Category: General

Appointment Committee of Parliament on Monday morning at 10:25am ensured that the directives of Speaker Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye that only ten supporters of a nominee be allowed to sit at the vetting was adhered to.

Chairman of the committee Joseph Osei-Owusu directed that persons who were not among the ten persons allowed were walked out of the vetting room.

Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye has given a stern warning that members of the Ghanaian public should accord same respect they would give the High Court, to the Appointment Committee of the House.

According to the Speaker, Parliament is going to insist that only ten members of a nominees close relations like spouse friends and others can be in the vetting room.

“Marshal can you enforce the directives of Mr. Speaker”, and the Marshal together with the security men and women around enforced the directives.

Minister designate for the Savannah Region, Salifu Adam Braimah was the first to come before the committee.

Whiles checks done by ghanamps.com can reveal that there were a lot of people gathered at the reception of job 600 to watch the proceedings of the committee live on televisions provided, with others also gathered in front of the committee building.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.coma

As Parliament goes on recess on the 23rd of March 2018, 13 Ministers of President Akuffo Addo’s government will appear before the House to address 27 questions from Members of Parliament.

But some MPs complain of their question not being advertised, despite asking those questions for more than a year now.

Some Ministers to attend to the duty of the House are Minister for Roads and Highways who has 6 questions in his name, Energy Minister has same, Food and Agriculture has 3 questions, Communications Minister has 2, same applies to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration whiles the remaining have a question each to address.

Again there is an urgent question to be asked whiles the remaining 26 are oral questions to be taken on the floor this week.

Statements will be allowed by Mr. Speaker whiles Bills, Papers and Reports will be laid on the floor of the House.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

A GHS924m Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) Distribution Formula has been approved by Parliament for the year 2018 as Tertiary institutions are expected to receive the lion share of an amount of GHS328m representing 35.48percent of the total amount for their projects and programmes.

Secondary and basic schools were allocated GHS256m and GHS253m respectively whiles others such as the GETFund secretariat, Ministry of Education also received GHS66m representing 7.20percent.

This was contained in Parliament’s Committee of the Whole report which also disclosed that in 2017, GHS790m formula was approved.

According to the report GETFund proposed an amount of GHS20m for Members of Parliament (MPs) to undertake projects and the monitoring of the projects in their constituencies.

GETFund is expected to focus on the provision for social intervention programmes such as Capitation Grant, Feeding Grant to Special Schools, Senior High School subsidy for continuing students this year, 2018 whiles additional subsidy for continuing Day student of Senior High Schools, Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) subsidy, Counterpart Funding (development of skills for industry projects).

The Fund will also continue the implementation of the following projects and programmes in 2018: Fencing of schools with high risk of encroachment, provision of white boards in schools, construction of kindergarten facilities and regulatory and policy reforms.

Furthermore, other components of the planned programmes and projects of the Fund include: academic facilities and infrastructure, allocation of funds to the Students Loan Trust Fund, Scholarships and procurement of teaching and learning materials.

An amount of GHS60,000 will be provided for each MP for the funding of education related projects in their respective constituencies, amounting to a total of sixteen million, five hundred thousand cedis (GHS16,500,000.00).

Each MP will also be allocated GHS15,000, amounting to a total of GH₵4,125,000.00 for the monitoring of education related projects.

The capping of earmarked funds as provided for by the Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment Act, 2017 (Act 947) has reduced drastically, funds that should accrue to the GETFund.

For instance, for year 2018, an estimated amount of GH₵1.8billion is expected to accrue to the Fund from the two and one half percent of the prevailing rate of the Value Added Tax. However, due to the provisions of Act 947, the estimated accrual of 1.8 billion cedis to the Fund, has been capped to GHS924m.

By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com

 Ghana and Mexico have pledged to strengthen bilateral ties in the areas of economic and Parliamentary cooperation for their mutual benefits.

Speaker of Parliament, Prof Aaron Oquaye said Ghana and Mexico should collaborate where the former can learn very useful lessons from that country for instance in the area of clay application for housing.

He invited Mexican investors to invest in the Ghanaian clay industry in order to provide very cost effective and affordable products for Ghanaian citizens.

Prof Oquaye advocated for actual business corporation for mutual benefits.

