President Akufo-Addo has come under severe criticisms after new appointments he made on Wednesday brought the number of ministers and deputy minsters to 110.
With this number of appointees, Akufo Addo’s government becomes the biggest ever in the Fourth Republic. The previous NPP government led by former President John Agyekum Kufuor had 88 ministers, the Mills administration that succeeded it had 69 ministerial appointees while the Mahama administration, had 78 ministerial appointments.
Speaking to the issue in an interview with the Daily Graphic and Ghana Television (GTV) in his office at the Flagstaff House, Thursday, President Akufo Addo debunked claims that his government is the biggest ever in the Fourth Republic.
According to him, the problems facing the country need bold and ambitious measures to address them.
“I don’t believe that my government in the Fourth Republic has big numbers in view of the swollen challenges. These are the background and the circumstances that were facing my government and the people of Ghana; hence they need a new paradigm shift to solve the problems. We have a problem and what is the best way? It is better to have men and women capable of serving the nation’s interests and to work to grow the economy. If I succeed, you will soon find out the brouhaha is nothing compared to the success” he stated
Akufo Addo stated that his government has inherited unprecedented challenges; a situation which is worse than any other administration.
“I don’t believe that any government in the fourth republic has inherited the challenges that my government has inherited…we are talking about a country with a 74 percent GDP-to-debt ratio, a GHc 2.4 billion debt overhang in the energy sector, persistent decline in growth rate, lowest rate of 2.6 percent growth rate in the agriculture sector over the past 20 years, widespread unemployment, the major issue of corruption and the persistent leakage of revenue in our system…
…when you put all of these circumstances together, my assessment is that we need to really put all hands on deck. We need the cooperation of my party and my country that will allow me to deal with all these issues and already the signs are that this government, in spite of these huge challenges, has begun to put some order in the circumstances of our country.”
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