamseyers in Ghana is unknown but believed to be from 20,000 to 50,000, including thousands from China.
The major cause of galamsey is unemployment among the youth in Ghana.
President Akufo-Addo has, in the clearest terms, declined the call on him to reshuffle his ministers.
The president, who is currently on a tour in the Ashanti Region during a radio interview with Otec FM on Monday, October 17, 2022, said there is no need to make changes to his list of ministers as they have all met his expectations.
“I feel many of them for me have done outstanding work. Their output has been considerable, and that is what I look at. If the output measures expectations, then I don’t have any strong reasons to heed the call,” the president is quoted in a report by Modernghana.com.
The president has been under intense public pressure to reassign and sack some of his ministers over what is described by some critics as their incompetence in discharging their duties.
The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has dominated the list of individuals whose heads are being demanded.
Calls for the minister’s sacking have heightened in recent months due to the current performance of the Ghanaian economy and its resulting economic hardship.
He mentioned that of late, there had been so much talk about the illegal mining activities, popularly called “galamsey” and that “means that serious work to end the menace was ongoing.”
The President had paid a courtesy call on the Asantehene at the Manhyia Palace, yesterday, as part of a four-day working tour in some parts of the Ashanti Region.
Addo (right) exchanging greetings with Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II
Prior to the interaction, the President and his entourage had worshiped at the St Cyprian’s Diocese at Fanti Newtown, where a visiting Bishop of Warrington, Liverpool in the United Kingdom, Bishop Beverly A. Mason, preached the sermon and offered a special prayer for him.
Many people, the President noted, had been saying my government had done nothing in the Ashanti Region, “but after the four-day tour, they would see what have been done.”
As part of the tour, which begun yesterday, the President would inaugurate some projects such as the residential accommodation for the Court of Appeal judges at Danyame.
The sod cutting for the commencement of work on the complex which would be permanent residential facilities for Court of Appeal judges, was performed by the President with the support of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II and Chief Justice Anin Yeboah, on April 20, this year.
With the collaboration of the Ministry of Local Government and the District Assembly Common Fund, 20 townhouses and a guesthouse have been built to be used as permanent residences for Court of Appeal Judges, who would be mandated to handle cases in the northern part of the country.
He would also commission the ECG KATH 33/11kv primary substation constructed under the EDSTREP project, at Subin, in Kumasi.
There would be a durbar of chiefs and people of Toase for the inauguration of the Town’s Magistrate Court.
The President would have a crunch meeting with MMDCEs, Regional Executives and Constituency chairmen only, perhaps to reiterate his stance to stop illegal mining(galamsey) and to punish culprits in the party.
Other programmes outlined included the inauguration of maize processing factory at NsutaKwaman under the 1D1F and also inspect agenda 111 project at Beposo.
Inspection of Anwia-Nkwanta-Obuasi, Santasi-Apire roads would also be undertaken.
President Akufo-Addo has suspended Mr Yaw Danso, District Chief Executive (DCE) of Bosome Freho, over his alleged involvement in illegal mining “galamsey” in the district.
This comes after the leaking of a video in which he was allegedly encouraging “galamsey” activities in the area.
A polluted river
The suspension is contained in a letter from Mr Dan Botwe, Minister for Local Government and Regional Organisation, which asked the DCE to step aside for investigations into the audio.
The minister stressed in the letter that the suspension was to pave way for investigations to verify the authenticity of the tape.
President Akufo-Addo, in his resolve to address the illegal mining menace, has called on all stakeholders, including government officials, chiefs and community members, to join in the fight.
The President, at a recent meeting with traditional leaders and metropolitan, municipal, district chief executives, among other government officials, warned that persons caught in the act would face full rigours of the law.
President Akufo-Addo will today commission a residential complex for Appeals Court Judges at Nhyiaeso in the Ashanti Region as part of his four-day tour of the Ashanti Region.
The residential complex has about twenty (20) bungalows for Court of Appeal Judges in Kumasi.
The sod for the construction was cut in April last year by President Akufo-Addo with support from the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, and the Chief Justice, Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah.
Ahead of the commissioning later today, Ghanaweb shares images of the ultra-modern judge complex.
According to him, Akufo-Addo is embarking on many projects in the region and people who have made such claims will be exposed in due time.
Speaking on Okay FM’s Adeakyeabia show, he said, “… Akufo-Addo will commission some projects under Agenda 111 during his tour in the region today, so if anybody sits somewhere to say Ashanti Region has been abandoned in regards to developmental projects, it’s false, and we are going prove them wrong. We are deliberately quiet, and because some contractors have abandoned their sites due to hardship, we are quiet. We are going to expose them big time.”
President Akufo-Addo has commenced a four-day tour of the Ashanti Region.
He arrived in the region on 16th October 2022, where he will commission projects, inspect ongoing ones, and confer with traditional leaders of the area.
On Sunday, 16th October, President Akufo-Addo visited the Manhyia Palace to interact with the Asantehene and Asantehemaa.
He is expected to inspect the Boankra Inland Port Project and proceed to commission the Konongo Municipal Hospital in the Asante Akyem Central Constituency.
He will later inspect the Agenda 111 Hospital Project at Kokoben and commission the 30kv Kumasi-Bolgatanga Transmission line.
Day 2 of the tour will begin with a radio interview on Otec FM and the commissioning of a residential complex for Appeals Court Judges at Nhyiaeso.
He will depart to inspect the Kejetia/Central Market Phase II Project, the Maternal and Children’s Block Project at KATH and the commissioning of the ECG KATH 33/11kv Primary Sub-station, all in the Subin Constituency, among others.
The protesters’ message to the government was written on the casket they were carrying.
They claimed they needed the money they had locked up freed immediately.
Some aggrieved customers of Gold Coast Fund Management, a subsidiary of Groupe Nduom have converged at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Tuesday morning with a casket bearing the picture of Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom.
The ‘pall-bearers’ carried the casket around while jeering in protest to push for the government’s intervention in retrieving their funds.
The group is demanding the prosecution of the chairman of Group Nduom, the mother company of the investment firm, as well as the entire management of Gold Coast Fund.
They also want the government to freeze Dr. Nduom’s accounts.
Again, the group is demanding President Akufo-Addo sacks the head of the sector regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, for allegedly looking on for their investments to go down the drain.
Starting from the Obra Spot, the group is expected to march through the Finance Ministry to the Jubilee House to present a petition to the government.
President Akufo-Addo is optimistic that the country’s fight against illegal small scale mining will yield the expected results.
The national campaign to halt illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) is unprecedented as most well-meaning Ghanaians have thrown weight behind the initiative, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said on Sunday.
“Everybody is talking about it and that connotes the magnitude of the problem. The Government’s agenda is to involve all identifiable groups in dealing with the issue head-on,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo, who paid a courtesy call on the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi, rallied the citizenry to give their all to make the anti-galamsey crusade successful.
The President is on a five-day working visit to the Ashanti Region to inspect and inaugurate development projects.
Projects billed for inspection include the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Maternal and Children’s Block, Kejetia/Central Market Phase Two, Obuasi Trauma and Accident Hospital, and Boankra Inland Port projects.
The rest are the Anwiankwanta-Obuasi and Santasi-Apire Road, Oforikrom, Nsuta and Trede Agenda 111 projects, as well as a sod-cutting ceremony for work to begin on the Suame Interchange.
President Akufo-Addo is also expected to inaugurate the Toase Magistrate’s Court, residential accommodation for the Appeals Court judges, the ECG KATH 33/11 kV Primary sub-Station, and Nsuta Maize Processing Factory, which had been completed under the ‘One District, One Factory programme.
On infrastructural projects executed in the region over the last six years, the President cited the construction and rehabilitation of about 400 kilometres of asphalted roads, as well as over 30 hospital projects meant to make life comfortable for the people.
The President said the Government had worked assiduously to impact positively on the living conditions of the people and was determined to improve upon it.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, welcomed the President to the region and lauded him for regular visiting to inspect ongoing development projects.
That, he said, was necessary to ensure the successful completion of those projects.
Ashanti Ports Services Limited (APSL), the Concessionaire of the Boankra Integrated Logistics Terminal project, has assured President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that the project would be completed by March 2024.
That pledge was made when the President visited the site of the construction on Sunday, as part of activities marking his four-day working tour of the Ashanti Region.
Popularly referred to as the Boankra Inland Port Project, the venture, covering a total land area of 413 acres, has been on the drawing board for some 18 years.
The idea of the Boankra Integrated Logistics Terminal project was in the pipeline during the Kufuor era. It encountered several challenges, a significant one being the exit of the NPP government in 2009.
However, President Akufo-Addo cut the sod on November 2020, for the construction of the Port.
The Concessionaire informed President Akufo-Addo that it was working to deliver the project within the scheduled date.
“By the end of 2023, 80 per cent will be done, and, by the end of the first quarter of 2024, we will finish the project,” APSL said.
The APSL was hopeful that the eastern and western railway lines, which would further improve the viability of the Boankra inland port, would be completed on schedule.
APSL is a joint venture of Afum Quality Limited of Ghana and DSS Associates of the Republic of Korea. It has committed to investing a total of $330 million for the realisation of the project.
The Concessionaire is expected to design, engineer, finance, procure, construct, operate, and maintain the inland Port, and transfer the title to the Government after 30 years.
The project had been initiated to provide service to importers and exporters in the middle and northern parts of the country, and also to act as a major conduit for the efficient transportation of transit traffic to and from our neighbouring landlocked countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
“It is my hope and expectation that the Concessionaire will not renege on the confidence reposed in it and will take all the necessary actions to deliver the project on schedule and budget,” the President said when he inspected work at the site.
He was hopeful that “this project and other similar infrastructure projects, such as the development of the Keta Port, the Tema-Akosombo Railway Line, and the ongoing port expansion projects at Tema and Takoradi Ports, would make a positive contribution in ensuring that Ghana derives maximum benefits from the AfCFTA.”
After completion of the Terminal, it would be fitted with an inland clearance depot, customs bonded and unbonded estates, commercial areas such as banks, offices and trading facilities, vehicle parking areas, light industrial areas, and an administration complex.
