President Akufo-Addo had the priviledge of swearing in his first batch of Ministers to help him steer the affairs of the nation in his second term of office yesternight.
In all, he administered the oath of office, secrecy and allegiance to 28 out of the total number of 30 appointees.
With the exception of Finance Minister designate, Ken Ofori-Atta who is out of the country on medical grounds and yet to be vetted, the Minister for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Ebenezer Kojo Kum who had gone through and have been approved was also not present on grounds of ill health.
The 28 others including the Ministers for National Security- Albert Kan Dapaah, Trade and Industry – Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, Defence – Dominic Nitiwul, Interior – Ambrose Dery, Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration – Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Minster of Justice and Attorney General – Godfred Yeboah Dame, Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development – Daniel Botwe, Parliamentary Affairs – Osei Kyei Mensa Bonsu, Communications and Digitalisation – Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Food and Agriculture – Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Energy – Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh and Education – Dr. Yaw Osei Adu Twum were sworn in.
The rest were the Ministers for Health – Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, Works and Housing – Francis Kwame Asenso-Boakye, Lands and Natural Resources – Samuel Abdulai Jinapo, Roads and Highways – Kwasi Amoako-Atta, Transport – Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, Fisheries and Aquaculture Development – Mavis Hawa Koomson, Railway Development – John Peter Amewu, Sanitation and Water Resources – Cecilia Dapaah, Tourism, Arts and Culture – Mohammed Awal, Gender, Children and Social Protection – Sarah Adwoa Safo, Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation – Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, Employment and Labour Relations – Ignatius Baffour Awuah, Information – Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Youth and Sports – Mustapha Ussif, Public Enterprises – Joseph Cudjoe and Minister State at the Ministry of Works and Housing -Freda Prempeh were all sworn in.
Moments after swearing them inPresident Akufo-Addo charged Ministers in his second term administration to work harder to improve the living standards of the citizenry.
At a ceremony held at the Jubilee House, the seat of the nation’s presidency, Mr Akufo-Addo charged the Ministers to as a matter of priority, ensure that they use their various roles in his government to promote the progress of the nation and her peoples.
“As you assume your roles in government, i urge you to provide leadership that will ensure that the work on which we are embarked, benefits the progress of our nation and helps raise the living standards of our people. That is why we are here and that is why the Ghanaian people voted for us”, was how he put it.
That, he said was because “the entire nation followed keenly your individual interactions with the Appointments Committee. In those sessions, you exhibited your capacity to act as Ministers of State for all to see and justified to the country the confidence I have reposed in you to serve in government. I have had the opportunity to sit and work with many of you in my first term of office, some of you are new to the workings of government, nonetheless, I am confident that together we will to realize the vision of the mandate given to me by the Ghanaian people in the victory of 7th December 2020, a victory which yesterday, 4th March, was unanimously unheld in a lucide well considered judgment by a seven-member panel of the Supreme Court, presided over by the Chief Justice.”
On her own and on behalf of her colleague Ministers, the Minister for Communication and Digitization, Ursula Owusu Ekuful, expressed profound gratitude to President Akufo-Addo for the confidence reposed in them.
“We pledge not to let you down and we will live up to the oaths we’ve just sworn and discharge our responsibilities to the best of our ability”, she said.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent