Author: Akumaa GhanaMPs

The Angolan President, His Excellency João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço has commended Ghana’s 8th Parliament and Speaker Rt. Hon Alban Sumana Bagbin as well as leadership of the House for being able to steer affairs of the House despite its unique nature.

He called for deeper cooperation between the two countries in building a formidable energy sector, parliamentary diplomacy and good governance.

In an address to the House on Tuesday, August 3, 202 said, “In the framework of my visit to Ghana, we have identified the fields in which our countries will implement cooperation activities, namely in oil and gas exploration, agro-livestock, tourism, culture and sectors from which we want to achieve mutually advantageous results with direct impact to improve the living conditions of our peoples”.

I am convinced that we can achieve the goals that I have alluded to by optimizing the use of the important continental mechanisms to leverage its resources and obtain tangible results within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), whose headquarters your country had been proudly honored to host, so as we can promote undertaking of investments and businesses to propel development.

We have now a democracy that regularly complies with its election’s cycles, with an acceptable extent of maturity, and which allows our National Assembly to address the country’s fundamental problems and concerns within a healthy and harmonious environment.

At the heart of the current political debate in Angola is the prompt Constitution amendment aimed at deepening democracy and make it more participatory and inclusive.”

He said in the course of this visit to Ghana, “I am encouraged by the desire to take a further step towards deepening our bilateral relations so that we can complement the results achieved with the visit by His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in August 2019, during which we defined a framework under which we have established a set of initiatives and actions aimed at strengthening exchanges between our countries”

In reality, he noted that the two countries possess enormous resources of various kinds, and for that very reason, huge potential for them to explore much more areas of cooperation in which “we are strong, in order to build among us as Africans solid foundations on which we can make prospect for progress and development.”

According to him, having been a parliamentarian for nearly three decades in different positions within the Angolan Parliament, mandated by his party, he has a profound understanding of the important role played by Members of Parliament as guarantors of the interests of the Ghanaian people and democracy.

I am extremely proud to be among you, former colleagues, I believe that I have come across in the past in various parliamentary forums held in our continent and around the world.

“Your country is an unmistakable example of democratic maturity and political civility, cultivated over decades in which your people demonstrated, with the dignity that characterizes them, in the process of rescuing sovereignty and independence, a unique ability to lead their destinies in a domestic context of broad national harmony”

The president noted that the democratic milestones achieved by Ghana are also the result of commitment and patriotism of important figures in the nation, of which he would like to highlight Kwame Nkrumah, who became famous in Africa and in the world for his profound dedication to the cause of Africa’s liberation and for his Pan-Africanist vision, from which many of the ideas that guide our continent today derive in the pathway of its journey to assert itself as a respected space on our planet.

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Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

The Speaker of Parliament, RT. Hon. Alban Sumani Bagbin on June 12, 2021 led Parliament to plant over 100 tree seedlings in some selected areas in the capital

The exercise is in line with the observation of the “Green Ghana Project” which targets the planting of 5 million trees across the country.

Addressing the Parliamentary staff and the media at the forecourt of parliament before the tree planting exercise, the Speaker said the Green Ghana project is an initiative of President, Nana Akufo Addo, adding that by this initiative, they are making investments into the future, and commended the National Investment Bank for their partnership with Parliament in achieving this feat.

He described the project as a special opportunity for all of us to recover over time our loss in this area caused by our own destructive practices, indicating that not only have we degraded the natural environment God gave us, but also depleted our forest reserves.

He said, the whole globe is now faced with desertification, drought, irregular rain pattern, and all its attendant challenges including food insecurity, and it is time to confront these challenges.

He called for policies that are socially just, economically viable, and ecologically sustainable, and indicated that the programme seeks to workout a formula for economic trees including timber, Wawa, mango, rosewood, cashew, and shea trees for planting.

The Speaker also noted that by committing to this exercise, “we are not going to plant the trees and walk away, indeed we are encouraged to nurse, nurture, and monitor them in a manner to ensure the progress of these trees.”

The Speaker was joined by deputy Speakers, Clark to Parliament, and Deputy Clarks in the tree planting exercise.

Ghanamps.com

Deputy Energy Minister Designate, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam has identified lack of skills among Ghanaians as the factor militating against the employment of more Ghanaians into the oil and gas sector.

According to him, Ghana lost the opportunity to have more of its citizens to gain employment in the sector when the country developed the Jubilee fields and to some extent the Sankorfa fields Adding that even though the local content regulation requires the companies to recruit Ghanaians, there is a limitation. One needs to be qualified and have the requisite skills to get the opportunity, but at the time those fields were developed many Ghanaians did not have the skills.