The Speaker said these when the Mexican Chief Director General of Foreign Affairs for Africa and Middle East, Ambassador Jorge Alvarez Fuentes paid a courtesy call on him yesterday in Parliament House.

Mexico, he said, was Ghana’s biggest opponents to become World champions in boxing and commended Mexico for doing well in the area of footfall and refereeing.

The Speaker noted that both countries have big challenges to overcome in getting their youth involve in making the world a place of opportunities.

The Chief Director on his part said the visit is aimed at affording each party the opportunity of looking into practical ways of enhancing bilateral experiences.

He emphasised the need to strengthen Parliamentary diplomacy as an important component of their bilateral relations.

Mr Alvarez Fuentes also stated the need for Mexico and Ghana to link up their political understanding to economic and trade relations for mutual rewards.

He disclosed that two Mexican investments into Ghana was on the way stating that his visit was just the first in the first of a series of such visits by high profile personalities from his country.

Mexico’s Housing sector he said is builds primarily with ingenious means of brick making and prefabrication to ensure that proper institutional arrangements are in place to guarantee housing for its people.

He also assured to share best practices and offer technical assistance to Ghana for a win- win basis.

He announced that Mexico will soon go into its General elections.

Second Deputy Majority Whip, Moses Anim called for common solutions to help address the challenge of increasing youth unemployment leading to the exploitations or modern day slavery. Africa and Latin America he noted are the worse affected as a result.

The Trobu Member of Parliament proposed the extension of educational exchanges to the creation of job opportunities for young people whiles urging Ghana and Mexico to take advantage of each other’s opportunities for job creation.

The Director General was accompanied by the Mexican Ambassador to Ghana and officials from the Embassy.

By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com

The 2014 Noble Laureate, Kailash Satyarthi has urged the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye, for the House to dedicate a day to talk about issues affecting Ghanaian children.

He noted that much time is devoted to talk about Men and Women but children do not enjoy such opportunities when he paid a courtesy call on the Speaker of Parliament on Thursday for the launch of a global camping against child labour known as “100 million dollars against child labour camping on Friday.

He indicated that he has been to Togo to launch a similar project and added that some years back Ivory Coast and Ghana had issue with child trafficking that resulted in him visiting both countries.

Children who are engaged in child labour has to do with parents who are unemployed they are forced to engage in such ventures, he said.

Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye on his part noted that Ghana has introduced free education and in itself help protect the children more especially when they find themselves in school is a way of protecting them.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Despite crusade from Member of Parliament from Adaklu, Kwame Agbodza for work in the chamber to start early, there is no improvement.

On Thursday, March 15, 2018, the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye had to start proceedings with only five 5 MPs on the floor of the House, four from the Minority and one from the Majority.

As at 10:35am when the Speaker entered the Chamber with only 5 MPs on the floor the House, he called for the bell to be rang for several times for MPs to come to the floor for proceedings to commence. As at 11:05am, only 28 MPs had reported to the floor of the House.

Speaker of Parliament Professor Oquaye had earlier directed that the plenary meeting in the chamber precedes any other committee meetings.

Early on MPs were unhappy that an impression was being crated that MPs report to work late, but pointed out that most of the time they are at committee meetings.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Government’s planting for Foods and Jobs initiative has received a major boost following the approval of US $ 39 million loan facility by Parliament to finance the Savannah Zone Agricultural Productivity Improvement Project (SAPIP).

The amount which is expected to benefit about 50,000 farmers is intended to transform the agricultural value chain for food and nutrition security, job and wealth creation within the Savannah Ecological Zone.

Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah disclosed this to the House as he presented the committee’s report on the Loan agreement between the government of Ghana and the African Development Fund (ADF) for an amount of US$39m to finance the Savannah Zone Agricultural Productivity Improvement Project (SAPIP).

The report indicated that the Loan agreement for an amount not exceeding 27,864,750 Units of Account which is equivalent to US$39m to finance the Savannah Zone Agricultural Productivity Improvement Project (SAPIP) will provide 50,000 farmers with skills development and employment opportunities.
According to the committee’s report, the total estimated cost of the project is US$56.69m.

The ADF’s contribution for the project is US$39m representing 68.9 percent while government of Ghana and the beneficiary farmers are expected to contribute the remaining 31.1 percent mainly in kind.

The Approval

Both sides of the House in their contributions unanimously emphasised the importance of the project and accordingly echoed support for the approval of the loan agreement. Some however urged for the need to support the farmers especially since not all may be able to contribute their quota for the success of the project.

Project Components
The project is divided into four components.

Component 1:– seeks to increase crop productivity through development of an efficient system of production, storage and distribution of breeder, foundation and certified seed, rehabilitation of four seed centres with state of the art equipment.

Component 2:- is expected to set up sustainable agribusinesses along the rice, maize, soya and vegetables value chain and will support e-registration of farmers and other value chain actors, build the capacities of value chain actors, create and strengthen innovation platforms amongst value chain actors.

Component 3:- on the other hand will provide development of transport infrastructure (feeder roads, farm tracks), rehabilitation of irrigation schemes, improvement of water harvesting and distribution for lowland rice.

Component 4:- which comprises the Project Coordination and Management Unit will be responsible for the day to day management of the project including monitoring and evaluation, gender equality and women’s empowerment as well as the implementation of the project environmental social management plan.

Project Objective

The objective of the project which is supported by the loan facility from the African Development Fund (ADF) is to help transform agricultural value chain for food and nutrition security, job and wealth creation within the Savannah ecological Zone.

The proposed project is anchored on Government’s flagship agricultural programme “Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ)” as well as the One District One Factory (1D1F) initiative.

It is expected to increase farmers’ food and nutrition security, increase incomes through increased agricultural productivity and diversification and enhance the creation and strengthening of agribusiness to increase incomes of actors along selected value chains on a sustainable basis.

Expected Project Outcomes

The Savannah Zone Agricultural Productivity Improvement Project (SAPIP) is expected to; reduce the prevalence rate and numbers of children stunting from 33 percent to 20 percent whiles percentage of children aged 6-23 months consuming more than 4 food groups will be increased from 33.3 percent to 50 percent by the end of the project.

The SAPIP will increase productivity of rice from 2mt/ha to 6mt/ha, maize from 2.5mt/ha to 6mt/ha, soya from 1.65mt/ha to 3mt/ha to 3mt/ha by year 5.

It is expected to mechanised land preparation, husbandry, increase harvesting by additional 10,000ha annually. Number of farmers registered and placed on platform to be increased from 35,000 to 250,000 under the project.

Four seed centres will also be rehabilitated with state of the art equipment.
These centres will be located at Tamale, Kumasi, Ho and Winneba.

Background

The Savannah ecological Zone is endowed with major agricultural potential that must be harnessed to help transform the lives of inhabitants who constitute the poorest part of the country.

The zone is characterized with challenging agro-ecological conditions, low socio-economic indicators and a historical deficit of public investments in terms of infrastructure and services.

It is therefore imperative that the development of the zone will yield positive dividends for the nation’s economic growth and stability, food and nutrition security as well as job creation and poverty reduction.

The new project when implemented will consolidating the gains made through the ADF’s previous investments such as the Northern Rural Growth Programme (NRGP), the Fufulso-Sawla and Techiman-Kintampo Road Projects, optimize the usage of the infrastructure that were constructed in those interventions and leverage on private sector investment to establish large commercial farming for domestic and export markets.

Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com.

Speaker of Parliament Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye has directed that plenary meeting of the House supercede all other committee meetings, hence Members of Parliament should make it a point to attend the plenary meeting before seeking permission latter to attend to committee meetings.

According to the Speaker a strong statement should be made in the House on the matter and noted that the House cannot operate the way it is doing now.

If you make exceptions, the rule in any “institution you would be destroying it” some people may go to sit at committees for some reasons, it could be Appointment or Finance Committee, he stated.

“I would want to direct that there is something called the plenary, it supercedes everything every member of this Honorable House is enjoin to come to the House first before seeking permission from leadership to attend other committee meetings”, he said.

Professor Oquaye noted that very often when in pre-sitting, he directs for a check to me made if there are enough members on the floor, a bell is rang more to ensure that there are enough members for business to start.

He praised the MP for Adaklu Kwame Agbodza for bringing out the issue persistently and added that on Friday the Minister for Railway Development, Joe Ghartey and Kwesi Amoako- Atta, Roads and Highways Minister were in the chamber early.

And should be spared any criticism, but was quick to point out that he is not saying Ministers are always on time but for Friday he came prepared to defend the two sector Ministers for coming in early.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com