The declaration by President Akufo-Addo that media freedom and the safety of journalists are paramount and that journalists should feel safe to go about their work because what they do for the country and the community are extremely important is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stated that media freedom and the safety of journalists are paramount.
He explained that journalists had to feel safe to go about their work because what they did for the country and the community was extremely important.
President Akufo-Addo made the observation when the leadership of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), led by its President, Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, paid a courtesy call on him at the Jubilee House in Accra last Wednesday evening.
The GJA executives were at the Presidency to introduce themselves to the President, discuss issues pertaining to the media landscape and invite him to the GJA Awards scheduled for Saturday, November 12, this year.
Other members of the GJA delegation were the Vice-President, Linda Asante Agyei; the General Secretary, Kofi Yeboah; the Public Affairs Officer, Rebecca Ekpe; the Organising Secretary, Dominic Hlordzi, and the Treasurer, Audrey Dekalu.
The government’s team included the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare; the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison, and the Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Rev. Dr Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah.
The rest are the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta; the Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen; the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffuor Awuah; the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, and the Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah.
He said he preferred the current kind of press in the country, which was very active and vibrant, especially its diversity and proliferation, which had made journalists present in every corner of the country.
The newspaper says that former President John Dramani Mahama has professed a number of solutions to the government which he says when implemented would help the country out of its current economic woes.
The solutions include the government cutting down on expenditure by reducing the number of appointees, abolishing or realigning state institutions with similar functions and the suspension of non essential projects.
Again, the former President has called on the government to do more to curb corruption.
Speaking at an event dubbed “Building the Nation We want”, on Thursday night, former President Mahama said the government had created many institutions to perform functions which established state institutions could efficiently carry out, a situation that was a drain on the country’s resources.
For instance, he said, there was no need for the government to establish a Free SHS Secretariat when the Ghana Education Service could effectively implement the Free SHS policy or for the establishment of developmental authorities when MMDCEs has the capacity to perform their functions.
The Former President further called on the government to cushion the public against high fuel prices with the windfall from the increased revenues it had made from high oil prices.
The Ghanaian Times reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday met with the Ghana Employers Association and the Private Enterprise Federation on government’s economic programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which was in line with his stakeholder consultations.
The purpose of the series of meetings is to enable the government brief stakeholders on certain aspects of the programme, and seek their support and suggestions.
President Akufo-Addo, in short remarks before the meeting which was held behind closed-doors, said the government would procure an IMF programme which would assist his government restore macro-economic stability and help repair public finances.
The programme, he added, would contribute to the process of strengthening the country’s economy and stabilise the currency.
The IMF negotiations, according to the President, would conclude soon.
He said the stakeholder engagements would enable his administration know the concerns of the stakeholders with respect to the programme and identify how best those concerns would be addressed before the negotiations were concluded.
The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, gave brief account of where the negotiations with the IMF had reached, the important benchmarks and issues that were being addressed in the negotiations.
The President of the Employers Association, Daniel Acheampong, pledged the association’s support to the government to help address the economic challenges the country was facing.
He said employers were mindful of the external forces that had led to the economic challenges, adding that “although we are feeling the pinch, we know that by working together, we can address this”.
The Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana have commenced discussions with the IMF for an IMF-supported programme, confirming that Ghana’s debt was on a sustainable path.
The government is putting together a comprehensive economic programme which will form the basis for the IMF negotiations.
The newspaper says that the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, says there is an urgent need for the reduction of the size of government in view of the economic challenges the country is going through.
That, it said, would bring some confidence in the economy to help address the challenges facing the country.
Professor Peter Quartey, the Director of ISSER, who made the suggestion during the launch of the State of Ghana Economy Report (SGER), said the reduction in the size of the government would send some signals to the market and help the country’s partners to appreciate that the government was committed to cutting down expenditure.
The SGER, the 31st edition, highlighted on the state of the economy for 2021 and third quarter of this year.
Professor Quartey, who gave a highlight on some of the recommendations in the SGER to help prop up the economy, said though the government argued that some of the ministers were not paid, those ministers had offices and secretaries who were paid by the state.
Professor Quartey further said there was the need for a reshuffle to bring fresh ideas and vibrancy in the government.
“Desperate situations, need desperate solutions and business cannot be as usual if the government wants to quickly come out with measures to resuscitate the country from its current economic difficulties,” he said.
The Director of ISSER entreated the Bank of Ghana not only to inject more forex into the market to meet the forex needs of companies and corporate, but also ensure that the forex were not siphoned out of the country.
According to Prof. Quarter, the country’s borders were so porous and the forex Bank of Ghana injected into the economy were taken out of the country.
Prof. Quarter entreated government to instill discipline in the economy and ensure efficiency and value for money in its expenditure to help build a robust and vibrant economy.
He also said there was the need for the government to cut down on expenditure and introduce measures to increase revenue mobilisation to meet the fiscal needs of the country.
Prof. Quarter said in view of the country’s growing debt, government could not borrow from the internal capital market this year to raise more forex to shore up the cedi.
On the International Monetary Fund Programme being pursued by the government for balance of payment support, Prof. Quartey, said there was the need for government to communicate promptly on the programme with the public to gain public confidence and reduce doubts in the minds of the people, particularly on the issue of debt restructuring.
GIK/APA