He however noted that even though the numbers are not there as we would have wished, there has been some steady progress in the number of Ghanaians employed in the sector.

From 3139 Ghanaians employed in the sector in 2018, the number increased to 5000 in 2019 and to 5900in 2020.”we have seen some improvements, it would have been more if our people had more skills”

Responding to what he thinks is the weakness in the Local Content Regulations that the country is currently practicing and what can be done to modify it to give Ghanaian players in the oil and gas sector the right to grow their business, he said Government has done well in training more people in the sector through the Accelerated Oil and Gas Capacity Programme and assured that when given the opportunity, he would assist the Minister “to scale up the training in terms of mobilising resources to support the training of as many Ghanaians as we can to be able to work in the industry.

He noted however that in terms of value of services provided by Ghanaian Companies, the country did not do well Stating that out of about 13billion dollars spent between 2015 to date, unfortunately, only 2billion dollars worth of services were provided by indigenous companies, and called for an increase in that regard.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com

President Nana Akufo-Addo has fulfilled requirement of Article 76 (1) by nominating 19 Ministers to form his cabinet for his second term.

The Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin announced this on the floor of the House in a communication received from the President.

They are as follow:

1. Ken Ofori-Atta – Minister of Finance:
2. Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen – Trade and Industry;
3. Dominic Nitiwul – Defence;
4. Ambrose Dery – Interior;
5. Shirley Ayorkor Botchey – Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration;
6. Godfred Yeboah Dame – Attorney-General and Justice;
7. Owusu Afriyie Akoto – Food and Agriculture;
8. Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh – Energy;
9. Yaw Osei Adutwum – Education;
10. Kwaku Agyeman Manu – Health;
11. Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu – Parliamentary Affairs;
12. Daniel Kwaku Botwe – Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development.

The others are

13. Samuel Abdulai Jinapor – Lands and Natural Resources;
14. Cecilia Abena Dapaah – Sanitation and Water Resources;
15. John Peter Amewu – Railways Development;
16. Ignatius Baffour Awuah – Employment and Labour Relations;
17. Mavis Hawa Koomson – Fisheries and Aquaculture;
18. Ibrahim Awal Mohammed – Tourism Arts and Culture;
19. Francis Asenso-Boakye – Works and Housing.

The speaker also stated that the president also met all requirements as specified in the constitution having nominated 12 out of the 19 cabinet Ministers from Parliament.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Health has appealed to the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists (GAMLS) to return to work to help save lives, adding that lives lost is irreplaceable.

In a joint press briefing addressed by the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee, Dr. Nana Ayew Afriye, and Kwabena Minta Akandoh respectively, they noted that it is only the poor, who cannot afford to pay at the private facilities that will bear the brunt of the strike, while the rich seeks private facilities when the need of laboratory services arise.

The leadership of the Committee noted that though they have not been petitioned, the total withdrawal of service by the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists is of public interest hence their resolve to appeal to the striking professionals to resume work.

According to Dr. Ayew Afriye, they have worked very hard with stakeholders; and in line with their standing orders, they are able to take petitions and work to satisfy public interest.

“We have worked with the laboratory scientist just last year before the Act was passed, the new Teaching Hospital Amendment Act, very often they had thought stakeholders didn’t want them to be present on the teaching hospital boards, when all their part ways of lobbying was exhausted, they fell on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health.

We listened to them, and we saw the need to support them to be represented on the board in the form of allied health science representation, and they would do rotation as and when they understand and put arrangements in place”.

The Chairman said they are therefore disappointed that “on a major issue as this, they would not come to the Health Committee to discuss with us, because we represent the people and absolutely independent; so if you have frustrations with a CEO in a certain teaching hospital that we provide oversight for, If you have frustration with a certain minister that we provide oversight responsibility in his sector, then there could be a third party, the very third party as the Health Committee that lobbied for your interest to be represented; and that’s a milestone achievement because it has never happened since the Annals of this country, and then they would go and proceed on strike without involving us, we are worried.

The leadership has therefore, invited them to meet the Select Committee on Health, saying, “we’ve been there for them before, and we can be there for them, and we are ready to listen to them even when they think there’s a deadlock, and there’s no hope, we can give them hope.

This strike is not about condition of service, and that is normally the legendary reasons for strike, this is about issues we consider as important, however, should not affect the lives of our constituents”.

The Committee said they are ready to engage them and all stakeholders to find a middle ground.

The Ranking Member expressed disappointment in the Health Minister, for not taking steps to avert a nationwide strike when it first started at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital more than a week.

He called on all stakeholders in the health sector to respect each other as all of the professionals provide special services in health delivery.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com