Author: Kwaku GhanaMPs

Hon. Taa Wongbe, a representative of Liberia at the ECOWAS Parliament has advised ECOWAS to remain neutral in their efforts at bringing justice to people who suffered under the former regime the Gambia in order not to lose the confidence and trust of member states.

This follows intensified call for the setting up of a special tribunal in the Gambia by the ECOWAS heads of state for the trial of perpetrators of heinous crimes in the country during the tenure of former President Yahya Jammeh.

He gave the charge at the sidelines of the ECOWAS Parliamentary session on Thursday, 4th July 2024, while speaking to newsmen on his perspective on the issue.

He said that the regional body must not be seen or perceived to be taking sides or aligning with any of the parties, as such action will not only erode the confidence of member states but will also bring to question the credibility of the body as an independent organization responsible for maintaining regional peace and the advancement of economic development in the West African sub-region, as well as setting a bad precedent.

Mr. Wongbe maintained that while it is legally justified and acceptable to punish those who have committed crimes against humanity in The Gambia, to serve as a deterrent to others in future, the institution of the ECOWAS should not be the vehicle to achieving that, in order not to set a bad precedence.

He, however, advised that The Gambia may explore the option of setting up the Tribunal as an independent state or approach the International Criminal Court (ICC) which has jurisdiction to try suspects that took part in the atrocities.

The representative criticized the role some member states played in the civil war in his home state, Liberia, by deploying troops in support of one party, saying that if ECOWAS had taken sides  directly, Liberia would not have been comfortable to continue to be a member of the sub-regional body.

He explained that from the experience of civil war in Liberia, which led him to seek refuge in Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire as an internally displaced person, with the attendant human rights violations and the economic as well as social dislocation of the country, no perpetrator of such crime should be allowed to go unpunished.

It will be recalled that the ECOWAS heads of state had proposed to the Parliament for the setting up of a special tribunal for the trial of suspects who took part in the criminalities in The Gambia.

However, in a unanimous resolution, the ECOWAS Parliament rejected the proposal on the ground that it will present the West African sub-regional body as being biased. It therefore advised The Gambia government to take whatever decision it deemed as an independent state.

Ghanamps.com

Government has spent about 10 billion Ghana Cedis in the road sector this year in the quest to improving movement of goods, services and persons.

Finance Minister, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam disclosed this at the presentation of the mid-year budget and fiscal policy review in parliament on Tuesday, July 23, 2024.

“Mr. Speaker, we have invested almost 10 billion Ghana Cedis in the Road Sector since January, 2024 to enhance transportation and spur growth. I can also confirm that Government has secured equipment to complement the efforts of our local authorities in improving community roads nationwide”.

He made special mention of the dualization of Ofankor-Nsawam Road, Obetsebi Lamptey and Flower Pot Interchanges, the three (3) by-passes on the Kumasi-Accra Highway, works on the Agona Nkwanta – Tarkwa Road; works on the Dome-Kitase Road, Phase 2 works under the Suame Interchange.

Others include Winneba-Kasoa, Juaboso-Boinzan road, Karaga Town, Gushegu Town, Tolon Daboya Road, Nanton-Karaga-Gushegu Highway, Sefwi Wiawso town roads and Accra-Kumasi Road.

Meanwhile, these roads are said to have been completed namely; Dadiesoba-Esiankyim-Manhyia roads, Antwi Agyeikrom – Debra Camp, Sunyani & Berekum inner city roads, Atebubu Town roads, Assin Fosu – Dunkwa – Cocoa Station and Kwahu Tafo – Miaso road.

Ghanamps.com

Finance Minister, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam has assured parliament that the country is living within its means in accordance to the 2024 budget appropriation, and would not seek for additional funding.

Presenting the 2024 Mid-Year Budget Review on the floor of the House on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, he said “we have reined in expenditures to ensure we are within 2024 Budget Appropriation and exceeded the mid-year revenue target by 0.2 percent by end-June, 2024. In effect, Mr. Speaker, we are living within our means. Indeed, consistent with our programme with the IMF, we are on course to achieving a primary surplus of 0.5 percent of GDP by end of the year”.

Additionally, he said, the completion of the Debt Restructuring programme with the Official Creditor Committee (OCC), covering US$5.1 billion dollars has resulted in approximately 2.8 billion US Dollars of debt relief. “This means that we will not service our debt to our official creditors from 2023 to 2026;

“We have concluded negotiations with our Eurobond holders, covering 13.1 billion US Dollars, which will lead to a cancellation of 4.7 billion US Dollars of our debt and provide debt service relief of 4.4 billion US Dollars between 2023 and 2026”.

The Minister also disclosed that all outstanding Bank Transfer Advice (BTAs) up to 2022 have been cleared and working hard to pay BTAs from 2023.

Ghanamps.com

The Minister for Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam told parliament during the mid-year fiscal policy review presentation that the country’s economy is rebounding stronger than anticipated.

He noted that over the last two years, Government has embarked on a number of decisive measures to get us back on the path of fiscal consolidation, economic stability and growth and was happy to note that these policies that have been implemented are yielding the expected results.

