Author: Kwaku GhanaMPs

Government hd budgeted in the 2024 budget statement and Economic Policy an amount of GH¢220 million to support the relief phase for the communities affected by the Akosombo Dam spillage as well as floods upstream in the Oti, Savannah, and Bono-East Regions.

For the restoration phase, Government through the Ministry of Agriculture will allocate additional resources to support the restoration of livelihoods.

In addition, the Ministry of Finance, through the government has requested funding from the World Bank under the IDA Crisis Response Window (CRW) to support the resettlement of the victims, restoration of livelihoods, compensation and reconstruction of infrastructure in the affected communities.

“Mr. Speaker, we recognise the place of climate policy and financing to help address the long-term effects of climate change on victims of drought, flooding, and other adverse weather events. Accordingly, the Ministry has applied to the Global Shield Against Climate Risk Fund, an initiative launched by President Nana Akufo-Addo and Chancellor Olaf Scholz during the COP 27 in Sham ElSheikh, to access some financial resources to support communities upstream and downstream of the Akosombo Dam.

I convey the sincere appreciation of H.E. The President and the entire Government to all groups and individuals who have empathized with, and supported the affected families. It is in this same spirit that we must continue to be grateful to God that no lives have been lost due to the devastating spillage from the Akosombo Dam.”

Government through VRA, NADMO, and various agencies under the 13-member high level inter-ministerial committee, (comprising of the Ministries of Energy, Finance, Local Government, Environment, Interior, Health, Sanitation & Water Resources, Defense, Roads & Highways, Education, Information, Health, and Gender) have subsequently provided various forms of support to the impacted communities.

This support included food and related items, drinks, mattresses, mosquito nets and coils, clothes, baby food and diapers, sanitary pads, treated water services and storage tanks, solar lamps, sanitation services, restoration of utility services, and some social infrastructure.

“Mr. Speaker, the visit of the officials of the Ministry of Finance and myself, in collaboration with VRA, to the victims of the Akosombo Dam Spillage in Mepe was truly revealing and sobering. Indeed, we empathize with the families that have been affected and displaced by the spillage. We met victims, townsfolks, children, the chiefs and of course Honourable Okudzet, he added.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Presenting the 2024 budget on the floor of the House on Wednesday, November 15, 2023 Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta noted two years out of the seven years that the current New Patriotic Party has been in power the Ghanaian economy faced challenges.

The economy, growing at an average of 7 percent with a single-digit inflation, declining interest rates and a stabilising currency, suffered unforeseen shocks like many other economies.

GDP growth slumped from 6.5 percent in 2019 to 0.5 percent in 2020 – as the lockdown and closure of businesses and the ports had a devastating effect on the economy, triggering a cost-of-living crises that has made lives difficult for the Ghanaian people.

Though bartered and bruised, we are not broken and our resilience is manifesting and we also saw the damaging effects that the economic downturn had on Ghana’s already stretched revenues.

This was even made worse by the additional expenditures that were required during the covid-19 Pandemic to ensure that life and livelihoods were protected, he said.

Mr. Speaker, 2020 was also in an election year. The first ever election in the Fourth Republic with zero donor funding.

However, Government’s sensitivity to our people was remarkable: No lay-offs in the public service; salaries were dutifully paid over the year; and free water and electricity for the entire population was provided, especially for life-line consumers.

Indeed, Entrepreneurship was not ignored as GH¢600 million of CAPBuSS from GEA was effectively deployed.

Mr. Speaker, permit me to clarify that the disruption to our macroeconomic path over the last few years was not peculiar to Ghana. The global disruption to supply chains, adjustment to new forms of work, and shifts in demand produced some of the most cataclysmic effects on inflation and growth worldwide.

