Day: November 21, 2023

A six-member delegation from the Government’s Assurance and Implementation Committee of Uganda is in Ghana for a study visit to Ghana’s Parliament.

The delegation, in the company of the Clerk and Secretary to the Committee, would among other things share ideas with their Colleagues and Ghanaian Parliament Government Assurance Committee counterparts to create a platform of networks to deepen bilateral relations between themselves.

Mr Alban Bagbin, the Speaker of Parliament who introduced the delegation on the floor of Parliament during Tuesday’s Proceedings said: ‘The delegation is here to interact, gain in-depth knowledge, and exchange ideas on related works about their committee as well as Ghana’s parliament.’

He called for the necessary and related learning assistance to the delegation to make their study trip worthwhile.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Alhaji Masawudu Osman, National third Vice chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has disclosed that the party is working to win more seats in the Volta Region in 2024.

‘We are looking at a maximum of eight seats,’ he said, and charged party faithful to unite in peace as unity was crucial in achieving the goal.

Alhaji Osman who chaired the vetting committee of the party’s parliamentary primaries in the Volta region said the party was ready to work with anybody elected by the delegates as the parliamentary candidate.

He implored aspirants vying for the party’s parliamentary candidacy in the region to ensure party unity, which was an essential element in securing victory.

The Third Vice Chairman charged the aspirants to conduct a ‘clean campaign’ devoid of act and conduct that would bring division into the party.

‘We don’t want faction, we want unity. If we joke with faction, factionalism will compromise our victory in 2024.’

Alhaji Osman reminded the aspirants that the primaries were an internal affa
ir and all of them belonged to the NPP family and must allow peace and unity to prevail.

Mr James Etornam Flolu, District Chief Executive for Afadzato South, told the Ghana News Agency that the focus of the NPP was to bring development to the citizenry.

Mr Flolu, who is contesting to become the party’s parliamentary candidate at the Afadzato South constituency, said his focus was to champion development in the area to enhance the standard of living of the people.

He described the primaries as a race against poverty and lack of projects and called on the media to help change the narrative by projecting the region.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The International United Pastors Association (IUPA) has asked Ghanaians, particularly the youth, to resist enticements into political violence, violent extremist and terrorist groups that would destabilize the country.

Apostle John Archimedes Aidoo, Chairman of IUPA urged the youth to be tolerant, law-abiding, and patriotic to fight for the developmental agenda of the country.

The IUPA is an Association of Pastors of all churches in the Twifo Praso Area.

Making the call at the inauguration of the Association at Twifo Praso in the Twifo-Atti-Morkwa District of the Central Region, he encouraged the youth to engage in more productive activities that could contribute positively to their future development.

He said violent could effectively be prevented when the youth opt to share relevant information with the security agencies about activities of suspected criminals in their communities.

That, he said, would help the security services, particularly the Ghana Police Service to identify suspicious characters
and fish them out to prevent crime in the Area.

Apostle Aidoo also appealed to Ghanaians to make sanitation and cleanliness a priority in their homes and the environment to help address poor sanitation in the communities across the country.

‘Making clean-up exercises an everyday affair would help keep the communities, homes, streets, and marketplaces and choked gutters clean and to prevent perennial flooding in the country.

‘By caring and working together, we can keep our environment clean,’ he said.

Rev. Isaac Kwesi Amoah, Treasurer of IUPA advised the clergy to desist from using the church as a hospital facility where they admit sick people for prayer and healing service.

He urged Ghanaians to regularly go for medical check-ups to know their health status as health was paramount and people must not wait until they fell sick before seeking medical attention.

IUPA presented a special citation to honour the Ghana Police Service in the Twifo Atti-Morkwa District for their commitment to fighting crime in t
he district.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The debate on the 2024 Budget Statement and Financial Policy of the Government began on Tuesday on the floor of Parliament with an intense argument between the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Majority and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority.

Whereas the NPP Majority was arguing in support of the Budget, the NDC Minority was critiquing it.

The Budget was presented to the House by Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the finance minister on Wednesday, November 15, highlighting Government’s programmes and policies for the fiscal year 2024.

Opening the debate, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkumah, the Minister of Information and NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Ofoase-Ayirebi, said there was a high debt situation, and many countries were trouping to international partners to try and deal with their debts.

He said the presentation of the 2024 budget comes at a time when growth was challenged; saying ‘the Ghanaian economy that was growing at an average 7.0 per cent between 2017 and 2019, is now just being growing around 1.5 (per cent)
thereabout’.

‘So, context within which this economic policy has just been brought to this House is that the economy is challenged, cost of living is high, debt levels are high, and growth is down,’ Mr Oppong Nkumah said.

‘Mr Speaker, therefore if you are promoting an economic programme, the question is what must this economic programme seek to achieve?’

He noted that an economic programme at this time must seek to bring back economic stability; adding that if inflation were sitting around 50.00 per cent no businessperson no businessman could be satisfied to do business.

He said production rate volatility was coursing the nation’s currency to be depreciating at a level Ghana’s were seeing a couple of years ago and therefore no businessman could happily do business.

The Minister said therefore the first objective of any sound economic policy was to bring back economic stability.

‘…Thus, to bring the cost of living down to a level that our fellow compatriots in this country can accommodate.’

On his part,
Mr Isaac Adongo, the Ranking Member of the Finance Committee of Parliament and NDC MP for Bongo Central, argued that after seven years in Government, the Akuffo-Addo administration had impacted the lives of Ghanaians negatively; declaring that ‘in fact, it would have been better if you have left our lives the way it was in 2016’.

‘Mr Speaker, you impacted our lives negatively, when we were locked out of the capital market. When, for the first time, people who want to lend money on the capital market abroad, when they hear Ghana’s name, they are hiding their money, because when we take it, we don’t pay.’

He said the Government impacted Ghanaians negatively when it collapsed 122 financial institutions and locked up people’s money; and that today people still could not get their money back.

Madam Abena Osei-Asare, a Deputy Minister of Finance and NPP MP for Atiwa East, reiterated that the COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war had impacted negatively on Ghana’s economy, which the Minority in Parliament and the o
pposition NDC were refusing to acknowledge.

‘So, you don’t go out taking numbers without reference to the current global situation, when you do that, it means you are out of touch with reality and that shouldn’t be the case.

She commended the Speaker for the support the Government received from him in implementing the 2023 budget.

She thanked the people of Ghana for their great support throughout the implementation of the 2023 budget.

She said it was their hope that they would continue to entrench the economic recovery process leading to stability and growth in the year 2024.

Mr John Abdulai Jinapor, Ranking Member for the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament and NDC MP for Yapei-Kusawgu, in comparing the average growth rate between the erstwhile NDC Government and the current NPP Government, said from 2009 to 2016, which was eight years of NDC, the average growth rate in terms of real growth (not normal growth) was 6.47 per cent

This, he said meant that on the average for the eight-year period, the
NDC Administration was growing the Ghanaian economy by 6.47 per cent.

‘Now I take NPP 2017 to 2024, and (for) the 2024, I used your own projection of 2.80 (per cent), from our 6.47 (per cent) by the end of 2024, you will be growing the economy on an average by 4.30 per cent. And yet Mr Speaker, we handed over three oil fields to this government…,’ Mr Jinapor stated.

Source: Ghana News Agency