Parliament last week approved amendments to the legislation governing the activities of the NIA and the contract for the issuance of the ID Card project, paving way for the nationwide registration process to begin.

At a brief ceremony in Accra on Tuesday March 27th, 2018, the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, on behalf of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, handed over 57 Nissan Hardbody pickups, 5 Toyota Hiace Vans, 60 motorbikes and two generator sets to the Executive Secretary of the NIA, Prof Kenneth Attafuah, to be used for the registration and issuance project, set to begin in about a month.

The handover of the vehicles is a further demonstration of Government’s determination to put in the necessary building blocks for the formalization of the Ghanaian economy, and achieve President Akufo-Addo’s aim of a Ghana beyond Aid, Vice President Bawumia indicated.

“This is the first instalment on the sort of logistics that are going to be necessary to undertake this project and by the grace of God I hope in another month’s time we will see the beginning of the mass issuance of the ID cards.

“The registration and issuance of the national ID card is a critical piece of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s vision to build a modern prosperous economy. It is also important that as we put together this ID card, we capture the address of everybody to have a national database.

“Thanks to the government through the Ministry of Finance, resources have been made available and we are able to present today 62 vehicles to the NIA as a way of starting this process. There are also 60 motorbikes and two very powerful generators so that they can never be out of power under any circumstances.

“Once Ghana has a unique database where everybody is registered and everybody has a unique number the benefits for all of us will be very apparent. Banks can easily verify your identity when you open a bank account; same with SSNIT. Getting a passport will become one of the most easy things that will be available to us. Acquiring a driver’s licence will be much easier.”

Dr Bawumia pledged further government support to ensure the successful completion of the project, given its immense benefit to the nation.

“We will benefit tremendously as a country from this national ID system and I dare say it is probably going to be one of the most if not the most important reforms that we are going to be seeing in this country.”

In a speech read on his behalf, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, Minister of State in charge of Monitoring and Evaluation, who has direct oversight over the NIA, indicated that registration will take place region after region, with Greater Accra beginning the process in about a month’s time.

Registrants will need either their birth certificate, a passport, naturalisation certificate or be vouched for by two persons who have already been registered. They will also have to provide their Ghanapostgps address.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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This, according to Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, is part of plans put in place by the Akufo-Addo administration to address the unemployment situation in the country.

[contextly_sidebar id=”k3WeYDU0gjyduk90w3XSmbInmKis2qHL”]Speaking at the launch of the restoration of teacher trainee allowances at the Accra College of Education, Dr Bawumia noted that graduates who have spent several years at home without any jobs, will be absorbed into the programme.

“We did promise that we will set up a Nation Builders Corps and Nana Addo has said that we want to move this Graduate unemployment to deal with it and one of the ways we are going to deal with it is to set up the Nation Builders Corps which will provide modules teaching for nursing, revenue collection, agriculture, governance,” he said.

“The Nation Builders Corps will hire 100,000 graduates, some of whom have been sitting at home for three, four years after coming out of school and have not been able to find a job. By the grace of God, next month, we are hoping that if the President’s schedule permits by April 30 we will launch the Nation Builders Corps”

The Nations Builders Corps was announced as a government initiative in the 2018 budget to provide 100,000 jobs to graduates at a cost of GHc 600 million.

The focus of the initiative is to improve public service delivery in health, education, agriculture, sanitation and also drive revenue mobilization and collection.

462 jobs per district

The NBC is expected to provide every one of Ghana’s 216 districts with jobs for 462 graduates, the Minister said.

The programme, which will be managed by the office of the President, will focus on alleviating shortfalls in public service delivery.

NBC has a number of subsets which are connected to other major government targets and initiatives.

It will have a “Clean Ghana” Programme for sanitation, a “Heal Ghana” module for health,  “Revenue Ghana” programme for tax collection, a “Teach Ghana” module for education and a “Feed Ghana” module for agriculture.

The NBC is also envisioned to alleviate Ghana’s graduate unemployment problems

They have cited a duplication of roles with the already existing Youth Employment Programme.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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A section of Ghanaians has been trolling the administration for making a lot of promises, with a number of people on social media tagging the President as ‘King Promise.’

[contextly_sidebar id=”UUgGcJDCYUGxxlsv2duim6YrmoGiEUx8″]But speaking at the launch of the restoration of teacher trainee allowances at the Accra College of Education, Dr. Bawumia described the achievements of President Akufo-Addo in his tenure as puzzling to critics.

“As you know, politicians are not really known or expected to keep their promises. Usually, when you make a promise it is viewed very skeptically as maybe an attempt at a 419 scheme to hoodwink the voters and so over time the electorate has grown to be very skeptical because by and large it is argued that we make promises and do not keep them but when you look at our government since Nana Akuffo Addo has been President, it has been a year now and some three months, I think we will have to start taking the promises of people like Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo very seriously.”

