Akufo-Addo scraps ministries; reduces ministerial appointments by a third – Report

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has done away with eight of the new ministries he created in his first term.

It is trite knowledge that the President has no space to create a large number of ministries and appoint 123 ministers because of Ghana’s hung parliament status.

In the end, there were 59 ministers with various designations; 16 regional ministers; and 48 deputy ministers, bringing the net total to 123.

Ghana’s constitution requires that at least half of the ministers must be MPs. For his second term, the President’s NPP party has 137 seats, the same number as the NDC.

On Saturday, a news report by Asaaseradio.com, a quasi-government mouthpiece, sighted by GhanaWeb indicated that for the President’s second term, some seven specialised ministries that were created when he assumed office on January 7, 2017, will not function in his second term, giving two reasons.

This is because they “have accomplished the purpose for which they were set up, which was the work of establishing those priority projects and programmes. Also, the ministries are being collapsed in response to public criticism of the record size of the President’s first term government,” Asaase.com reported.

The pro-NPP news portal reports that the President will cut down the number of ministers by at least 30%. It will mostly affect deputy ministers of state.

Affected ministries

So far eight ministries have been pencilled to be made redundant, with their functions being given back to the traditional ministries.

They are:

1) Ministry of Aviation;

2) Inner City and Zongo Development Ministry;

3) Business Development Ministry;

4) Ministry of Mobilisation and Regional Reorganization;

5) Ministry of Monitoring and Evaluation;

6) Ministry for Public Procurement;

7) Ministry of Planning; and

8) Ministry of Special Development Initiatives.

The research department of the Office of the President at the Jubilee House is expected to be revamped to perform the function of the Ministry of Monitoring and Evaluation and will be headed by Dr. Isaac Owusu Mensah, according to the Asaase report.