President Akufo-Addo will on Sunday, October 16, commence a five-day working visit to the Ashanti Region to inspect development projects in the area.
These projects cover a wide spectrum of government’s initiatives meant to improve the living conditions of the people.
The President’s itinerary, copied to the Ghana News Agency by the Regional Coordinating Council on Saturday, said the projects included the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Maternal and Children’s Block, Kejetia/Central Market Phase Two, Obuasi Trauma and Accident Hospital, and Boankra Inland Port Project.
The rest are the Anwiankwanta-Obuasi and Santasi-Apire Road Projects, Oforikrom, Nsuta and Trede Agenda 111 Projects, as well as a sod-cutting ceremony for work to begin on the Suame Interchange.
While in the Region, President Akufo-Addo will also inaugurate some completed projects such as the Toase Magistrate’s Court, residential accommodation for the Appeals Court judges, the ECG KATH 33/11 kv Primary sub-Station, and Nsuta Maize Processing Factory under the ‘One District, One Factory’ programme.
He will interact with traditional authorities, including the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, as well as the leadership and activists of the New Patriotic Party.
Mr Akufo-Addo announced this in a Facebook post on Thursday.
The Gulf of Guinea Commission is an organisation established to defend the common interests of Member States, and promote peace and socio-economic development based on the bases of dialogue, consensus, ties of friendship, solidarity and fraternity.
The President wrote “On Thursday, 13th October 2022, I held bilateral discussions with the President of the French Republic, His Excellency Emmanuel Macron, which were centered on strengthening the ties of co-operation between our two nations.
“Earlier in the day, I was elected Chairperson of the Gulf of Guinea Commission, an organisation established to defend the common interests of Member States, and promote peace and socio-economic development based on the bases of dialogue, consensus, ties of friendship, solidarity and fraternity.
“I also addressed a Session of Asia Society France; and held a meeting with Catherine Colonna, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs.”
Nana Akufo-Addosays the attacks are unnecessary and an affront to global peace.
The President at the Asian Society of France Conference in Paris said “Whatever the fates are, Ghana my country, beacon of hope and stability in Contemporary Africa, vigorously condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine because, in this dependent world, the consequences of this affect the lives of the millions of my fellow Africans.”
‘Bombs from Russia-Ukraine war hitting our pockets in Ghana’ – Akufo-Addo
“The terrible events in Ukraine have a direct impact on our lives here in Ghana,” Nana Akufo-Addo has said.
Ghana’s economyis going through turbulent times as it is plagued with a number of challenges, including rising inflation and the rising cost of fuel.
The country’s currency is also suffering a depreciation, especially against the US dollar, while the public debt level has attained an unsustainable level.
The Akufo-Addo administration has blamed Ghana’s economic meltdown on a multiplicity of factors, including the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine.
Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Kwaku Afriyie, has inaugurated a seven-member Governing Board of the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) to initiate policies and actions for effective mandate delivery.
The Board chaired by Professor Aba A. Bentil Andam, has other members as Colonel Tim Ba-Taa-Banah, Professor Isabella A. Quakyi, Mr Daniel A. N. N. Adumuah, Mr Ebenezer Appah-Sampong, Professor Edward H. K. Akaho and Dr Nii K. Allotey.
With the declaration by President Akufo-Addo on Ghana’s inclusion of Nuclear Technology in its Power Generation Mix, Dr Afriyie said it behoved the Board to initiate pragmatic policies and actions to best prepare the Authority to effectively deliver on its mandate for Ghana’s nuclear power programme.
He admonished the Board to ensure that its inputs led to proper management of the Authority’s resources while seeing to it that the Authority was abreast of all emerging new technologies.
“I urge you to be passionate about this duty, and bring your years of experience, expertise and excellence which all of you are noted for to bear on the task ahead. Above all, take your mandate as a sacred calling for which posterity would applaud your memory,” he said.
Dr Afriyie told the Board to bear in mind their new role at a time when there were global uncertainties traversing from economic instability, climate uncertainties, energy crisis, and potential food shortage, insecurity as a result of insurrections in the West Africa sub-region and a myriad of other minor issues which in a large measure affected Ghana.
“Nonetheless, we have confidence in the undaunting/unwavering spirit of the Ghanaian to surmount and overcome challenges no matter how dire they may appear,” he said.
The Minister said the government had taken due cognisance that Board members possessed excellent academic credentials, pursued successful professional careers and were individuals with unblemished integrity.
“Undoubtedly, these great heights and feats achieved were gotten through dint of hard work, fortitude and determination,” he added.
Prof. Andam said the task to make the NRA one of the best, most efficient and most effective regulatory bodies, equipped to deliver in the 21st-century fast-growing technological environment had only just started.
The challenges, she said, were great but the potential for meeting them existed, hence success was attainable.
“It is our solemn pledge that we will commit and devote ourselves to the task ahead, initiate policies and see to their quick implementation, and ensure good governance in the NRA for which it is known.
“I can attest to the fact that Members of this Board are known for their lives of service and commitment to the nation. This gives me the confidence that history will show that in our day(s) we met the demands which our time(s) required of us.” Prof. Andam said.
