Category: General

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Tolon Constituency and Deputy Majority Chief Whip in Parliament, AlhajiHabibIddrisu, as part of his three days tour within his constituency on Sunday January 22, 2023, commissioned two health facilities in the Tolon District of the Northern Region.

The facilities include a fully furnished maternity ward for the Yoggu Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound, and one at Tali. The facilities both had a delivery room, staff offices, a store room, and other auxiliary facilities with essential medical equipment.

Each facility is expected to serve residents and non-residents within and outside the communities.

The project, an initiative of the MP was fully funded through his share of the MP’s National Health Insurance Fund, and is aimed at improving access to health care delivery in the area.

The two CHPS compounds, since its establishment years back, had been without a decent maternity ward and this has affected maternal health services in the communities.

During the commissioning, Mr. Habib Iddrisu, said pregnant women in these communities have been facing difficulties during labor due to the lack of maternity ward at the facilities hence the provision of maternity ward at Tali and Yoggu CHPS compound.

He thanked the chiefs and people of the communities for keeping faith in him and his party, and admonished the pregnant women within the communities to patronize the services of the facilities.

On his part, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Tolon, FuseiniSalifu Moshi, who received the facilities on behalf of the district health directorate, thanked the MP for the gesture and urged the community members to take proper care of the facilities.

Meanwhile, the chief and people of the two communities also expressed their appreciation to the MP for the facilities.

The MP was joined by the DCE of TolonFuseiniSalifu Moshi, Regional and constituency executives of NPP, and other dignitaries to officially commission the 2 separate facilities in the 2 communities.

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Speaker of the Community Parliament, Dr Sidie Mohamed Tunis has tasked member States to carry out policies that will kick start economic growth of the sub-region in order to reduce the economy dependency on the foreign countries.

Dr Tunis made this known at the closing ceremony of the first 2023 parliamentary seminar on Sequencing ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Towards Single Currency underway in Guinea Bissau.

Dr Tunis who was represented by the Fourth Deputy Speaker: Adja Satu Camara Pinto, stated the need for cooperation within the ECOWAS region for harmonisation.

“There is need for monetary policy in the sub-region, now that we have realised the economy growth in our country that is very important. Member States also need to take actions that will require payment systems, harmonisation, integration and necessary infrastructure for our sub-region. I believe that all of us will agree to work together towards achieving our objectives. We also need to sensitize our communities on the single Currency”.

In his remarks, Hon Califa Seidi from Guinea Bissau, urged member States to look more inward on making the ECOWAS economy stronger than issue of single Currency.

He said, “As far as the mechanism is concerned, nothing has been achieved when you come to the issue of single Currency, the population of National sovereignty is very vital, our leaders have a very big role to play by sensitising the populace”.

According to him, we should not only be talking about the single Currency now, stating that for him, the introduction is not successful. “We should be looking at a strong economy. We do not produce despite the fact that we have a lot of raw materials”.

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Former Auditor-General of ECOWAS Institutions, Dr Alfred Braimah has urged Central Bank of all member States to collaborate towards the efficient functioning of the ECOWAS Payment and Settlement System (EPSS) in the region.

Dr Braimah made this known at his paper presentation, titled “The missing Sequence Towards ECOWAS Single Currency” during the First 2023 Parliamentary Seminar of the ECOWAS Parliament in Bissau, Guinea Bissau.

He explained that the safety and efficiency of an EPSS are relevant to market participants and public officials in view of their important roles in trade and resource flows and in financial sector management and development.

According to him, Every Central Bank of a member state must be ready to collaborate towards the efficient functioning of the EPSS by signing on to a well-founded legal basis under all relevant jurisdictions of member States.

And must clearly define procedures for managing credit and liquidity risks, specifying the respective responsibilities of the system operator and the participants, and providing appropriate incentives to manage and contain those risks.

“Rules and procedures that would enable participants to have a clear understanding of its impact on each financial risk incurred through participation in it”.

Speaking on the benefits of EPSS, Braimah said that, “with the use of EPSS across Member States, it would be easier to pursue open Economic and Trade policies, since domestic and international payments would flow more seamlessly easily”.

He said Capital and Investment move freely and beneficially, and gains of intra-Regional Trade and economic integration would be more pronounced when supported with an EPSS in the region.

An efficient EPSS would also expedite trade by improving the timeliness and transparency of customs processes and government revenue collection process through the emerged on-line payment transaction and efficient regional payments and settlement system usually plays a key role in the day to day operations of the Foreign exchange market, which involves payments for currency exchange across international borders.

In another paper presentation, Director, Economic Strategy and Research, Ministry of Finance, Ghana, Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu, listed key problems and challenges of ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Programme (EMCP).

One of the problems and challenges of the EMCP is endogenous shocks such as pandemics, drought, insecurity, epidemics (ebola) and exogenous shocks like, global financial crisis, food and fuel crisis, crash in international commodity prices, weigh heavily on member states macroeconomic performance.

Member States challenges in achieving the convergence criteria on a sustainable basis (continuous for 3 years) as enshrined in the stability and convergence pact continue to delay the launching of the single Currency.

The balance between national economic development priorities and the attainment of zonal macroeconomic convergence targets is often very difficult to determine.

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There is a major shakeup in the leadership of the Minority in parliament.

The Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu has been replaced by Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, the Member of Parliament for Ajumako Enyan Esiam, while Mr. James Kluste Avedzi, the Member of Parliament for Ketu North who until this announcement was the Deputy Minority Leader has been replaced with Emmanuel Kofi Armah Buah, the Member of Parliament for Ellembele.

The new Minority Chief Whip is Kwame Agbodza, the Member of Parliament for Adaklu; replacing Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka MP for Asawase.

Meanwhile, the Ahmed Ibrahim and Confort Doyo Ghanasah retained their positions as First Deputy Minority Second Deputy Whips respectively.

The changes which were contained in a letter sent to the Speaker of Parliament and signed by the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey also charged the new leadership to recommend consequential changes in the Ranking Membership to the party headquarters for approval.

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The Minority in Parliament has served notice it will carry out a nationwide road shows to educate Ghanaians on the current Domestic Debt Exchange (DDE) programme which is causing a lot of agitation among the investor community in Ghana.

“We wish to take this opportunity to indicate our intention to embark on nationwide road shows to foster deeper understanding of this matter and rally Ghanaians to demand a more favourable resolution of the unprecedented economic crisis the Bawumia-led economic management team has plunged us into”.

This was after the Minority held a press conference on Monday, addressed by its Leader, Haruna Iddrisu calling on the government to immediately suspend the Domestic Debt Exchange programme and engage in more comprehensive consultation on the matter with all stakeholders and the Ghanaian people.

“We call on all stakeholders for a national dialogue on the state of our economy and debt exchange prgramme with the view to achieving the most workable and least punitive steps that protect Ghanaians and households from the disastrous effects of the domestic debt exchange program as currently designed”.

Meanwhile, government on Monday extended the deadline for domestic bondholders to sign onto the DDE programme to January 31st, 2023 and constituted a joint technical committee to look into concerns raised by individual bondholders ahead of the rollout DDE programme.

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The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo Dampare has clarified that there is no ban on prophecy in the country as many have come to believe.

According to him, what they are against is the mode of communication of such prophecies through public pronouncements by way of showmanship.

According to him, people should “go ahead and prophecy but when God speaks to you, carry it in a manner that would ensure the sanctity of our nation called Ghana.”

Responding to a question asked by Mr. Isaac Yaw Opoku, Member of Parliament for the Offinso South constituency at the Public Account Committee hearing on Thursday when the Ministry of Interior appeared before PAC, the IGP said as a Christian and someone who also believes in prophecies and by extension a prophet in his own right, because as a son of God, God will always have the opportunity to have an engagement with you and tell you things in the future if only you are ready to listen; but all the issues they (Police) have been putting across as an institution is to prove to everybody that they are not against prophecies, “we are talking about communication of such prophecies that will end up creating fear and panic in our society which is unwarranted”, he stated.

“Honourable Chair, it is a simple matter; and it is a very simple matter; and truly it is a very simple matter. And what is it? Honourable Chair, before I became IGP nobody prophesized about me, now I’m IGP and everybody is prophesying about me; I have no problem about it because I’m a public figure. But why should it be such that you found something; God has revealed to you and you want to share with me, you have to make it a showmanship and tell the whole country that I’m about to die?”

He said such pronouncements do not only affect the individuals in person but also all those around them including family and friends, and it lives with them for the rest of their lives.

HE queried why God Himself decided not to tell us when we will die, stating that “it means a lot. And even when you have a prophecy about somebody dying, you have to even have a way in our typical Ghanaianess environment, put it even in proverbs for the person to decipher it, but don’t put fear and panic in the person, in the person’s immediate family in the person’s extended family and in the whole country”.

He said unlike parliamentarians who have been elected by our votes and therefore have been empowered by the constitution to make some proclamations which is acceptable; who elected the prophets over our lives to just get up and make pronouncements over our lives when we do not belong to their family or congregation.

He assured that they (Police) would not allow anybody to use God to create a mess and confusion because God is not a God of confusion and God is not a God of disorderliness.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com

The Public Accounts Committee has started public hearings on the report of the Auditor-General on the Public Accounts of Ghana- Ministries, Departments and Other Agencies (MDAs) for the year ended 31st December, 2020.

At its first sitting on Monday, January 16, 2023, the Chairman of the Committee, Dr. James Klutse Avedzi and the members of the Committee invited the Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei Asare, Directors from the Finance Ministry and Officials from the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to answer queries cited in the Report of the Auditor-General on the Public Sector Accounts of Ghana (General Government) for the year ended 31st December, 2020.

The Committee also considered the report of the Auditor-General on the Consolidated Statement of the Foreign Exchange Receipts and Payment of the Bank of Ghana for the year ended 31st December, 2020.

Directors and officials from the Bank of Ghana, led by the Governor, Dr. Ernest Addison appeared before the Committee to respond to infractions cited in the Auditor-General’s Reports.

The Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei Asare, hinted that the Ministry of Finance will soon bring before Parliament a comprehensive report covering the entire government expenditure on COVID-19 for consideration. She made this known to the Committee since the Auditor-General’s Report was prepared during the era of the COVID-19 and most MDAs made purchasing they didn’t budget for.

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The Minority in parliament has called on government to suspend the Domestic Debt Exchange program it intends to undertake with the hope of reviving the ailing economy.

The Minority at a press conference on Monday, January 16, 2023 addressed by the Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu said the programme is already failing following the numerous rejections by various stakeholders. Mr Iddrisu asserts that the suspension is inevitably critical to engage in deeper consultations and allow for greater transparency in the initiation, adoption and acceptance of whatever remedies we collectively may agree to.

In order to save Ghana’s economy the Minority Leader contends that Ghana’s economy is being managed as though it were a private entity but reminded the managers that this is about people’s lives and livelihoods, and investments; adding that even the accompanying legislation on investment in bonds require that 75 percent of it be invested in those government treasuries.

They said the implications of the debt exchange programme has dire consequences on various sectors as follows:
a. Implications on entire financial / banking Sector. Ghana’s financial sector will be severely and adversely impacted by the Domestic Debt Exchange Program. With over GHS 60 billion locked up in government bonds, the non-receipt of any interest this year and paltry sums in subsequent years, will prove the undoing of some banks. In the case of some state-owned banks, as much as 70% of their annual revenue comes from their investments in government bonds. Not paying them any interest in 2023 would effectively sound the death knell to these banks with its attendant consequences on depositors and employees who would have to be laid off. Restructuring domestic debts will undermine the health of the banking system since Capital Adequacy will become a challenge

b. Effects on Pension funds- Pension funds will suffer a significant drop in value especially, Tier 2 and 3 pension payouts will drop further from their already low levels. Tier 1 (SSNIT) reserves will drop in value and SSNIT’s capacity to pay will suffer. Reserves of Insurance companies will fall with implications for benefit payments Effects on individual bondholders- the inclusion of individual bondholders in the Domestic Debt Exchange, contrary to initial assurances from both the President and his finance minister, would all but wipe out Ghana’s middle class and impose harsh suffering on them, their families, and dependents. We now know that the reality is different. What Minister Ofori-Atta announced is different from what is being implemented. Ghanaian individuals have started receiving text messages from their banks. Yesterday, about 1.3 million affected individual bold holders petitioned Parliament for a reversal of the Government’s Debt Exchange Programme. This must be the largest and voluminous petition on a single matter ever presented to Parliament in our country’s history. It is inconceivable to accept that individual bonds will be affected. From the outset, there have been clear inconsistencies in pronouncements and the actual implementation. The haircut is real.
The NPP Nana Addo /Bawumia Government should give us a break!

The Minority notes as follows that:

1. It is obvious that the Domestic Debt Exchange Program will create extreme hardships for millions of Ghanaians and existing financial institutions. It is also quite clear, that it was entirely avoidable had the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government heeded wise counsel from the opposition and Civil Society on prudent management of our finances and economy.

2. It is obvious that the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia is transferring the responsibility to address the debt burden it has created through reckless borrowing and populist fiscal policies to only innocent Ghanaians and the financial sector. For instance, the 2023 budget projects a primary surplus of only 1% which means that we will be reducing the public debt by only 1% of GDP this year. This also means that not enough expenditure cuts are being made by government at a time when it is almost forcibly asking bondholders to forfeit interests and principal payment due them. We demand further demonstration of responsibility from government through more substantial cuts in non-essential expenditure and a reduction in the humongous size of government.

3. We are at a loss as to why individual pension contributors have not been offered the same exemptions that Tier 1 and 2 contributors have been given. This anomaly must immediately be rectified.

4. The inclusion of individual bondholders in the DDE is the biggest transfer of funds from the pockets of Ghanaians to the government and will leave affected persons, mainly the middle class, impoverished while worsening the plight of the poor. This must immediately be stopped.

5. The Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government is simply imposing an almost 80% tax in present value terms on the savings of Ghanaians and our bank balances without any consultations with affected individuals

6. They are also imposing about 80% tax in present value terms on bank capital and deposits.

The Minority while calling for suspension of the programme also called on all stakeholders for a national dialogue on the State of our economy and debt exchange programme with the view to achieving the most workable and the least punitive steps that protect Ghanaians and households from the disastrous effect of the DDE programme as currently designed.

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Ranking member on the Committee of Trade, Industry and Tourism, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah has said the assertion made in this year’s budget by government for promotion and formulation of partnership with existing and prospective business to expand manufacturing plants is an admission of the failure of the One District One Factory (1D1F) industralisation agenda.

According to him the project has been a complete failure, waste of resources and called on banks providing funding support to the 1D1F policy initiative to confirm the disbursement of allocated amounts by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

He further called on the NPP led government to account to Ghanaian taxpayers for the failed policy initiative, adding that looking at the time remaining for the party in power with the limited number of factories, the policy is not working.

He asserts that the policy has not made any progress in the quest to moving the country from agro-based economy to an even semi-industralised economy.

Mr. Buah pointed out at a press conference that per research done by the Minority, there has not been even distribution of factories in each district as promised; stating that out of the so called 296 1D1F factories at various stages of implementation, about 76 are in Accra, 54 in Kumasi whiles majority of the factories are existing factories. He also questioned where the massive employments promised under the 1D1F are?

“Can anybody confirm the value addition promised under this programme and how it has contributed to our GDP?”
Furthermore, the Minority questions where the substitutes of imported goods promised under the programme are; and if anybody can point to one product – rice, sugar or even toothpick that we have succeeded in reducing its import as a result of 1D1F.

For the increase in foreign exchange earnings he noted that the least said the better.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Speaker of the Community Parliament, Rt. Hon. Sidie Mohammed Tunis has said green hydrogen will go a long way in curbing the adverse effects of climate change.

According to him, to boost access to energy, there is the need to achieve a sustainable renewable electricity generation hence the world needs to promote international cooperation and collaboration around access to technology knowledge and capital.

“We need healthy partnerships and mutual cooperation to promote investments in the sector, which cannot be left to the Executives alone”.

He was addressing the thirteenth session of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Assembly – 2023 and IRENA Legislators Forum on the theme “Ensuring a more sustainable energy transition through international co-operation – National Strategies on Green Hydrogen”.

Dr. Tunis drew the attention to the responsibility Legislators have to protect their populations, understanding fully that no one nation can claim supremacy in this fight. This will be achieved through the quality of laid down frameworks and blueprints needed to guide cooperation, partnerships, investments, and application of relevant technologies around the world.

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