• Growth continues to exceed our expectations. The 4.7 percent growth rate reported by the Ghana Statistical Service for first quarter 2024 exceeds the revised target of 3.1 percent;

• Inflation is declining. End-June inflation rate of 22.8 percent, a reduction of 31 percentage points since December, 2022, confirms the target threshold of +/-2 of 15 percent by end 2024 is possible;

•Exchange rate has largely stabilised, compared to December, 2022, despite the recent pressures. The 18.6 percent depreciation rate to the US Dollar as of June 2024, represents an improvement over the 22.0 percent recorded for the same period last year; and

• Gross International Reserves reached 3.1 months of import as at end June 2024 against 2.5 months of imports in the same period last year.

These he said attest to the fact that the economy is on the right trajectory, saying, “the choices we have made and the policies we are implementing are yielding results. We have reversed the negative trends, all the indicators are looking better. I want to assure you that we will stay on this path and continue to make the right choices. Our economic recovery is fast and strong”, he affirmed.

Ghanamps.com

The Minister of Finance Dr. Amin Adams is expected to present this year’s mid-year budget review on the floor of House on Tuesday, July 23, 2024.

Deputy Majority Leader Patricial Appiagyie disclosed this when he presented the business statement for the ensuing week on the floor of the House.

She further urged Members of Parliament from both the Majority and Minority sides of the House to make it a point to be on time as proceedings would start at ten in the morning.

And further pointed out that Monday, July 22, 2024, in view of the work load the House would seat.

On the debate that would ensue after the presentation of the mid-year budget review, Majority and Minority leaders are supposed to speak for thirty minutes whiles committee chairs and rankings would have fifteen minutes and other members ten minutes.

There are seventy-seven questions of which eleven are of urgent nature.

Ghanamps.com

Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs. Jean Mensah appeared before Parliament on Friday, July 19, 2024, to brief members on several activities which have been carried out so far and yet to be done in making sure the December 7, 2024, general elections are conducted successfully.

She revealed some of the activities carried so far as follows:

• No new C.I would be laid before Parliament ahead of 2024 elections and as such the commission would rely on the current registration C.I (C.I 91) to conduct the voter registration exercise and also rely on current election C.I (C.I 127) to undertake the 2024 general elections.

• The proposal of pushing the election date forward to November would not be implemented in 2024 but rather consult the Attorney General on it for its implementation by 2028.

• In addition, the EC would continue to use the indelible ink for the 2024 elections.

• filing fees for 2020 would be maintained for this election as well; Gh100,000 charge for Presidential candidates and GH 10,000 charge for Parliamentary candidates.

• EC would waive 25 percent of the filing fees for women and persons with disability to help increase the number of women and disability in our elections.

• The EC would waive the filing fees for the media accreditation fees to help the media fill more of their personnel to serve as election observers.

ON ELECTION CALENDAR:

The EC said the elections’ calendar has been discussed extensively at the Inter Party Advisory Committee meeting (IPAC) and has received the inputs of the political parties and indeed the feedback from the parties has been fed into the final plan for the 2024 elections on May 7 to May 29; the revision of the voter register was conducted.

The commission extended voter registration exercise for 2 days due to feedback received from the political parties due to slow network they experienced for the first 2 days of the exercise.

And explained that, the registration exercise was carried in all their 268 District Offices across the country including Guan District in addition to 800 difficult to reach centers or 800 other locations made up of 775 difficult to access electoral areas and 25 public universities.

At the end of the 23-days exercise, a total of 778,447 new voters which exceeded the original target of the EC 622,000 were recorded.

Out of the total 778,447 persons registered, 63.68 percent used the GUARANTOR system, 36.28 percent used the GHANA CARD and finally, 0.34 used Passport to provide their citizenship and age.

Total number of females registered 408,332 constituting 52.45 percent; total male voters amounted to 370,115 constituting 47.55 percent of total registered people for 2024 registration exercise.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe Jr.  has bemoaned the constant external factors in the fairs of Africa, which he blames as the main cause of violent extremism in the continent.

Leader of the Liberian delegation to the Community Parliament’s  attempting to answer the reason for the lingering terrorism, banditry, kidnapping in West Africa and the Sahel, despite every effort by the governments and multilateral institutions to nip the violent crisis in the bud said one thing that stands tall is the endemic influence from external factors.

“In Africa, we have African solidarity, but of late, we have been witnessing persistent interference from external forces. So, what is happening in Africa is that we need to work on very seriously and urgently the overbearing influence of external factor. The external factor is playing a major role in what is happening, be it security, slow pace of development or even the perennial poor economic outlook.”

He identified the fact that various countries in the continent have alliances with different countries from the western countries; and “the geo-politics has taken deep root into our African culture.”

“There are some African countries that are working with the United States, for example Liberia. There are some others that are working with France, example, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin Republic, and Senegal. There are a few others that are working with Russia – Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso. We would not also forget the growing influence of China and its involvement in African Affairs”, he affirmed.

The geo-politics, he affirmed has penetrated the leadership as well, “because our leaders are relating with those powers that be and as they fight for space in the global sphere, it has a trickling down effect on our continent; particularly in our sub-region and it is affecting us severely. The sooner we realise that the better it will be for us”

Mr Snowe queried if the West is surreptitiously replicating the 1884/5 scramble for Africa in the 21th century? “It is not far from it”

He said African now has the sophistication to curb and correct this overbearing influence of our erstwhile colonial masters, but warned that “if we allow it to linger for so long, it might leave our hands and of course we will continue to suffer in the hands of Western powers.”

Ghanamps.com