This set-off the worst form of global cost of living crises since World War II. In the US, inflation surged from a low of 1.8 percent in 2019 to 6.5 percent by 2022 and is currently at 3.7 percent. We have seen this reflect in interest rate decisions by the US Federal Reserve and also in benchmark yields. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury instrument is currently at 4.6 percent compared to 1.4 percent two (2) years ago.

And this is an economy whose currency is the global reserve currency. We see similar trends in the Eurozone and also in the UK. Inflation in the UK was 1.7 percent in 2019 and was recorded at 11.1 percent in October 2022, a 41-year high. Changing The Narrative in the Mid-Year Review, I informed this House that we had started turning the corner.

Today, it is evident that: i. We turned the corner when inflation started declining from 54.1 percent in December 2022 to 35.2 percent in October 2023; ii. We turned the corner when, despite a 1.5 percent projected growth, the economy galloped at a remarkable pace, and clocked an average of 3.2 percent growth in the first two quarters of the year; iii.

We turned the corner when the currency, which had been under severe pressure over the past two years, depreciated by a modest 6.4 percent cumulatively from February to date, compared to 53.9 percent over the same period in 2022.

The performance of the Cedi is also a reflection of 4 the fact that confidence is back, revenues have improved, and that the recovery is indeed real and is here to stay; iv. We turned the corner when companies started going back to the job markets to hire workers; v. We turned the corner when the International credit rating agencies, which have not been favourable to Ghana in recent years, started being positive about our economy; and vi. We turned the corner when the Banking industry started to record and report a profit-after-tax growth of 43.8 percent (GH¢6.2 billion); vii. We turned the corner when in record time we completed the IMF 1st Staff Review of 6 Performance Criteria, 3 Indicative Targets and 3 Structural Benchmarks.

Ghanamps.com

The Attorney general and minister for justice, Godfred Yeboah-Dame has said, the accused person, in Nana Appiah Mensah, was on 30th August, 2023, charged with thirty-nine (39) counts of the offences of defrauding by false pretense, fraudulent breach of trust, operating a deposit-taking business without a license, selling gold, inducement to invest and money laundering, at the High Court, Accra (Financial Division 1).

According to him the matter has been called in court and the plea of the accused has since been taken where he pleaded guilty.

He made this kwon when he answered an urgent question on the floor of the House posed by Member of Parliament for Lower Manya Krobo Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi who wanted to know the status of the prosecution of Menzgold Company led by NAM 1.

Mr Yeboah-Dame further said the prosecution has, in accordance with new rules for case management, been ordered to make all disclosures and file witness statements and the matter has been adjourned to 17th November 2023 to ensure that the prosecution has complied with the orders of the court and for a date for case management conference to be fixed.

The MP in his follow up wanted to know if the accused has indeed deposited some money as being speculated in the media. This the AG noted that information came to his attention that some funds has been paid to the Ghana Police Service and there is no formal bargaining plea that has been entered into between the state and the accused person.

“Per record I have two point five million Ghana cedis has been paid by the accused person and not five million Ghana cedis” he told the House

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Members of Parliament from the Upper West Region from both side of the House have appealed to the Nana Akufo-Addo lead government to as a matter of urgency fix the Bamboi-Wa road network as it connects Ghanaians to Burkin Faso from Southern Ghana and Burkina Faso to Ghana.

According to the MPs, in September this year the rain washed off the link road making it difficult for commuters, adding that a journey which should take forty-five minutes from Bamboi to Wa takes two hours.

Ahead of the 2024 budget statement to be Presented by Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta on Wednesday, November 15, 2023 they urged President Nana Akufo-Addo and Roads Minister to seriously consider it.

Member of Parliament for Wa West Lanchene peter Toobu at a press conference with members of the Parliament press corps said, “if you hear what the Burkina Faso drivers who use that stretch say about Ghana “it’s so shameful”, he said.

