Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and Catherine Afeku
Eleven more Ministers-desginate were approved by parliament yesterday and were expected to be sworn into office by the president in the evening of yesterday.
All the Ministers-designate were approved by consensus.
They were Minister-designate for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu; Minister-designate for Tourism and Creative Arts, Catherine Afeku; Minister-designate for Planning, Prof George Gyan-Baffour; Minister-designate for Youth and Sports, Isaac Kwame Asiamah; Minister-designate for Business Development, Awal Ibrahim Mohammed and Minister-designate for Special Development Initiatives, Mavis Hawa Koomson.
The rest are Minister-designate for Aviation, Cecilia Abena Dapaah; Minister-designate for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Kofi Dzamesi; Minister-designate for Inner City and Zongo Development, Boniface Abubakar Saddique; Minister-designate for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Elizabeth Afoley Quaye and Minister-designate for Information, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid.
This brings to 36, Ministers-designate approved by parliament and completes the full list of substantive ministers President Akufo-Addo is going to work with.
The vetting of the Regional Ministers-designate which was to have started on Monday , February 13, has been rescheduled for Thursday, February 16.
Approving the last batch of the nominees by consensus, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said all the 11 ministers-designate distinguished themselves at the vetting and demonstrated that they were prepared to serve the country and also help President Akufo-Addo to fulfill all the promises made to Ghanaians.
The minority leader appealed to the Minister-designate for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu – who is also the majority leader – not to bow to the whims and caprices of the executive and help make parliament very strong and effective – always putting the executive on its toes.
Haruna Iddrisu also appealed to the Minister-designate for Youth and Sports to help create jobs for the teeming unemployed youth in the country.
He also asked him to build a good rapport with the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to help put Ghanaian football on the world map, stressing that the country would like to win either the AFCON or the World Cup under Mr Asiamah’s administration.
Turning his attention to the Minister-designate for Special Development Initiatives, the minority leader said the nominee has a lot of work to do in helping to realize the president’s ‘one district one factory’ flagship policy and the ‘one village, one dam’ policy in the three northern regions.
Touching on the Inner City and Zongo Development, Haruna Iddrisu indicated that the seed amount of $50 million for the Zongo Development Fund is too small for development in over 400 Zongo communities in the country.
“There is a massive drainage system being constructed in Nima in Accra and that alone is costing $10 million so what can $50 million do for all the Zongo communities in the country?” he wondered.
Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu earlier presenting the business statement for next week, said that under his leadership, he would ensure that ministers under the NPP government respect the work of parliament and avail themselves to respond to any nagging questions by Members of Parliament.
“Under our Standing Orders, when questions are filed, Ministers are given three weeks to respond to them and we will ensure that all ministers comply, unlike under the previous government when sometimes questions will take six months or a year to be responded to,” he underscored.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr