President engages media Tuesday
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, meets the press at the State Banquet Hall at 12:30pm today.
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The event, coming six months after he assumed office, has been described as a bold move, since it is early days yet for the President to show concrete evidence of his stewardship.
According to the Information Minister, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, the decision of the President to engage with a cross-section of the media was informed by his desire to showcase the gains his administration has chalked up so far.
The President has already announced the commencement of his flagship programme, the free Senior High School policy, which begins in the next academic year in September.
The development authorities are being inaugurated while the bill for the Special Prosecutor’s office is scheduled to be presented to Parliament this week.
Initiatives
Other initiatives such as the Planting for Food and Jobs programme are ongoing and steps are being taken to roll out the One District One Factory policy, One Village One Dam and the one million dollar per constituency initiative.
Already inflation is showing signs of inching toward a single digit as the June figure was 12.1 per cent. The cedi is, however, still struggling against the major currencies, trading at 4.30 to the dollar.
The journalists are expected to interrogate all these policies of the government, as well as the 2.25 billion dollar bond, the three per cent VAT and the 15 billion dollar Chinese support, which the Minority has taken issues with, saying the government should come clean on the facility and explain to the Ghanaian whether it is not a loan.
It has also urged the government to present the facility before Parliament, the people’s representatives, for ratification.
One issue that will not escape the scrutiny of the media practitioners will be the decision to create the office of the Special Prosecutor to spearhead the government’s campaign against corruption. But here again opponents of the government insist that the Constitution does not give room for that office as the Attorney General is mandated to prosecute on behalf of the State.
NHIS
Also the prying eyes of the media will raise issues with the challenges with the National Health Insurance Scheme and efforts by the government to revamp it. Further, it is expected that the media would ask questions relating to the growing unemployment in the country, especially the inability of the government to recruit nurses who have graduated from both public and private institutions.
The recent contamination of fuel at BOST is also expected to be raised for further clarification as well as issues of the power situation and the high cost of fuel.
The government budget has also come under scrutiny especially the decision to abolish taxes on imported spare parts although it is said that the move runs counter to ECOWAS trade protocol.
The media would also ask the President about the preparedness of his government to run paperless port operations as well as collapse Customs checkpoints on major roads in the country, as some port operators say the decision focuses more on trade facilitation than revenue mobilisation.