By: Seli Baisie
President Nana Akufo-Addo has abolished the Office of the Senior Minister.
In a communique from the Presidency Thursday, Eugene Arhin, head of Communication said the President has effected this realignment because virtually all these special-purpose Ministries have achieved the purposes for which they were established.
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.
This will result in a total of twenty-eight (28) Ministries, down from the thirty-six (36) of his first term.
The statement also said the total number of Ministers to be appointed by
President Akufo-Addo will not exceed eighty-five (85), down from the one hundred and twenty-six (126) that characterised his first term in office.
Furthermore, 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 will 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 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 will appoint a total of thirty (30) Ministers, and sixteen (16) Regional Ministers, bringing the total number of Ministers to forty-six (46). Eight (8) of this number are women – six (6) Ministers and two (2) Regional Ministers. This is the list that will be submitted to Parliament by the President on Thursday.
“The President has decided that there will be no Deputy Regional Ministers. At an appropriate date, the President, in accordance with the Constitution, will submit to Parliament the list of all Deputy Ministers of State for its approval.”
“Activities of the Inner City and Zongo Development Ministry are to be brought under the Presidency, with a Co-ordinator 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. Matters to do with the Special Development Initiatives Ministry will be co-ordinated 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. The Business Development Ministry is to be merged with the Ministry of Trade and Industry. 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.
“On Wednesday, 20th January, and Thursday, 21st January, President Akufo-Addo 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.
“To the Ministers-designate, President Akufo-Addo congratulated them on their nominations, and expressed his expectation that they will be promptly approved by Parliament, to allow them to start work forthwith. To the former Ministers, the President assured them of possible roles to be played in the larger governmental structure, and wished them the best of luck in their future endeavours,” the statement said.
It added “The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, will, on Thursday, 21st January 2021, submit to Parliament the list of proposed Ministers and Regional Ministers of his new government to the Speaker of Parliament for the process of their prior approval for appointment, in accordance with the dictates of the Constitution.
“As has already been correctly indicated, the total number of Ministers to be appointed by President Akufo-Addo will not exceed eighty-five (85), down from the one hundred and twenty six (126) that characterised his first term in office.”
