By Akosua Frema Frempong
Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu has advised the newly appointed Finance Minister, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam to build upon the initiatives of his predecessor and collaborate with the Ministry’s staff to achieve his targeted goals.
This, he believes will help to address the country’s current economic challenges. Otumfuo Osei Tutu gave the advice when Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam called on him at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi to seek his blessings and wise counsel in his new portfolio.
Expressing confidence in the Finance Minister’s ability to lead an economic turnaround, Otumfuo Osei Tutu encouraged Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam to implement key strategies and measures for success.
“Build upon the initiatives of your predecessor and foster close collaboration with the Ministry’s staff to achieve set goals. The President has confidence in you and has given you a mandate as the Finance Minister.
Although the country is going through economic difficulties, there is hope for an economic turnaround if the right measures are implemented. Your Predecessor has put in place some measures as part of efforts to address the economic conditions I will urge you to continue from where he left off,” Otumfuo noted.
“You are not a new person at the Finance Ministry, you were there already. I will also encourage you to work closely with the staff at the Ministry so you can share ideas to achieve the goals that have been set. Ghanaians are now looking up to you when it comes to finance issues because the President has put you in that position” the Asantehene indicated.
Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam used the opportunity to commend Asantehene for his immense contribution towards national development. He had earlier called on the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr. Simon Osei-Mensah at the Regional Coordinating Council.
Meanwhile, the contractor working on the 500-bed capacity of the Mother and Baby Unit at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and the Kumasi International Airport have returned to the site after temporarily abandoning the projects for almost a year due to the unavailability of funds. He returned to the site upon receiving money from the Central Government.
This came to light when the newly appointed Minister of Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam visited the project sites. He reassured the government’s commitment to complete abandoned and uncompleted projects in the Ashanti Region, emphasizing the Region’s crucial role in Ghana’s economic development.
At the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, the Chief Executive Officer, Professor Okyere Addai-Mensah expressed hope that work on the Mother and Baby Unit will speed up to meet the completion deadline.
At the Kumasi International Airport, the Project Director at Contracta Construction Limited for the two projects, Jorge Tavares de Almeida, who conducted the Finance Minister round the sites assured him that he would do his best to complete the project on schedule.
“The control tower is what is missing, also are the installations, finishing, and recruitment. All the exterior of the control tower and fire building is already concluded. To do this, the airport management can relocate into this terminal while the new control tower can replace the old one. Then once this is done we will demolish the old facilities. The reason, being that, the old facilities, are too near the runway to comply with the international rules of the International Airport. Having done that, there will be access for the fire department directly to the runway and that is the conclusion of the project”, the Project Director explained.
Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam gave his impression after visiting the two project sites.
“I’ll wait for the technical reports from the consultants, and the technical people so that we can determine whether the airport project has been delivered to specification. But if I have to comment on what I’ve seen, on the face of it, I can tell you I am very impressed with what I have seen. It also means that this project would have been completed some time ago, but for the challenges that we faced.
Having said that, we have made efforts, renewed efforts to address those challenges. As indicated earlier. part of the outstanding amount of money that was to be paid for the project to resume has been paid to the contractor. What is left is about just about two million which we are going to do within one week so that the contractor will have no excuse as far as funding is concerned and is also to work to bring this to completion,” Dr. Amin Adam explained.
Until he was appointed Finance Minister, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam was the Minister of State at the Finance Ministry.
