President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has scrapped nine special purpose ministries created by his administration in his first term of office.
The President has also submitted a list 46 ministerial nominees to the Speaker of Parliament on Thursday for vetting and approval.
A statement issued by the Acting Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, said the list of the President’s nominees had been pruned to 85 persons to reflect his resolve to have a leaner government.
There were 126 ministers in the President’s first term in government.
The statement said the President had reduced the number of ministries from the existing 36 to 28.
The Aviation, Business Development, Inner City and Zongo Development, Monitoring and Evaluation, Planning, Regional Re-organisation and Development, Procurement and Special
Development Initiatives ministries have all been realigned.
Those seven special-purpose Ministries, the statement explained, had achieved the purposes for which they were established.
It said the President has also abolished the Office of the Senior Minister, but intends appointing a Minister for Public Enterprises to oversee the major restructuring of the entire State-owned enterprises sector.
That ministry would operate directly under the ambit of the Presidency.
President Akufo-Addo, the statement indicated, has nominated a Minister of State who would be assigned to the work with the substantive minster for Works and Housing Ministry “to give special focus to the critical issue of affordable, mass housing, envisaged as one of the priorities of the President’s second term.”
The Inner City and Zongo Development Ministry will now be brought under the Presidency, with a Co-ordinator appointed to supervise, as well as exercise oversight responsibility over the Zongo Development Fund.
The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has been renamed Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development.
It has been tasked with overseeing the outstanding activities of the erstwhile Regional Re-organisation and Development Ministry.
Also, Special Development Initiatives Ministry will be co-ordinated from the Presidency, as well as those of the Monitoring and Evaluation Ministry.
The Statement said the Aviation Ministry is to be part of an enlarged Ministry of Transport, whilst the activities of
the Ministry of Planning would be part of the Ministry of Finance.
It said the Business Development Ministry is to be merged with the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and 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.
The statement said a total of 30 sector ministers and 16 regional ministers have been named. Eight of that number are women.
It further indicated that the list to sent to Parliament did not include nominations for deputy ministerial positions.
However, the President would send the list of nominations for deputy ministers of State to Parliament at a later date for approval.
The statement disclosed that President Akufo-Addo had held one-on-one meetings with the new Ministers-designate, as well as with his first-term Ministers who will not transition into the new government, to break the news to them.
It said the President congratulated the ministers-designate on their nominations, and was optimistic that Parliament would expedite the approval to enable them get to work.
He told his former appointees that there were possibilities for them to play other roles in the larger governmental structure, and wished them well.