The Vice President further touted the administration’s performance in stabilizing the economy saying that the once struggling economy under President Mahama is now the fastest growing economy in the world.

He indicated that the NPP government, despite inheriting a struggling economy from the previous administration, introduced viable policies such as the free SHS programme and also restored the allowances for trainee teachers and nurses, both of which they had promised to do.

“The President is driven by a passion to change Ghana and leave a legacy for this country so he promised against all odds and against the economic constraints of our time when we could not even pay teacher and nursing trainee allowance or keep up with our statutory payments as an economy, of introducing free SHS and in September last year and he fulfilled the promise.”

Gov’t promises 

Other key promises made by the NPP government since assuming office include the construction of a total of five hundred and seventy (570) dams in the three northern regions in fulfillment of NPP Government’s manifesto pledge to facilitate community-owned and managed small-scale irrigation facilities across the country, popularly known as “One Village One Dam”, and the rolling out of processes for the issuance of the new National Identification Cards in April, 2018.

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By: Marian Ansah & Caleb Kudah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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“Cabinet has given approval for the Right to Information Bill to be laid in Parliament for debate and approval because it is very critical that we pass the Right to Information Bill,” Dr. Bawumia stated during the Norway-Ghana Business and Investment Forum in Accra today [Monday].

[contextly_sidebar id=”7eBcWXIsHxmSq25asrt6woK8TSfSMbzr”]His announcement comes after increased agitations from civil groups, like the Right to Information Coalition, pushing for the passage of the Bill, which has been on the shelves for nearly two decades.

The Vice President said the Bill, if approved will go a long way to boost the fight against corruption and strengthen investor confidence in Ghana.

“It is our hope that this will be an additional feather in our cup in the fight against corruption,” he noted to the forum.

“Ghana has taken cognizance of the mistakes of others. Since coming into office, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has deployed some bold initiatives aimed at curbing the corruption menace in order to assure the investing public of the safety of their investments.”

Exemption of private sector

It is unclear what revisions have been made, but the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye, said the version of the Bill he was acquainted with did not factor in the private sector.

The Speaker says making access to information from the public sector mandatory through the passage of the Bill without including private businesses, will  be meaningless .

In Prof. Oquaye’s view, state officials suspected to be corrupt usually have links to the private sector.

The RTI Bill, which is expected to make information easily accessible by the media and Ghanaians to boost the fight against corruption has been in legislation for well over 17 years now because successive governments have failed to implement it despite several assurances.

Efforts by several advocacy groups to put pressure on the duty bearers to have the bill passed have also not yielded any positive results.

During his last address to Parliament, outgoing President, John Mahama begged Parliament to pass the Bill at the last minute but his call was ignored.

Executive must implement Bill

Over the weekend, the Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, had also given some assurances that the passage of the Right to Information Bill will be raised in Parliament soon.

However, he added that the onus of the implementation lay on the executive.

“Who does the implementation? It is not Parliament that does the implementation. Today the clamour is for us to [pass] the RTI. Once we finish, what happens? The whistleblowers’ law has been fashioned. Of course for the RTI, we shall definitely craft it. I believe in the next meeting, whatever it takes, we will do that. But I am saying that, once we do that, the implementation and execution is on the shoulders of the executive.”

Observers have criticized successive governments of lacking the political will to pass the Bill, and these concerns were highlighted by a former Vice Chairperson on Parliament’s Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, George Loh, who suggested that Mr. Mensah-Bonsu obstructed the passage of the Bill at the tail end of the Mahama administration.

According to him, the Bill was far advanced and needed only three readings in Parliament to become law, but Mensah-Bonsu, who was then the Minority Leader, said the passage of the law was no pressing in that moment.

Mr. Loh asserted that the Bill could have been passed into law within three days, but for the Minority’s resistance.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa & Sammi Wiafe/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Feasibility studies and consultative fora have taken place, with work on the first of these dams set to begin in a couple of weeks ahead of the rainy season.

The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, made the disclosure at the annual “Paarigbielle” festival of the chiefs and people of the Tumu Traditional Area in the Upper West Region, on Saturday March 17, 2018.

According to Dr. Bawumia, a similar number of dams will be constructed across the three northern regions next year, together with other interventions in the agric sector, expected to have a great impact on Ghana’s food security and improve the lives of farming communities.

Vice President Bawumia indicated that the Sissala area, which is made up of the Sissala East and West districts, will get 10 dams apiece.

Citing the implementation of the Free Senior High School policy, restoration of teacher and nursing trainee allowances, and the reduction in electricity bills, Dr. Bawumia said the construction of the dams was another sign of the Akufo-Addo government’s commitment to fulfilling the promises it made to Ghanaians ahead of the 2016 elections.

“Along with the Government policy of Planting for Food and Jobs, we have also initiated the policy of One Village One Dam, and I am glad to note that this policy is taking off this year, and for the three northern regions this year we expect the construction of a total of 570 dams.

“We expect to cut the sod for the commencement of this policy within a few weeks and in Sissala East, you will be getting 10 dams this year. In Sissala West you will get 10 dams this year by the Grace of God,” Vice President Bawumia announced.

According to Vice President Bawumia, Government is also committed to ensuring value addition in the agriculture sector, and is engaged in discussions with potential investors to add value to crops such as cotton and maize.

“I am aware of the contribution of farmers in the Tumu Traditional Area to the production of cotton and the textile industry in Ghana, especially the establishment of the cotton ginnery at Tumu. I am informed that the machines at the ginnery can be made to work again even after being idle for quite some time.”

Dr. Bawumia continued: “Government is in contact with prospective investors, some of whom have expressed interest in the Tumu Ginnery, and we certainly would facilitate the revamping of the Tumu Ginnery as one of the projects in line with our One District, One Factory policy.”

Government, under the policy of Planting for Investment and Export, is encouraging farmers, especially farmers in the three Northern Regions, to embrace the cultivation of cashew as an important cash crop which would protect the environment and provide stable income for farmers, Dr. Bawumia indicated.

“The Ministry of Agriculture and the District Assemblies are facilitating the cashew project implementation and it is hoped that our farmers would realize the tremendous benefits to be derived from the cultivation of the multi-purpose cash crop the cultivation of which has specifically been designed for the purpose of poverty reduction.”

The 2018 was under the theme “Paarigbielle festival, a vehicle for fostering good neighbourliness to propel the socio-economic development of the area”.

It was attended by profile personalities including Interior Minister Ambrose Dery, who is also MP for Nandom; Water and Sanitation Minister Joseph Kofi Adda, who is also MP for Navrongo Central; and Hon Abass Ridwan Dauda, MP for Sissala East, as well as sons and daughters of Sissala land.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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He noted that the government’s quest to build an economy independent of foreign aid and support will greatly rely on the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MMDAs.

[contextly_sidebar id=”fGorVmDr7OOst80wrTcobW6L39SWTYvL”]Speaking at a dialogue session with Chief Directors, the Vice President said the government has committed itself to achieving the agenda, and will do everything possible to ensure it becomes a reality.

“Our Chief Directors and other heads of ministries, departments and agencies who are at the helm of affairs have the arduous task of leading your respective institutions towards the success of these programs,” he noted.

The Vice President further said he was optimistic that most of the government’s major promises will be achieved if the civil servants support it.

President Akufo-Addo since assuming office has reiterated his resolve to grow the country’s economy from one of dependence on foreign aid to independence, and ensuring its development using local resources.

Nana Akufo-Addo, who has on various national and international platforms emphasized his belief that Ghana, like many other African countries, is endowed with enormous resources to guarantee its growth, recently caught global attention when he made a strong case for his position at an event which had French President Emmanuel Macron as a guest.

Many have declared their support for the agenda which the government says is without a timeline, but hopes that it becomes a paradigm and an approach that will ensure the country is able to internally mobilize enough resources to finance its major policy and programs.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Don’t sabotage ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda – Bawumia tells Chief Directors appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to him, Government has decided to maintain the fares from last year’s pilgrimage.

He said despite the increment announced by the Saudi Arabian Government, the President has directed the Hajj Board to maintain the fares.

The Vice President made the announcement at the 50^th anniversary to mark the celebration of the birth of Prophet Muhammad by the Tijanniya Movement of Ghana in Kumasi.

“The date for the pilgrimage to Mecca this year is approaching. May Allah fulfil the intentions of all prospective pilgrims for this year. The Saudi Arabian Government we know has increased the fares for the 2018 pilgrimage. But President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says I should tell all prospective pilgrims that there will be no increment in fares”, he announced.

Dr Bawumia indicated that the Nana Addo-led administration is gradually honouring the promises it made to Ghanaians prior to the 2016 general elections.

He called on the Muslim community in the country to support Government with prayers to enable it to deliver on its mandate.

Dignitaries at the event included; the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Alhaji Osman Nuhu Sharubutu, some Members of Parliament and other prominent Islamic clerics.

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By: Hafiz Tijani/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to him, the government is yet to provide adequate information about the mantra, and this raises uncertainty about what exactly it seeks to achieve.

[contextly_sidebar id=”IKs0yw2TyL76MbG4uuDC3p4CnrimXvwX”]Speaking to Citi News, the economist said the mantra “has not been defined” for the understanding of the public to enable them to support it.

“I’m comfortable if ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ is saying we will only borrow for capital investment and not recurrent obligation. But the problem has not been defined for me to understand it. It is just the rhetoric. It sounds nice, but what goes into it? People will support it, if they understand what the objective is. As at now, everybody is left to define it how he understands it, and then to decide to support it or to oppose it,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo since assuming office has reiterated his resolve to grow the country’s economy from one of dependence on foreign aid to independence, and ensuring its development using local resources.

Nana Akufo-Addo, who has on various national and international platforms emphasized his belief that Ghana, like many other African countries, is endowed with enormous resources to guarantee its growth, recently caught global attention when he made a strong case for his position at an event which had French President Emmanuel Macron as a guest.

The Vice President, Dr. Bawumia, who is the head of the country’s economic management team, has been tasked with the responsibility of ensuring all key government projects aimed at making the concept of ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ a reality, but his predecessor, believes the government has not done enough to show it is serious about the concept.

Amissah Arthur insists that the government must provide timelines for the achievement of the policy to make it measurable.

“It is good to have a policy, but you must also have a time-frame. That after 10 years, even if someone offers to pay for AIDS medicine, because we don’t have money, we will reject it because we have to pay on our own,” he said.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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He said all the countries within the continent must leverage their natural resources to ensure growth and development, rather than expect hand-outs from foreign donors.

[contextly_sidebar id=”WyzfmyhDvVNoLh9DChJA7jojApmI2L45″]Dr. Bawumia made the call when the President of the Nigerian Senate, Abubakar Bukalo Saraki, paid a courtesy call on him over the weekend.

“We all have quite a significant endowment of natural resources and all of that but we are all also of the view that we have to move our economies beyond dependency. I think that when we look at Nigeria, that is the path you are moving to. You are trying to build an economy that is very independent and so we talk about moving Ghana beyond aid and moving Africa beyond aid. The more we can really trade among ourselves and invest with each other, the better it is for our people,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo has over the past one year indicated his resolve to grow the country’s economy from one of dependence on foreign aid to independence, and ensuring its development using its local resources.

Nana Akufo-Addo, who has on various national and international platforms emphasized his belief that Ghana, like many other African countries, is endowed with enormous resources to guarantee its growth, recently caught global attention when he made a strong case for his position at an event which had French President Emmanuel Macron as a guest.

Dr. Bawumia, who is the head of the country’s economic management team, is responsible for key government projects aimed at making the concept of Ghana beyond aid a reality, and he believes that other African countries, especially Nigeria, can replicate the concept and take advantage of the benefits that come with it.

Abukakar Bukalo Saraki, who is in Ghana for a symposium being organised by Parliament, applauded the Akufo Addo administration for the implementation of policies aimed at bringing greater relief to Ghanaians.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Join Africa beyond aid campaign – Bawumia urges African leaders appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Dr. Bawumia made the announcement when he spoke at the funeral of the late Chief Inspector.

He said the amount forms part of efforts by government to standardize compensation packages for all police officers who die in the line of duty.

“The President has asked us to look at putting in place a package which is uninformed for all the ranks, for policemen who die in the line of duty. In this regard, Chief Inspector Emmanuel Ashilevi would be the first recipient of this package. The calculation of this package for chief Emmanuel Ashilevi and his family an amount of GHc185,374.85 has been released to pay for all the compensation packages for chief Inspector which is intended to appropriately support the family and to cater for the children’s education. So on Monday the wife and the children should report at the police headquarters to collect the cheque,” the Vice President added.

Dr. Bawumia also disclosed that similar compensation packages have been released to the families of 122 other police officers who either lost their lives or got injured in line of their duties like Chief Inspector Ashilevi.

He said the 122 beneficiaries include those who applied for compensation and have been awaiting their packages since the year 2002.

“Funds have also been released to pay the compensation packages of 122 other police personnel who either lost their lives or got fatally injured in the line of duty just like Chief Inspector Ashilevi. These payments covers all personnel who have applied and waited for compensation since 2002 and who have not been paid appropriately. All compensation payments being made to all affected personnel or their families are expected to be completed by the end of March this year,” he stated.

The Vice-President also announced the late officer’s posthumous promotion from Chief Inspector to Assistant Superintendent of Police, a gesture which was appreciated by the bereaved family.

ASP Emmanuel Kwaku Ashilevi was shot dead on January 21, 2018, as armed men broke into the Kwabenya Police Station, freeing seven inmates.

The Accra Circuit Court which was dealing with the case on February 16, 2018, imprisoned two of the escapees who had been rearrested; Atta Kwadwo and Prince Osei to 30 months after they pleaded guilty to conspiracy to escape from lawful custody and escaping from lawful custody.

Meanwhile, four other escapees including three Ghanaians and a Nigerian are still on the run.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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