Allowances paid to Chiefs and queen mothers have been increased by 100% by the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government.
Making the announcement on Monday, 6 November 2017, during a meeting with the National House of Chiefs in Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said the increment is in line with a 2016 manifesto pledge.
“The allowances for Paramount Chiefs and Queen Mothers of the National and Regional Houses of Chiefs have been increased by 100%, and payments by Government are up to date. As I speak, the 4th Quarter allowances are being processed. Quarterly budgetary support to traditional councils and houses of chiefs has also been increased by nearly 60%,” he added.
President Akufo-Addo added that “we are doing all of this because we want to build a Ghana, which looks to the use of its own resources and their proper management as the way to engineer social and economic growth in our country.”
The President also told the Paramount Chiefs and Queen Mothers gathered that his government has been working on the fundamentals of the economy, and open up opportunities for all citizens.
This, he said, has resulted in the growing stability of the macro-economy and the cedi, as government has moved quickly to restore fiscal discipline by passing a budget, the Asempa Budget, that will bring down the deficit, by the end of the year, to 6.3%, from 9.4% in 2016.
“The economy has responded positively to this, interest rates on the money markets have declined, the exchange rate is more stable, inflation, which stood at 15.4% in December 2016, is on the decline, and, in September 2017, stood at 12.2%, and economic growth picked up in the first half of the year, and is projected to end at 7.6%, up from the 3.6% we inherited, which was the lowest in over 20 years,” he added.
The benchmark 91-day Treasury Bill (T-bill) rate, which was was 22.8 percent in January last year, has narrowed to 13.2% percent in October 2017.
-Starrfmonline