President John Mahama has a much better record in public expenditure on education– Okudzeto Ablakwa
The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has said President Nana Akufo-Addo’s claim that his government’s commitment to education has been so great that public expenditure on education has almost doubled from GHS20.7 billion between 2013 and 2016 to GHS40.4 billion between 2017 and 2020 is “terribly wrong” and “pathetically misleading”. The North Tongu legislator posted his position on his Facebook wall on Thursday December 13, 2022. PRESIDENT JOHN MAHAMA HAS A MUCH BETTER RECORD IN PUBLIC EXPENDITURE ON EDUCATION On Tuesday, 4th January 2022, President Akufo-Addo delivered a speech at the 6th Quadrennial National Delegates Conference of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in Kumasi. President Akufo-Addo claimed that his government’s commitment to education “has been so great that public expenditure on education has almost doubled from GH¢20.7 billion between 2013 and 2016 to GH¢40.4 billion between 2017 and 2020 .” The President added: this percentage, which represents a 95% increase, took place between the “Mahama era and the Akufo-Addo era.” I submit emphatically that President Akufo-Addo’s claims are terribly wrongly and pathetically misleading. As the unimpeachable data below confirms, the President’s numbers and percentages are gravely inaccurate. It is imperative to point out that my data sources are: Ghana’s Budget Statement and Economic Policy documents, Ministry of Finance Project-Based Budgeting publications and the World Bank. May I add that this analysis focuses on actual expenditure and not projected allocations. President Akufo-Addo must be informed that the globally accepted benchmark in evaluating the real commitment of any government with respect to public expenditure on education is to assess the share of GDP spent on education. UNESCO and “The Education 2030 Framework for Action” insist on the ‘crucial reference point’ of countries allocating at least 4% to 6% of GDP to education. It is deeply frightening to acknowledge that under the watch of President Akufo-Addo, Ghana has not only missed this global benchmark in four out of five years, we are also alarmingly witnessing a steady decline. When placed in the share of GDP context, the lowest levels of public spending on education over the last 20 years have been recorded during President Akufo-Addo’s tenure. As we say, figures don’t lie — President Mahama posted 4.6% in 2013, 4.7% in 2014, 4.6% in 2015 and 4.5% in 2016. Compare this to President Akufo-Addo’s 3.6% in 2017, 4.0% in 2018, 3.5% in 2019, 3.3% in 2020 and an abysmal 3.0% in 2021. Clearly, President Akufo-Addo’s best performance of 4.0% in 2018 is worse than President Mahama’s lowest performance of 4.5% in 2016. As the data reveals and as UNESCO records confirm, President Mahama has never fallen short of the global benchmark of a minimum of 4% share of total GDP throughout his tenure as President unlike President Akufo-Addo. Indeed, Ghana’s all-time best performance occurred in 2011 with an impressive 8.14% when the NDC’s President Mills and Vice President Mahama were at the helm of affairs. So, it is really a matter of: to whom much is given, much is required, and not throwing unreliable, meaningless numbers in the faces of people. Respectfully, President Akufo-Addo embarrasses our country within the comity of nations when he engages in such dishonest obfuscation, in the face of widely accepted global standards. Kindly refer to the tables and graph below for further illumination. Author: Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa [MP for North Tongu, Former Deputy Minister for Education] Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093
Soldiers and Police to shoot and kill in Bawku–MCE
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for the Bawku Municipal Hamza Amadu has said the Military will have to shoot and kill any individual or persons seen disturbing peace of the area. The MCE who was seen very worried in a viral video said: “The soldiers and police are coming out, they are coming out fully. They will shoot and kill anyone they see on the road trying to disturb the peace of Bawku. They have the power to do that and once they do that, you don’t sit somewhere to say is against Human Rights. Go to the court and face the soldiers, they will also meet you in court and we will also meet you in the court. Because the use of force is allowed under the international law, minimum use of force is allowed” he stressed The Bawku conflict has become a worrying one to residents within Bawku and its environs following the sad development witnessed so far since its existence. Bawku has been under curfew since November 2021 till date. Just a week ago, the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) ban men in the area from picking one another on a motorbike. Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093
Registrar-General’s Department delists 2,788 companies
The Registrar-General’s Department (RGD) has informed the business community and general public that it has delisted 2,788 companies from its Companies Register for defaulting to file their Annual Returns with the Department. These companies, the Department said in a statement signed by Registrar General Jemima Oware, “failed to comply with the directive issued by the Department to file their Annual Returns or risk being delisted from the Companies Register”. The names of these companies, which were earlier published on the Department’s website and in the national dailies, were part of the first batch of more than 100,000 defaulted and dormant companies the Department had earmarked on to strike off the Companies Register, as part of its clean-up exercise. These companies include companies limited by share: 1,374, companies limited by guarantee (Churches, fun clubs, associations, union, schools etc.): 978, external companies: 41 and others (Voluntarily owned up companies for delisting): 395. This exercise was carried out in accordance with Section 289 of the Companies Act 2019 (Act 992), which connotes that a company can be stricken off the Companies Register for failing to file its Annual Returns on time or failing to notify the Registrar of Companies of a change in the Company’s Registered Office and Principal Place of Business. “The Department by this release urges all defaulting and dormant companies, whether in operations or not, whose names do not appear on the first batch of deleted companies to file their Annual Returns by June 30th, 2022, to avoid being removed from the Companies Register in phase two of the delisting exercise which begins in earnest in February 2022”, the statement said. Furthermore, it noted that companies and businesses which are yet to carry out updates of their records with the Department dubbed ‘re-registration’ have from 5th January to 31st December 2022 to update their records with the Department. These over 500,000 companies, entities and business names include those registered between 1960 to 2011. The Department said: “Any company official with knowledge of the company’s non-existence or having no more interest in the company’s business name should write to the Registrar-General indicating such intention or contact the Department Client Service Line on 055-765-3130 or 030-266-6081 to indicate such intent”. The Department noted that the “penalty for late filing of Annual Returns will be increased from GH¢450.00 to GH¢500.00 after June 30, 2022”, adding: “Fees for filing Annual Returns and Beneficial Ownership information remains GH¢50.00 and GH¢60.00 respectively”. —Classfm Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093
Three pupils knocked down to death at Sankore
Three pupils have died after they were knocked down on their way to school by an overspeeding car at Sankore in the Asunafo South District of the Ahafo Region. The pupils of Royal East Academy Preparatory School whose names were given as Maxwell Baah, Atta Sekyi and Peter Akompe were crossing the N12 highway at Sankore Resurrection Power Ministry junction when the overspeeding driver knocked all three down. All three pupils who were on their way to school Wednesday, January 12, 2022, did not alter a word as all the three died on the spot. Information available to DGN Online indicates that Maxwell, the first to be hit, as he was walking ahead of all of them when the car crushed him. He sustained injuries in the head and his legs as he was reportedly dragged by the car after hitting him. Atta Sekyi and Peter Akompe tried running back to the pedestrian lane but the driver in charge of the Nissan hatchback, crushed them to death. Atta somersaulted before crashing the windscreen of the car. Peter Akompe was pinned to the accident guides on the road before dying. Peter could have survived the accident, but the car pinned him so hard to the extent of his intestines coming out of his anus, an eyewitness stated. However, the unidentified driver of the Nissan vehicle did not obtain any critical injuries after the accident as he took to his heels after he was rescued from the wrecked car. Frank Owusu, a motorcycle rider who witnessed the accident, noted that all three students were already dead when he tried saving them. “One was already under the car when I got there. “He had been dragged beneath the car while the remaining two were on the car. None of them seemed to have a life in them during the rescue to the hospital”, the eyewitness explained. He noted that the driver was overspeeding hence the accident, saying that if the driver was using a minimum speed, the students would have been saved. Meanwhile, the bodies have been deposited at the morgue of the Sankore Hospital while the driver of the Nissan vehicle is still on the run after killing all three. —DGN online Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093
Ghana’s debt sinks deeper into distress as investors lose patience; dollar bonds’ve worst start among peers – Bloomberg
As the era of cheap money draws to an end, bondholders are no longer prepared to cut Ghana any slack. The West African nation’s dollar bonds have slumped 10% in 10 days, moving deeper into distressed territory as investors judge that re-financing debt in the Eurobond market won’t be an option when the Federal Reserve hikes rates and budget targets remain elusive, Bloomberg reports. The extra premium demanded on Ghana’s sovereign dollar debt jumped on Tuesday to an average 1,145 basis points, from 683 basis points in September. Its $27 billion of foreign debt had the worst start to the year among emerging markets, extending last year’s 14% loss, according to a Bloomberg index. Meanwhile, the World Bank, in its January 2022 Global Prospects report, said: “Many Sub-Saharan African countries saw a marked deterioration in fiscal balances because of deployed relief measures, depleting already-narrow fiscal space (Ghana, Mozambique, Rwanda)”. “This, together with constraints on financing and pressures to improve debt sustainability, will lead to a much less supportive fiscal stance across the region over the forecast horizon”. The Bretton Woods institution added: “Fiscal adjustments are expected to predominantly happen on the expenditure side with a bigger reduction in fiscal deficits in resource-rich countries, partly reflecting revenue boosts from higher commodity prices and consolidation efforts in some countries”. Ghana’s public debt stock, as of September 2021, was GHS341.8 billion, according to the November 2021 Bank of Ghana Summary of Economic and Financial Data has revealed. This was equivalent to 77.8% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Between July and September 2021, GHS5.9 billion fresh loans were added to the total debt. According to the data from the Bank of Ghana, the domestic debt went up to GHS178.1 billion in September 2021 from GHS173.9 billion recorded in July 2021. This was equivalent to 40.5% of GDP. The financial sector resolution bond stayed the same at GHS14.9 billion in September 2021. This was equivalent to 3.4% of GDP. The external debt fell by $100 million in August to $27.9 billion in September 2021, equivalent to 37.2% of GDP. Apexnewsgh.com with fliles from Bloomberg Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093
Berla Mundi clashes with Kwesi Kwarteng over ….
A TV3 host Berla Mundi has clashed with the Communication Director for the Ministry of Education Kwesi Kwarteng over the amount of money spent on a private jet by the President of the Republic of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addo when traveling outside the country. The incident took place on Thursday, Jan 13 during TV3 New Day programme monitored by Apexnewsgh.com. Discussing the death of a woman who died as a result of none availability of funds to buy fuel for the ambulance service which led to the death of the woman. Berla questioned why President Akufo-Addo should use $14,000 per hour to hire private jets when Ambulance services are struggling for fuel to execute their duties effectively. But the Communication Director for the Ministry of Education Kwesi Kwarteng who also speaks for the government was not happy with Berla’s position as he questioned whether President should travel by ship. He went further to demand from Berla the category of flight he want the President to use while traveling for the country’s business. Kwasi Kwarteng: Am not sure you are suggesting that probably the President should have used a ship to travel? Berla: You cannot say the President cannot use a ship because that is an insult to Ghanaians. Berla reacted However, on the subject matter, the husband of the late woman blames officials of the Service for exhibiting unprofessionalism whilst discharging their duties, leading to the death of his wife. He has also accused them of demanding an amount of GH¢600 from him to buy fuel, a situation that delayed the transportation of his wife from the Holy Child Hospital in Takoradi to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra. Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093