In his appeal, the Member of Parliament for Wa Central Dr. Hassan Abdul-Rashid Pelpuo who is the caucus chairman note that the road needs immediate attention; the road was patch but with the coming in of the rains it got cut off because heavy trucks ply the road and “we are here to complain very loudly to government and to call on government to act immediately to support the reconstruction of the road to ensure that that link is restored and at the press conference you have MPs from both side of the House all here to complain that there is the need for a quicker link.”

Again, we do appreciate government’s effort initially to create the link this is a situation where we can have vehicles passing the road but that effort did not go far enough. We are calling on government and the road minister and president to intervene for a quick action to get the road back into shape, he stated.

“Further, we are calling on the media to send this message out so that we can have our road back; we can have economic activities back in the two regions and restore hope and confidence in the people; the road from Bamboi to Wa is very bad.”

He was emphatic that the road does note know NPP or NDC; “when armed robbers come, it does not matter the party you belong to, there are a lot of people using that stretch to Burkina Faso.”

He said the people of Upper West also deserve a better road and there are a number of accidents you cannot count and this is the second year of roads, “and tomorrow being a budget day, we want to see some action in the budget.”

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Minister for National Security Albert Kan Dapaah has honored invitation extended to him by Parliament to brief the House on the situation in Garu where security personnel from the National Security and Ghana Armed Forces brutalized some civilians.

According to him the Ministry deployed five counter terrorism officers to Garu in the Upper East Region. When they arrived in Garu they were besieged by an irate youth who were armed with weapons including AK 47 despite the fact that they introduced themselves as national security personnel.

The irate youth went ahead to fire multiple rounds at the black Toyota Land Cruiser the officers were occupying, forcing them to drive to the police station to seek refuge. But the youth followed them to the police station, circle them and fired at them again.

Mr. Kan Dapaah further told the House on Monday, November 13, 2023 it took the timely intervention of the military to evacuate the national security personnel from the police station and the House should agree with him that the attack on the personnel was reprehensible and should be condemned in no uncertain terms.

“ In other jurisdictions such attack would be consider as attack on the state, both security agencies conducted joint operations to take weapons use by the irate youth to attack the national security personnel after the operation and report emerge of excess of some of the personnel who conducted the operation”.

The National Security Minister after his remarks further told the House he could not make or answer issues from the lawmakers because the issue was before court and lawmakers should be circumspect in discussing the issue as it has some security implications.

More especially the security situation in Bawku as counter terrorism operations is going on in the area and nothing should be done to demoralise the National Security Personnel; and he is prepared to cooperate with the House.

Rt. Hon Alba Kingsford Sumana Bagbin pointed out that if the National Security Minister had said the matter was before court and would not make any remarks that would have ended the matter, and he has been in a tight corner.

But he is compelled to ask the MPs from the affected constituency to make some remarks on the floor of the House.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

The 2024 post budget workshop will no longer hold at Rock City in the Eastern Region, Parliament has to beat retreat after public outcry on the cost implication hosting the post budget work shop outside Accra when the Member of Parliament for Buem, Kofi Adams urged the leadership of the House to reconsider the venue considering the state of the Economy.

Speaker Rt. Hon Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin you drew the House’s attention to a video clip he watched when the Deputy Majority Leader presented the Business statement for this week on last week Friday, pointed out that it was decided at the meeting that Rock City Hotel will host the post budget workshop.

The Minority Leader Dr. Atto Forson contributing, to the issue on the floor of the House pointed out that there was not such decision at the Business Committee for the post budget workshop to be held a Rock city hotel.

“This year’s post budget would be held in Parliament; it’s so decided and members should make it a point to be there. We would use the floor of the House as main conference room, other committee rooms would be used for side workshops”, the Speaker said.

He further pointed out that this year’s post budget workshop would defer from previous ones and would be trainers of trainers and not the usual lectures. It would be on analysis of the budget from sector to sector going through the estimates.

He drew their attention that this post budget workshop would generate healthy debate; they would all have to be present and there would be a roll call every day. They would start practicing new standing orders so absent action would be taken against then.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com