President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday presented the list of ministers for his second term in office to the Speaker of Parliament.
This was after having a one-on-one meeting with new minister designates on Wednesday, January 20, and Thursday, January 21, as well as with his first-term ministers who would not transition into the new government, to explain his decision to them.
Prominent Names
Notable among them include outgoing Deputy Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame, who becomes substantive Attorney General. He becomes the youngest Attorney General in Ghana’s history.
Outgoing Deputy Chief of Staff Francis Asenso Boakye will be going to the Ministry of Works and Housing as well as Ken Ofori-Atta is retained as Finance Minister.
Albert Kan Dapaah was retained as National Security Minister, Dominic Nitiwul retained as Defence Minister, Ambrose Dery retained as Interior Minister, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu retained as Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto retained as Food and Agriculture.
Outgoing Minister of Regional Re-organisation and Development Ministry Dan Kwaku Botwe is coming to the newly-renamed Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, outgoing Education Minister Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh is going to the Ministry of Energy and Alan Kyeramaten being retained at the Ministry of Trade.
Outgoing Minister of State in charge of Procurement Sarah Adjoa Safo is going to the Ministry of Gender, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful and Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey likely to be retained as Ministers of Communications & Digitalisation and Foreign Affairs respectively.
Outgoing deputy Education Minister Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has been made substantive Education Minister and Kwaku Agyemang Manu was retained as Minister of Health
Outgoing Deputy Chief of Staff Samuel Abdulai Jinapor has been made Minister for Lands and Natural Resources with Kwasi Amoako-Atta retained as Roads and Highways Minister.
Kwaku Ofori Asiamah was retained as Transport Minister, Mavis Hawa Koomson was moved from the Special Initiatives Ministry, which has been scrapped, to the Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Ministry; while John Peter Amewu former Minister of Energy has been moved to the Railway Development Ministry.
Cecilia Abena Dapaah was maintained at the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources while Business Development Minister Awal Mohammed has been moved to Tourism, Arts and Culture.
Ebenezer Kojo Kum will take over from Kofi Dzamesi as Minister for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, while Dr. Kwaku Afriyie moves to the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology & Innovation. Ignatius Baffuor Awuah was retained as Minister of Employment and Labour Relations; while Kojo Oppong Nkrumah was also retained as Minister of Information.
Mustapha Yussif who was the Head of National Service Scheme becomes the Minister of Youth and Sports; while Joseph Cudjoe has become the Minister for Public Enterprises, with Freda Prempeh becoming Minister of State in charge of Works and Housing.
Regional Ministers
Ahafo Region goes to George Boakye, Simon Osei-Mensah was retained as Ashanti Regional Minister, Justina Owusu-Banahene takes over from Ama Kumi Richardson as Bono Minister and Adu Gyan replaces Kofi Amoakohene as Bono East Regional Minster.
Justina Marigold Assan will be replacing Kwamena Duncan in the Central Region; Seth Kwame Acheampong takes over from Eric Kwakye Darffuor in the Eastern Region.
Henry Quartey will replace Ishmael Ashittey in Greater Accra, Shani Alhassan Saibu is taking over from Salifu Saeed in the Northern Region, Yidana Zakaria will replace Solomon Bour in North East while Joseph Makubu is taking over from Kwasi Owusu Yeboa in Oti Region.
Saeed Muhazu Jibril will replace Salifu Adam Braimah in the Savannah region, Stephen Yakubu takes over from Tangoba Abayage in the Upper East region while Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih was retained in Upper West.
Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa was retained in the Volta Region, Kwabena Okyere Darko Mensah retianed in Western Region, with Richard Obeng taking over from Aboagye Gyedu in Western North.
“President Akufo-Addo is hopeful that Parliament will see to the prompt approval of his nominees, so they can assist in the delivery of his mandate for his second term in office,” Eugene Arhin Ag. Director of Communications Office of the President said in a statement.
Missing Names
Conspicuously missing from the list are the names of some stalwarts like Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo, Samuel Atta Akyea, who was heading the Ministry of Housing, among others.
Earlier Statement
Before the list was made public, a statement was issued from the presidency and signed by Director of Communications, Eugene Arhin, indicating that the President had reduced the number of ministers from 126 in his first term (previous administration) to 85 pending the approval of Parliament.
The statement from the presidency said that “seven ministries, namely Aviation, Business Development, Inner City and Zongo Development, Monitoring and Evaluation, Planning, Regional Re-organisation and Development and Special Development Initiatives, have been realigned.”
As it is, the President is going into his second term with 30 sector ministers and 16 regional ministers.
The President is said to have effected this realignment of some of the ministries because virtually all the special-purpose ministries he created in 2017 have achieved the purposes for which they were established, while the Office of the Senior Minister has also been scrapped and that will result in a reduction of the total number of ministries from 36 in his first term to 28 this time around.
However, the President intends to appoint a Minister for Public Enterprises, who will be operating directly under the ambit of the presidency and not from a ministry.
The minister is expected to oversee a major restructuring of the entire state-owned enterprises sector to improve the productivity and profitability of the sector.
A Minister of State has also been nominated, and, if approved, will be assigned to the Ministry of Works and Housing, in addition to the substantive minister to give special focus to the critical issue of affordable mass housing envisaged as one of the priorities of the President’s second term.
In all, President Akufo-Addo is expected to appoint a total of 30 ministers, and 16 regional ministers, bringing the total number of ministers to 46.
Eight of this number are women – six ministers and two regional ministers.
This time round, the President has decided that there will be no deputy regional ministers and that at an appropriate date, in accordance with the Constitution, he will submit to Parliament the list of all deputy ministers of state for its approval.
Meanwhile, activities of the Inner City and Zongo Development Ministry are to be brought under the presidency, with a coordinator appointed to supervise as well as exercise oversight responsibility over the Zongo Development Fund.
“The newly renamed Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development will be tasked with overseeing the outstanding activities of the erstwhile Regional Re-organisation and Development Ministry,” the statement noted, while matters to do with the Special Development Initiatives Ministry will be coordinated from the presidency, as will be those of the Monitoring and Evaluation Ministry.
The Aviation Ministry is to be merged into an enlarged Ministry of Transport, with activities of the Ministry of Planning also being subsumed under the Ministry of Finance and the Business Development Ministry to be merged with the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
The communication indicated that a new Minister for Energy is to be appointed, who will be assisted by deputy ministers, one of whom will be an indigene of the Western Region.
President Akufo-Addo has since congratulated the ministers-designate on their nominations, and expressed his expectation that they would be promptly approved by Parliament, to allow them to start work forthwith.
To the former ministers, he assured them of possible roles to be played in the larger governmental structure and wished them the best of luck in their future endeavours.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent