Debates of 26 Nov 2018

MR SPEAKER
PRAYERS 11:10 a.m.

ANNOUNCEMENTS 11:10 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:10 a.m.
Hon Members and the media, we are late for Sitting today for the simple reason that a Breakfast Forum meeting had long been scheduled before today, and as I am speaking, it is on-going. We decided on that before deciding to add Mondays to the Sitting days.
Thank you for waiting.
Hon Members, we would therefore move on to the correction of the Votes and Proceedings and the Official Report.
VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS AND THE OFFICIAL REPORT 11:10 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:10 a.m.
Hon Members, we have the Votes and Proceedings for 23 rd November, 2018 for correction.
Hon Members, any corrections?
Page 1…9
rose
Mr Speaker 11:10 a.m.
Yes, Hon Minority Chief Whip?
Alhaji Muntaka 11:10 a.m.
Mr Speaker, on page 8, item numbered 31, my name has been recorded as being absent without permission.
Mr Speaker, the whole of last week, we asked permission to represent Parliament at the House of Commons. So, I would be grateful if this is corrected.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker 11:10 a.m.
That is so. It would accordingly be corrected.
Page 9…14
Hon Members, the Votes and Proceedings of Friday, 23rd November, 2018, as corrected, is hereby admitted as the true record of proceedings.
Hon Members, we also have the Official Report of 9th November, 2018, for correction.
Hon Members, any corrections?
rose
Mr Speaker 11:10 a.m.
Hon Member, do you have any corrections?
Mr E. A. Gyamfi 11:10 a.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much, but I am sorry to have to take you back.
Mr Speaker 11:10 a.m.
Hon Member, you should please proceed.
Mr E. A. Gyamfi 11:10 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I went for copies of the Votes and Proceedings and the Order Paper, but I did not see the Official Report that we just corrected. I do not know whether Hon Members have copies.
Mr Speaker 11:10 a.m.
Hon Member, do you not have a copy of the Official Report?
Mr E. A. Gyamfi 11:10 a.m.
No, Mr Speaker, we do not have copies of the Official Report for the 9th November, 2018.
Mr Speaker 11:10 a.m.
Well, I have one here.
The Table Office should please take note, so that if necessary, that particular Official Report would be appropriately brought again to the House.
Hon Members, we would move on to the Commencement of Public Business, the item listed as number 4 -- Presentation of Papers.
Hon Members, we would take item 4(a) listed (i), by the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice.
rose
Mr Speaker 11:10 a.m.
Yes, Hon Majority Chief Whip?
Mr Nyindam 11:10 a.m.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Minister responsible is not around and so with your permission, we would want to ask the Hon Minister for Defence to lay the Papers on behalf of the Hon Attorney- General and Minister for Justice.
Mr Speaker 11:10 a.m.
Very well, the Hon Minister for Defence may so lay it.
PAPERS 11:10 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:10 a.m.
Hon Members, we would move on to Papers 4(a)(ii)
By the Hon Minister for Defence (Mr Dominic B. A. Nitiwul) (on behalf of the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice --
Office of the Special Prosecutor (Operations) Regulations, 2018.
Referred to the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation.
Mr Speaker 11:10 a.m.
Hon Members, we would move on to Paper 4(b)(i), by the Hon Minister for Finance.
Mr Nyindam 11:10 a.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, with your permission, the Hon Minister for Planning would lay the Paper on behalf of the Hon Minister for Finance.
Mr Speaker 11:10 a.m.
Yes, Hon Minister for Planning, you may accordingly do so.
By the Minister for Planning (Prof. George Yaw Gyan-Baffour) (on behalf of the Hon Minister for Finance.
Request for waiver of Import Duties, Import VAT, Import NHIL, ECOWAS Levy, EXIM Levy and Special Import Levy amounting to the Ghana cedi equivalent of eleven million, six hundred and fifty-six thousand, one hundred and seventy-four euros (€11,656,174.00) in respect of the procurement of project equipment and materials for the construction of the University
Mr Speaker 11:20 a.m.
Hon Members, we would move on to Paper 4(b)(ii).
By the Minister for Planning (on behalf of the) Minister for Finance --
Request for waiver of Import Duties, Import VAT, Import NHIL, GETFund Levy, AU Levy, ECOWAS Levy, EXIM Levy, Special Import Levy and Inspection Fees amounting to seven million, six hundred and eighteen thousand, seventy-nine United States dollars (US$7,618,079.00) [equivalent to GH¢35,854,488.81] on the purchase of materials and equipment under the Contract Agreement between the Govern- ment of the Republic of Ghana represented by the Ministry of Roads and Highways/Ghana Highway Authority and Shimizu-Dai Nippon JV, Japan for the Improve- ment of Ghanaian International Corridors (Grade Separation of Tema Intersection in Tema).
Referred to the Finance Committee.
Mr Speaker 11:20 a.m.
Item numbered 4(c) - Hon Chairman of the Committee.
Mr Nyindam 11:20 a.m.
Mr Speaker, items numbered 4(c) and (d) are not ready.
Mr Speaker 11:20 a.m.
Is item listed number 5 ready?
Mr Nyindam 11:20 a.m.
Yes, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker 11:20 a.m.
Hon Members, we will continue with the debate then, but I do not have a list with me here for now. [Pause.]
Yes, Hon Woyome --
MOTIONS 11:20 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:30 a.m.
You have two minutes.
Mr Woyome 11:30 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I am an Hon Ranking Member and so --
We looked at the 2017 Budget Statement and referred to paragraph 638 on page 111 which also tells of a promise of the Government going ahead to complete the University of Ghana Sports Complex.
As we speak, there has neither been a mention of it in the 2019 Budget Statement, nor in the previous 2018 Budget Statement. So again, we do not know whether the Government is so willing and would want to help the students with a place to have their sports activities.
Mr Speaker, we proceed to look at the Sports College. The reason why at the time the Government did a lot of thorough work in the Sports College was to put together the entire facility in a certain status to be able to handle some of the needs of the country.
Sometimes some sportsmen and women would want to be camped, trained and familiarise amongst themselves to ensure that they are able to take part in national as well as international games. So there was the need to bring the facility to a certain level to be able to meet that need.
Some work was started at the time and then in the year 2017, the Budget Statement stated that there was going to be a continuation in putting that place in a befitting status.
Mr Speaker 11:30 a.m.
In conclusion?
Mr Woyome 11:30 a.m.
Mr Speaker, nothing was done. Meanwhile, some three to five months ago, there was the mention that a Committee had been formed to put together some strategy in building sports colleges in the various regions.
Mr Speaker, we think that we need to put what we already have in a certain status; we needed to put some transaction advisors and that was the reason.
Mr Speaker 11:30 a.m.
Thank you very much. Hon Agyekum?
Mr Woyome 11:30 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I am the Hon Ranking Member.
Mr Speaker 11:30 a.m.
Ten minutes is gone. Yes, Hon Agyekum?
Alhaji Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka 11:30 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the agreement was that the Hon Ranking Members would use 15 minutes and then all others will use 10 minutes. So he is an Hon Ranking Member.
Mr Speaker 11:30 a.m.
Very well. Hon Member, you have five more minutes.
Mr Woyome 11:30 a.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you.
Mr Speaker 11:30 a.m.
Hon Members, if you should ask the Clerk, I asked him the number of minutes and I was duly advised. If I have been advised otherwise, do not make noises that do not co-term well for the House.
Hon Member, you may go on.
Mr Woyome 11:30 a.m.
Mr Speaker, may I take you to look at paragraph 857 of the 2019 Budget Statement where some towns have benefited from some youth resource centres. There was no mention of who
actually put together the foundation to enable this to happen.
Mr Speaker, we must give credit to His Excellency, former President Mahama, for being bold to agree when we were looking at Act 939 of the National Youth Authority (NYA) Act to enable five per cent of District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) to be given to the NYA when this august House approved the Formula.
In fact, per the plan and in essence, the global idea was to provide such resources for the youth in the entire country. So when this is being done all over, it is just befitting to give recognition to whom it is due. His Excellency, former President John Dramani Mahama should be applauded for putting together the foundation, and of course, to enable this to happen.
Mr Speaker, from there, let us look at the youth sector. Some promises were made in the 2017 Budget Statement at paragraph 635, page 111 so far as the youth is concerned. And I beg to quote:
“In 2017, the Ministry intends to set- up a Youth Development Authority to harmonize and coordinate all government sponsored Youth initiatives across the country”
Looking at the 2019 Budget Statement, there has not been any mention of it as to whether Government really intends to carry that out and bring the various Youth Initiatives together.
Nothing is happening but rather, what we see is this disjointed and non- coordinated approach to the issues of the youth in this country where we are not sure whether we have put together any means to measure performance in that area.
Mr Woyome 11:30 a.m.
Mr Speaker, in fact, this is critical.
When we are looking at the law, we are able to identify the need to have youth federation -- That is something that the NYA ought to have put together, and in fact, I quote a portion under the “Functions of the Authority”.
Section 3 (1) (d) of the National Youth Authority Act states:
“To achieve the object under section 2, the Authority shall
(d) in collaboration with the Ghana Youth Federation, organise annual youth conferences at the national, regional and district levels”.
Mr Speaker, as we speak, that has not been done and so my worry is that already in this 2019 Budget Statement, there has been some achievement stated in there for about 3,000 people having benefitted from ICT training.
The issue is, how fairly were they selected to participate in this? If we do not have the Youth Federation which is supposed to be the amalgamation of various youth groups in this country, irrespective of their political persuasion and backgrounds and so on, how were they selected to participate and eventually benefit from some of these?
If we do not have the Youth Federation in place, the worry is that we do not know -- Mr Speaker, if you look at all these, you would realise that we have great issues to talk about which are really bothering us.
I must say that there are several benefits to be derived from the Youth Federation and we are here taking
decisions for the youth without them participating in the decision making process as to what is best for them. We must give them the opportunity through some form of youth parliament and so on to discuss issues that are topical to their welfare.
It is through this Youth Federation that we can bring a large number of such people together to tap from them what they think are the issues that must be tackled, so that we do not do that kind of top to bottom approach, where we decide in our boardrooms what must affect the youth in Sogakofe or somewhere in Dabala.
Mr Speaker, we need to give the youth a platform to enable them speak on what they think are their problems, and of course, suggestions regarding the way forward. So it is very important that the Youth Federation must seriously be in place. This law is being operated without all the requirements in place.

Mr Speaker, I thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to contribute to the Budget Statement as was presented by the Hon Minister for Finance and seconded by the Chairman of the Finance Committee.
Mr Speaker 11:40 a.m.
Hon Member, thank you very much.
Yes, Hon Agyekum?
Hon Members, may I respectfully go back to item numbered 4 (c) - Papers to be laid by the Hon Chairman of the Committee.

Hon First Deputy Majority Whip, you have sent a directive.
Mr Matthew Nyindam 11:40 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Ranking Member would lay the Paper, unfortunately his attention was not here.
Mr Speaker 11:40 a.m.
Did you contact him earlier?
Mr Nyindam 11:40 a.m.
Mr Speaker, yes, he was informed by the Clerks-at-the-Table.
Mr Speaker 11:40 a.m.
Sometimes you make things difficult for me. You asked me to go back and I did that but then you are not ready.
Alhaji Inusah A. B. Fuseini 11:40 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to lay the Papers on behalf of the Hon Chairman of the Committee.
Mr Speaker 11:40 a.m.
Hon Member, you may do so.
PAPERS 11:40 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:40 a.m.
Hon Members, we would continue with Motion numbered 5.
Yes, Hon Agyekum.
MOTIONS 11:40 a.m.

  • [Continuation of debate from column 2582]
  • Mr Alex Kofi Agyekum (NPP -- Mpohor) 11:40 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Motion on the Floor. Mr Speaker, with your permission, I would like to do a few rebuttals. The Hon Ranking Member of the Committee started by saying that with paragraph 855, nothing has been done about the National Sports Colleges Bill.
    Mr Speaker, I am surprised because he is the Hon Ranking Member of the Committee and should be well-informed that the same paragraph indicates that the Hon Minister for Youth and Sports would finalise all engagements and arrangements so that the Bill would be brought to Parliament. Mr Speaker, this has been indicated in paragraph 855. Mr Speaker, it states and I beg to quote:
    “In 2019, the Ministry will organise two sensitization workshops each on the Regulations for the Youth and Sports Acts. It will also organise a final consultation workshop on the National Sports Colleges Bill as well as continue with the revision of the 1994 National Sports Policy.”
    Mr Speaker, this is a sector that has been plagued with a lot of challenges and it is not just a matter of bringing a Bill to Parliament which would not stand the test of time. So we would assure the House, per the Hon Minister's declaration here that the Bill would be brought and all the issues that have been enumerated here would be taken care of in the Bill.
    Mr Speaker, the five per cent District Assemblies fund earmarked for sports
    Mr Alex Kofi Agyekum (NPP -- Mpohor) 11:50 a.m.
    development has been indicated under paragraph 857, that there would be the construction of multi-purpose youth centres across the entire country and regions.
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Member is aware that the Hon Minister has just cut sod for these projects to begin and the members of the Committee were invited to a workshop where the engineer concerned briefed us on the various technical details of the project that has been rolled out.
    So if the Hon Ranking Member is saying that as far as the five per cent of the District Assemblies Common Fund is concerned, nothing has been done, then I believe that is far from the truth.
    Mr Speaker, he also made mention of the fact that there should be youth parliaments. Mr Speaker, is it a youth parliament geared at letting us know the problems and challenges facing the youth in Ghana? Mr Speaker, no.
    Mr Speaker, His Excellency the President is aware, and that is why the entire two-year policy has been geared towards youth development and apprenticeship. These things would not be done in isolation; there is an integrated approach, inter-sectorial and other ministries are brought on board.
    That is why when we talk about youth development, we have the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to ensure that our brothers and sisters who need apprenticeship are given some sections in the TVET programme. So the youth that forms the pivot around which development revolves are not being left out.
    Mr Speaker, your Committee oversees the youth, sports and culture so I would speak a little about culture. What comes to mind is the enormous programmes and activities which are being carried out in the tourism industry. The year 2019 has been earmarked as the year of return for our brothers and sisters in the diaspora.
    Mr Speaker, we are not just interested in welcoming our brothers and sisters just for a fanfare. When they return, they would come with their technologies and ideas to partner with the Ghanaian community and business men and as well share ideas to cross fertilise the various business acumen to have positive impact in our investment drive.
    Mr Speaker, there is a programme at the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture that has been captioned “See Ghana, Eat Ghana, Wear Ghana and Feel Ghana”. Mr Speaker, this is something that the Ministry has consistently pursued and I believe it is yielding positive results.
    Mr Speaker, I would like to seize this opportunity to commend His Excellency the President, for leading the charge and making sure he wears the locally manufactured Ghanaian cloth during all official programmes. Mr Speaker, this is something all of us must be encouraged to embrace.
    With the “See Ghana” Policy -- tourism has become “smart tourism” and people would not want to come into the country and get surprised. Before they move from their origin to this destination, they would like to know what pertains at the various tourist sites.
    Mr Speaker, that is why the Ministry is trying to digitise all our tourist sites to make sure that whatever is expected by a tourist would be put on a global landscape. By accessing through the
    internet, a tourist would see all the facilities. This is being done in consultation with the Ministry of Communications.
    Mr Speaker, every single village is being linked to the satellite system and this would enable these things to be enhanced. Mr Speaker, with the ‘‘Eat Ghana'' Policy, the Ministry is working to ensure that the various hotels and the hospitality industry would be sensitised and to have a component of Ghanaian dishes on their menu.
    Mr Speaker, this is the way to go and I believe that we must all help to ensure that this would be a success story. Some of our various monuments and museums are generating enough money, but sometimes the moneys go to where they are not supposed to go.

    So this is a policy that will ensure that we get returns from whatever investment we make.

    Mr Speaker, finally, let me touch on the development in the sports sector. No one needs to be told about the kind of situation that the country found itself in when the Anas exposé hit us.

    Thankfully, the Government and H. E. the President in his own wisdom tried to massage the whole issue in a manner that ensured that Ghana was not isolated by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA).

    The whole thing was done in such a way that a delegation was sent, and per the arrangement that was made, now we have in place a normalisation Committee that will ensure that all the challenges and difficulties that plunged this country into

    the mess that we found ourselves in, especially in our soccer sector would be solved.

    So far, the Committee has met the Normalisation Committee and per the arrangements they have put in place, I do not have any doubt that Ghana will bounce back and the kind of challenges that we had in the sports sector would be solved.

    Mr Speaker, I wish to use the opportunity to thank H. E. the President and the Ministry for taking these bold steps and ensuring that we partner with FIFA in the manner that will ensure that while solving the various challenges, we do not also infringe on FIFA's statutes that would lead to international isolation.

    Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I would like to state that your Committee on Youth, Sports and Culture is a very dynamic committee due to the kind of cooperation that we receive from the various sector Ministries, especially the Ministry of Youth and Sports; Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture and the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs.

    These three Ministries are doing the fundamental things that would transform the sector's development. I am just going to mention one particular thing that the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs is doing which needs commendation.

    Mr Speaker, the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs is trying to ensure that all the various land boundaries are codified so that the issue of having one crossed to another's boundary leading to clashes and other chieftaincy disputes are eliminated. This is something that we need to commend the Ministry for and ask them to continue in that stead.

    Mr Speaker, I would like to say that when we come to the votes, we would see the amount of money that the Government
    Mr Alex Kofi Agyekum (NPP -- Mpohor) 11:50 a.m.


    has voted for all the three sector ministries to ensure that the policies that they have outlined come to fruition.

    Mr Speaker, with these few words, I support the Motion and ask that my Hon Colleagues embrace whatever has been outlined by H. E. the President for the development of the country.

    I thank you for the opportunity.
    Mr Speaker 11:50 a.m.
    Thank you very much.
    Hon Pelpuo?
    Dr (Alhaji) Abdul-Rashid Hassan Pelpuo (NDC -- Wa Central) noon
    Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana for the 2019 Financial Year.
    Mr Speaker, after reading through this Budget Statement, I have tried very hard to be optimistic about what the future of our country is going to be. Especially, what benefit this Budget is going to give to the young growing person who is optimistic that in a futuristic thinking he or she will grow and work in this country and gain opportunities and compete efficiently with his or her counterparts elsewhere. I have found no such optimism in this Budget Statement.
    Mr Speaker, the reasons are that, when you look back at the past, promises made by this Government, the fact that they wanted to anchor their administration on the provision of jobs through to the development of the private sector when you compare exactly what is happening between the first time they took office and now, you would find that the optimism does not exist at all.
    I have taken note of the fact that the Minister for Finance has praised the Ministry and the Government for ensuring that it raised the largest Eurobond issuance to the tune of US$2 billion, indicating that it is a sign that the economy has exuded confidence in the international community. Again, he thought that it has the largest maturity period of 30 days and indeed has the lowest rates it has enjoyed.
    Mr Speaker, if you look at all these, including the huge loans that have being taken by this Government, what is their benefit to the young person? I look at it and feel sad for the young persons in this country. We promised them but we are failing them. We are taking consolation and comfort in the provision of jobs that still burden the Consolidated Fund.
    We are not creating jobs that can enable the young person develop himself and be able to transform the country as it is. No country has developed because the Government has given them temporary jobs just as it has done in this present situation.
    Mr Speaker, I am hinging this argument on the fact that if you look at paragraph 46, the Government gave financial clearance for the engagement of 88,719 people and it has again engaged about 100,000 young people in the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO). How are these jobs going to be a reflection of what they promised the young persons?
    Temporary solutions like creating jobs for them to only be exposed to earning something within a few years after which they go back to the same situation is to postpone the unemployment situation. We are saying that if the Government is serious, they should be more practical on job creation.
    They should go back to the fact that we would want to create an economy that is not basically primary but an economy that can be self-sustaining and an economy that would be based on private sector development.
    Mr Speaker, they made these promises and they are failing. It is only on consolation that they are going back to this situation to create government jobs for people they have sacked when they came into office.
    Mr Speaker, the reality is that we do not have a direct policy that can give practical results. Unemployment is gaping at everybody. Mark what happened when they were going to commission the 100,000 jobs. Young people flocked there in their numbers to revell. As if it was not enough, these were university graduates who have no jobs who have been promised and failed.
    Mr Speaker, the Youth Enterprise Agency programme is supposed to be one that could also create opportunities. We are told in this Budget that a certain number of young persons of about 99,000 have been engaged, and that the number would be increased to 106,000.
    What does the difference between 99,000 and 106,000 show? It shows that they are not going to exit anybody at all. If they are going to exit within the two years as speculated by the regulation or policy, are they going to employ another 99,000 people?

    It shows that they are only going to take about 7,000 people, because if after two years the programme exits the 99,000,
    Mr Speaker noon
    And in conclusion?
    Dr Pelpuo noon
    Mr Speaker, let me quote the Hon Finance Minister on paragraph
    52;
    “God has demonstrated countless times that He can use ordinary people, ordinary nations in ordinary times to do extraordinary things”.
    Mr Speaker, we are in extraordinary times. Everybody is crying. Nobody is happy in this country. We need an extraordinary situation that can address this situation. This Government is not the government that can address this exigency we are facing. We are suffering. The nation is in trouble. Students are crying; no accommodation.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker.
    Mr Speaker noon
    Hon Elvis Donkoh?
    Mr Elvis Morris Donkoh (NPP -- Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese) noon
    Thank you, Mr Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to support the Motion before the House to approve the Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana for the Year Ending 31st December, 2019.
    Mr Speaker, the only way to create a society of opportunity for the youth is to empower them to confront the challenges of a globally competitive world and at the same time realise the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations to guarantee access to education.

    A lot of Hon Members of Parliament took money from this MASLOC programme and they never paid. If they had paid these moneys -- If some of my Hon Colleagues on the other Side had paid these moneys, the MASLOC programme would have been working by now and we would have been able to support the young people by now.
    Mr Edward Abambire Bawa noon
    On a point of order. Mr Speaker, the Hon Member on his feet has made a statement that has scandalised every Member of Parliament.
    When you make a statement that Members of Parliament have taken loans from MASLOC without paying, you end up scandalising all those who call themselves Members of Parliament, so he should either give us proof that Members of Parliament actually accessed MASLOC loans and did not pay, or he should withdraw it.
    Mr Speaker noon
    Hon Member, you would withdraw that holistic statement.
    Mr Donkoh noon
    Mr Speaker, I said “some”.
    Mr Speaker noon
    Hon Member, you would withdraw.
    Mr Donkoh 12:10 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I withdraw.

    Mr Speaker, the Hon Member spoke about the youth being deceived by this Government. It is not true. The youth of this country actually voted massively against the NDC Government, because of how they deceived these young people.

    Mr Speaker, when we talk about employment, the Hon Member said we have not done anything about employment since we came to power.

    Mr Speaker, this is data from SSNIT, and I read from the Budget Statement, page 11, paragraph 45, with your permission it reads;

    “Mr. Speaker, our policies have improved the business environment and the private sector has responded by increasing jobs. Based on SSNIT data, the private sector added 208,620 formal jobs in the first 10 months of 2018...”

    So Mr Speaker, if he is saying Government policies have not done anything to create jobs for young people, I beg to differ.

    Mr Speaker, the only way for a society to create opportunities for young people is through education. That is what the NPP Government is doing. Let me talk about youth development.

    If you are talking about youth development and you do not talk about education, then it is zero, you have not done anything. Within the Budget -- Most of our young people at the senior high school level were not able to go to senior high school, and my Hon Colleagues on the other Side always talked about the NPP's SHS Free Education Policy, but Mr Speaker, what is more an achievement than this Free SHS Education Policy?

    In 2017, the Free SHS Education Policy got the youth to go into senior high schools. The number was 361,771, and in 2018, we added to it and the number became 490,882. That is an increment of 38 per cent from 2017 to 2018.

    Mr Speaker, we need to commend the President for doing this for our future leaders. What is more opportune to these young people than education?

    Mr Speaker, when we talk of youth development, we can never ever talk of it without talking about education and employment. Mr Speaker, Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) alone created jobs for 100,000 young people. Youth in Afforestation alone also created jobs for 55,000 young people.

    Mr Speaker, this year, this Government employed 2,700 extension officers. With the double track system, this Government employed 8,872 teachers. For pre-tertiary teaching and non-teaching staff, this year alone, we recruited 19,650. Mr Speaker, they can crosscheck for this in paragraph 820 of the Budget Statement.

    Mr Speaker, as I talk to you, we have our young people at the Winneba Sports College undergoing training in Youth in Sports. After the training, they are going to be employed -- a whole 20,000 young people. Mr Speaker, when we talk of Youth in Arabic, we employed so many young people.

    Mr Speaker, in 2014 and 2015, if the NDC had created jobs for 200,000 people each year, we would have helped so many young people with employment but they deceived the young people of Ghana. They never created any opportunities for these young people.
    Mr Donkoh 12:10 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, our young people voted
    against the NDC Government because they did not help them in any way.
    Mr Speaker, at times our Hon Colleagues on the other Side do not really see the need for the allowances given to these students at the colleges of education and the nursing training colleges. These are young people most of whom would have sat at home if they did not get this help from the Government.

    Mr Speaker, I believe if our Brothers and Sisters on the other Side join us to approve this Budget Statement, it would go a long way to help the youth and also create more jobs for them.
    Mr Speaker 12:10 p.m.
    Conclusion?
    Mr Donkoh 12:10 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I would advocate that the Ministry be separated into Ministry of Youth and Ministry of Sports. When we talk of youth development, it cuts across every sector of the economy. When we talk about health, employment and education, we have the youth almost in every sector.
    Mr Speaker, my advocacy is to separate the Ministry into Ministry of Youth and Ministry of Sports, respectively. Mr Speaker, I believe if we are able to do this, the youth of this country would actually achieve so much and have better future.
    Dr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije (NDC -- Ablekuma South) 12:10 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Motion ably moved by the Hon Minister for Finance.
    Mr Speaker, when one talks about youth and sports, we can look at the youth development aspect and in doing so three areas quickly come to mind -- employment and education of the youth and participation and involvement of our youth in sports.
    Mr Speaker, when we look at these areas, the evidence exists for everybody to see. We can come here and quote figures but the reality is on each of our streets in our constituencies. We have our youth who are heavily unemployed.
    Let us classify our youth. The youth of this country can be classified into those who have dropped out of school. We have several and so many of our youth who cannot go through our educational system. Today, when we go to our communities, we can see our youth sitting down at street corners. Mr Speaker, they have no programme to pursue development of their lives or get employment.
    Mr Speaker, I am talking about the need for us as a nation and Government to put the resources together to engage our youth, so many of them have dropped out of school over the years. We need to come out with a comprehensive pro- gramme at our various constituencies and regions to make them employable. Mr Speaker, that is what I advocate for.
    Secondly, what about the ones who have also completed their formal education at whatever level and have acquired the necessary foundation and
    knowledge to be employed? Mr Speaker, once again, we can come here and quote figures, but the reality is in our communities and we all know that several of our youth have no employment.
    Mr Speaker, the fact that we open employment for 1,000 or 3,000 people to receive entrepreneurship is nothing to write home about. [Interruption.] Hon Members, let us get serious with our youth and come up with innovative and creative ideas.
    Some Hon Members 12:10 p.m.
    Like what?
    Dr Vanderpuije 12:20 p.m.
    I will answer you. If we want to really create opportunities for entrepreneurial development for the youth, then we should get serious. This is because each one of us as Hon Members of Parliament in our own constituencies can establish training centres and engage our young people in youth development and we will do better.
    We must shoulder the responsibilities; that is what I am saying, and complement it with that of the Government to create more opportunities for our youth.
    Let us not come here and shout at each other. Let us get serious. That is what I am saying. We can do it. This is not about politics or NDC or NPP. This is about the call for our youth who suffer every day. Let us rise to the occasion and we can provide quality education.
    Mr Speaker, let me digress to the education sector for our youth. Nobody has said that free SHS programme is bad. What we said is that let us put quality into its delivery. Which one of us sitting here would really accept our children today to get education of 40 days and come and sit home for 40 days? Please, let us get
    serious. That is the reality on the ground and the parents do not like it.
    Mr Speaker, I have parents in my constituency and around my residence, who come to me every morning and evening saying, “Mayor, me ba no, yese he should go to this area. When I went there, there was no boarding facility for him or her so help me to get him a school.”

    Mr Speaker, I have taken wards to Ebenezer Senior High School and Holy Trinity Catholic Senior High School (HOTCASS) to make sure that we can give them education in the city of Accra because the parents cannot find realistic accommodation for them outside Accra.

    So I am saying that let us put quality into the delivery of the “Free SHS”. We are all available to give ideas to make it work for the children of this country.

    When we talk about infrastructure, yes, infrastructure is important but when we are not ready, we could do something better than wait till we build the infrastructure when we have started the ‘Free SHS'.

    I could give you a practical example. When I was the Mayor of Accra, I decided to end the ‘shift system', I built temporary structures. It took me three months but I built temporary structures and then said, let us end the ‘shift system'.

    Then, after building the temporary structures, I said, let us build the Millennium City Schools. We could build the temporary structures in all of our areas. We could do it as a nation and we must do it as a nation.
    Mr Speaker 12:20 p.m.
    And in conclusion?
    Dr Vanderpuije 12:20 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker.
    The development of the youth comes from what we do in our communities. Tell me of the communities which we live in today, which one of them has youth and sports development? The coasts are gone; the youth group sporting activities are gone. Let us go back to those days.
    Then, in our schools, where is it? No funding. They are always coming to the MP's office saying, “Please, come and support this and that”.
    My Brothers and Sisters, I am saying that we can do it right so let us do it right.
    Thank you.
    Mr Speaker 12:20 p.m.
    Thank you very much, Hon Member.
    Hon Afeku?
    Mrs Catherine Abelema Afeku (NPP- -Evalue Ajomoro Gwira) 12:20 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the debate.
    Mr Speaker, before I go on to my submission which is on Sports, Culture and Tourism, I would like to make a quick rebuttal on my Hon Colleague, Dr Vanderpuije's submission. We need to remind ourselves that in this country, we had quality education when we were writing the General Certificate of Examination (GCE) Advanced Level (A' Level) and Ordinary Level (O' Level) and his Government reversed that, moved it back to three years and we had a lot of space to accommodate our students.
    Our Government came up with this innovative and long-lasting, life-changing policy of Free SHS Education and the traffic into schools is phenomenal. As he rightfully said, as a Mayor, when he had a crisis, he dealt with it innovatively and that is exactly what this Government is doing. No child would be left behind.
    Hon Member, “free SHS” is here to stay. It is the first time I hear their Side say they are not against it; we have had a lot of setbacks from the stock of their Side. So it is gratifying to hear that they support it. But let there be no mistake, the buildings are full because families and parents support “Free SHS”.
    Recently in this very Chamber, we approved US$1.3billion securitising Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to fulfil the short gap of the accom- modation problems. So please, support the “Free SHS” so that the youth would have the requisite skills to create the jobs they deserve themselves.
    Mr Speaker, on entrepreneurship, this Government has done the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP). A US$100,000 was given to our youth for entrepreneurship. We are the first Government in the history of this country to have a portfolio called the “Ministry of Business Development”. Enough said on that.

    Mr Speaker, I am very happy that this year, culture, sports and tourism have been given the pride of place. And I would like to quickly go through some of the highlights of our sector and what we have with culture.

    Our pride as a nation is in our culture and the first Gentleman has exemplified that,as a nation, we could use our own textile to send a message to the globe that if you “wear Ghana”, you create a rippling effect in the fashion industry. It is part of our culture; it shows that we could resuscitate factories that were collapsed under a certain regime.

    We could build our own economy using our own local materials and promote made-in-Ghana. Now, just “the wear Ghana on Friday” has been changed into “wear Ghana every day”. And as part of our campaign to promote culture, we are aggressively pushing “Eat Ghana” so that the farmers, through the Planting for Food and Jobs, would have bumper harvest; their foods would be served in the hotels. It is part of our culture.

    Mr Speaker, one of the worrisome things we noticed is, as a people, we tend to have too much love for foreign things than we have for our own. And we would use this big platform to tell the hospitality sector to promote Ghanaian

    cuisine in their entities. Yes, they could do the potatoes, which we could grow here in good temperature, but they could do mashed yam, mashed cocoyam and mashed plantain and it would serve the same purpose and become a culinary delight promoting our culture.

    Mr Speaker, in this Budget, we laid a lot of emphasis on core cultural activities and festivals. Every region has more than five or six festivals and we are re-focussing on at least, three per region so it would place emphasis on bringing in tourists to experience our cultural festivals.

    The major ones that we know and listed are the following:

    when we start from the North, Damba, Fire Festival; when we come to the Middle Belt, Kirube Appo; and to the Ashanti Region, we have Akwasidae. In the Central Region, we are focusing on Bakatue Afahye; and when we go to the Western Region, we have Kundum.

    We would have a festival calendar for visitors within the country to promote domestic tourism. We could visit and participate in these festivals and have that sense of pride and belonging when we celebrate with other cultural places in the country.

    Mr Speaker, the other one is the new cultural phenomenon. This year alone, we supported the “Charlie Wote Festival”, something really major on our calendar that we entreat every Ghanaian to support when you are in the capital Accra during the season.

    Mr Speaker, the film industry is a very big avenue to show our culture. The International Black Stars Film Festival was also supported this year by our sector to use films as a mode of communicating our culture. When we show the warriors of the past in a film, it teaches us that we are a people with culture and heritage.
    Mrs Afeku 12:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, would you please put this young man to order? His festival is on the list.
    Mr Speaker, the festival that we are focusing on is the ‘‘Food Festival''. This year alone, the Emancipation that we had in the Central Region, we invited our counterparts from the West African region to join the food festival.
    Of course, we settled the jollof debacle; Ghanaian jollof is better than the Nigerian jollof. But that was part of the festival to showcase the indigenous food, not the processed food. Indigenous-akyeke, epiti, borbor and local dishes that have nutritional value that we are losing gradually to the fight against fast food.
    Mr Speaker, our chocolate is one of the best when it comes to nutrition and its health benefits. So in February, as our predecessors, the late Jake Otanka Obetsebi Lamptey initiated as an alternative to Valentine's Day, we did the ‘‘Eat Chocolate, Eat Ghana''. For the last two years that this Ministry has been revitalised by His Excellency, we shared the chocolate at the airport.

    So, it is something that is becoming a mainstay on the 14th of February where every visitor who steps out of the plane into our country is given GoldenTree Chocolate. That is also part of branding our chocolate.

    Mr Speaker, my Friend, the Hon Pelpuo not too long ago, said in this Chamber that if the youth did not have jobs, they
    rose
    Mrs Afeku 12:30 p.m.
    He has forgotten. He said
    Mr Speaker 12:30 p.m.
    Order! Order!
    Hon Pelpuo?
    Alhaji Abdul-Rashid Hassan Pelpuo 12:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Minister has just -- I do not know whether to say she has told a lie. I have never, on this Floor, said what she said I have said.
    I am happy I have the opportunity to respond to this. I was on Joy FM Newsfile programme and an issue about unemployment came up. I quoted a business management specialist who said that anybody could work, including people who had no skill at all. If they were where they could find jobs, they could find themselves in those jobs.

    Mr Speaker, I was quoting somebody who said something; it was in response to the unemployment situation. So the Hon Minister should humbly withdraw and apologise to the House because it has never been said on this Floor. What was said outside was logical and I still stand by it.
    Mrs Afeku 12:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, whether it was this location or on Joy FM, there was a grass cutting comment that he made. I might have switched the location but it is emphatic that he said the solution to unemployment should be grass cutting.
    Mr Speaker, this Government has successfully launched NABCO of which 100,000 youth are part and would make a difference. I wanted to bring it to my sector, particularly youth development. Most of the time, the jobs we create in the creative and culture sector are undervalued and not brought into the mainstream.
    There are thousands of young creative people such as scriptwriters, bloggers, entertainers and disc jockeys. These are jobs but there is a stigma around this sector such that if you do these jobs, then it means, you are not qualified or intelligent.
    Mr Speaker, I would want to use your platform respectfully, to encourage our young people in the creative sector that they can make money with their talents. Bloggers and entertainers are paid very well and we are all here witnessing. On Forbes, they are listing the Sarkodies, Shatta Wales and Stonebwoys. They make money, so it is about time we supported the budgetary allocation that is earmarked in promoting culture.
    Mr Speaker 12:30 p.m.
    Thank you very much.
    Mrs Afeku 12:30 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker. [Hear! Hear!]
    Mr Speaker 12:30 p.m.
    We would move into the area of employment and labour.
    Could we start with Hon Kwabena Donkor? [Pause] That is the Minority Leadership's advice. Leadership, am I right?
    Mr Ahmed Ibrahim 12:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, if it is employment, then Hon Kwabena Donkor is the Ranking Member. My worry was that the Hon --
    Mr Speaker 12:30 p.m.
    Hon Member, if you start by telling me “ifs”, I do not accept it because it is written. What is written is written, so we shall not go into “ifs” and “buts”, as if to say I am introducing something new.
    Mr A. Ibrahim 12:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, with respect, what I was saying was that if you could remember, I was with you at the Speaker's Forum, so I was not here to compile the list. That is why I said that he is the Ranking Member for the Committee on Employment Social Welfare and State Enterprises, so if we are speaking on employment, he is the Ranking Member and the right person to start.
    Mr Speaker 12:30 p.m.
    Who is the Ranking Member for the Committee on Employment?
    Mr A. Ibrahim 12:30 p.m.
    The Ranking Member for the Committee on Employment is Hon Kwabena Donkor.
    Mr Speaker 12:30 p.m.
    Is it Hon Kwabena Donkor?
    Dr Kwabena Donkor (NDC -- Pru East) 12:30 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Economic Statement of this country.
    I would want to start off by saying that as a country we need a new narrative of development, a narrative that is based on nationalism and discipline. If we look at the last 50 years of our development history, every single developing country that has made real progress has done so based on nationalism, love for nation and discipline; discipline to implement agreed projects and Programmes and put the national agenda before anything else.
    It is in this light that I come to paragraph 335 of the Budget Statement. In paragraph 335 of the Budget Statement, the Hon Minister for Finance requested
    rose
    Mr Speaker 12:30 p.m.
    Hon Member, do you stand on a point of order?
    Mr Anim 12:30 p.m.
    Rightly so, Mr Speaker.
    Last week, we debated on energy. Today, we are debating on --
    Mr Speaker 12:30 p.m.
    Hon Member, you are out of order.
    Hon Member, please proceed.
    Dr Donkor 12:40 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, we say we have excess power for which the country is paying through the nose, yet three potlines of VALCO are idle for lack of power. If we are already paying for the excess power, what stops us from giving that excess power to VALCO at the 3.5 cents that they can afford so that, that money we are paying for excess band does not go down the drain?
    Mr Speaker, if there are three more pot lines which come on stream, the downstream effect of VALCO producing the five pots would be a major boost not only to the aluminium industry but to job creation. It is estimated that thousands of jobs downstream of VALCO suffer because they do not have enough ingots.
    Mr Speaker, the Budget Statement stated that only 122 out of 1,766 communities were connected to power in the last financial year. Mr Speaker, when we talk about job creation, we mean rural development. A number of people in my constituency, Pru East, would not move to the urban area in search of jobs if they have basic infrastructure to enable their small scale industries prosper.
    If we cannot provide electricity to rural communities, if we abysmally fail whereby out of 1,766, we are only able to connect 122, how do they create the jobs in rural communities? Are our policy or inaction encouraging the rural urban drift with its attendant unemployment and social challenges? I would want the Government
    to know that power is not only a social activity; it is an economic activity and we should improve on this abysmal performance in the last quarter of our financial year.
    Mr Speaker, in paragraph 20 of the Budget Statement, the Government talked about job creation, I have gone through the whole of the Budget Statement and have not seen anything of substance other than rhetoric. The 100,000 NABCO jobs are not permanent jobs; and we do not celebrate temporary jobs on the roof tops.
    In any case, the Youth Employment Agency already has facilities and in the last financial year, they employed over 99,000 people. Why do we create another bureaucracy only to create another set of temporary jobs? Could not the Youth Employment Agency be used to administer another module even if it is graduate module which would save huge administrative cost of setting up another bureaucracy?
    Mr Speaker, management includes efficiency effectiveness of body politics. Therefore the bureaucracy to support a 100,000 NABCO jobs could easily have been passed through the Youth Employment Agency which was established for the same purpose.
    Mr Speaker, I would want to encourage the Ghanaian State, which is led by the Government, to take a second look at creating temporary jobs and celebrating them as if they were permanent jobs.
    Mr Speaker, there is another angle that worries me. Within the last couple of months, there have been 2,000 Ghanaian workers with Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG) Security; the security firm that provides security services for the former banks is now loosing 2,000 Ghanaian full-
    rose
    - 12:40 p.m.

    Mr Speaker 12:40 p.m.
    Hon member, do you rise on a point of order?
    Mr Anyimadu-Antwi 12:40 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Member on the Floor is misleading the House to the extent that, he confuses ‘‘jobs'' and ‘‘employment''. He would want us to believe that the jobs which have been created look as if they are permanent jobs. Nobody had said that. When jobs are created they are from employment.
    The Hon Member must know the distinction.
    Mr Speaker, again, it is the vision of the President to --
    Mr Speaker 12:40 p.m.
    Hon Member, you may continue.
    Dr Donkor 12:40 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, at Rider Steel Company in Tema, another 400 full-time jobs are gone. Vodafone has also said that it would shed 1000 full-time jobs. Mr Speaker, with all these job losses, where is the economic expansion? Rebasing cannot make up for the absence of real economic expansion.
    Mr Speaker, paragraph 30 of the Budget Statement states that the Government has spent GH¢9.9 billion to rescue the seven banks. I am most surprised by this claim, because as I speak, the liquidator is still carrying out his work of liquidating and finds the assets of the banks.
    One of the liquidators, Pricewater House Coopers (PwC), has even gone to court to claim some money from previous shareholders, so how do we say we have spent GH¢9.9 billion? Is it equity infusion? If it is equity fusion, let us say so. If it is liquidity support from Bank of Ghana, if that is true, they should say so.
    Mr Speaker 12:40 p.m.
    Hon Member, in conclusion.
    Dr Donkor 12:40 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, please, I am the Hon Ranking Member and I have 15 minutes, unless --
    Mr Speaker 12:40 p.m.
    Hon Member, please conclude.
    Dr Donkor 12:40 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, in conclusion, paragraph 46 of the Budget Statement stated that financial clearance has been given for 88,709 jobs, but this cannot be new jobs. Have they told us how many people have retired from the public sector, so that we could net off if there has even been an addition?
    Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I would want to say that the employment situation of this country today is worse than it has been before.
    Mr Speaker I thank you -- [Hear! Hear!].
    Mr A. Ibrahim 12:40 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, unless my time is wrong, according to the time in front of my consul, the Hon Ranking Member who is supposed to speak for 15 minutes just spoke for 11 minutes 33 seconds.
    Mr Speaker 12:40 p.m.
    Hon Deputy Minority Whip, I am going by the list.
    Mr A. Ibrahim 12:40 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Member is the Hon Ranking Member of the Committee and the agreement was that, Hon Ranking Members would speak for 15 minutes.
    Mr Speaker 12:40 p.m.
    The Hon Ranking Member spoke from 12.35 p.m. to 12.50 p.m. I have got my time right and I write it all down.
    Mr A. Ibrahim 12:40 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, our timer must be corrected, otherwise we would give wrong time. This is because my timer indicated 11 minutes 33 seconds.
    ANNOUNCEMENTS 12:40 p.m.

    Mr Speaker 12:40 p.m.
    The Hon Majority Leader has an announcement to make with regard to the loss of our Hon Colleague, Hon Kyeremanteng Agyarko and thereafter the Hon First Deputy Speaker would take the Chair and in the course of the debate, Hon Okyere-Agyekum would contribute.
    Hon Majority Leader?
    Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 12:50 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity. I was minded to have a discussion with my Hon Colleague, the Hon Minority Leader on this. Unfortunately, because he is not in the Chamber, I related to the Hon Deputy Minority Whip.
    Mr Speaker, information coming from the family of our Hon Colleague, Hon Emmanuel Kyeremanteng Agyarko, who has suddenly transitioned is that the one-week celebration for him would be held on Wednesday, 28th November, 2018.
    Mr Speaker, there is going to be a very short church service to mark the event, which would be at the Presbyterian Church at Westlands, and it begins from 9 o'clock prompt to 10.00 a.m.
    The discussion that I had with Hon Colleagues is that in respect of that, we may accordingly Sit at 11.00 a.m. instead of 10.00 a.m. on that day. That is the communication that I wanted to share with my Hon Colleagues —
    Mr Speaker 12:50 p.m.
    At what time do we then Sit?
    Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 12:50 p.m.
    Mr Speaker 11.00 a.m. on Wednesday.
    Mr Speaker 12:50 p.m.
    Thank you very much.
    Mr Kofi Okyere-Agyekum — rose —
    Mr Speaker 12:50 p.m.
    Hon Member, are you on your feet?
    Mr Okyere-Agyekum 12:50 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, rightly so.
    I would want to continue with the debate.
    Mr Speaker 12:50 p.m.
    Very well.
    Please wait.
    Hon Majority Leader, is it an appropriate time for us to have a minute silence or we shall do so later after we have made our tributes?
    Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 12:50 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, there are two instances when minutes of silence are observed in respect of Hon Colleagues who might have transitioned. First, if the event happens when Parliament is Sitting, then we could do that on that same day.
    Alternatively, we could wait until the funeral preceding when tributes would be offered, and when tributes are made, then the minute silence would follow.
    Mr Speaker, what I do not really know is whether a minute silence was observed last week when the event happened. I was not here in Parliament.
    Mr A. Ibrahim 12:50 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I joined the Hon Majority and your good self to share our condolences with the family. Honestly, a minute silence was not observed last week. But the Hon Deputy Speaker, on your behalf, led a delegation to the family to just convey our condolences to them.
    It is only appropriate, as the Hon Majority Leader said, to observe the minute silence when a tribute is being read on his behalf, which we would certainly do prior to the funeral. I believe that would be the opportune time.
    Mr Speaker 12:50 p.m.
    Thank you very much. There is consensus on that matter.
    Hon Okyere-Agyekum, you may start, and in the process, the Hon First Deputy Speaker would take the Chair.
    MOTIONS 12:50 p.m.

  • [Continuation of debate from column 2616]
  • Mr Kofi Okyere-Agyekum (NPP — Fanteakwa South) 12:50 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Government's Budget Statement and Economic Policy.
    Mr Speaker, my Hon Senior Colleague from the other Side of the House talked about discipline, and I am glad to associate myself with him. I realised that, as a result of indiscipline, they had to go to International Monetary Fund (IMF) for policy credibility — [Hear! Hear!] — which in my view, is nothing more than policy discipline. And so I am happy that they have now seen the light.
    Mr Kofi Okyere-Agyekum (NPP — Fanteakwa South) 12:50 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, on the issue of temporary

    The important thing is that they are working, and at the end of the month, they are getting something in their pockets which was not in existance before. If the Hon Member calls it permanent or — If he likes, he should go and try and see if his people would withdraw from it because it is temporary.

    Mr Speaker, as a result of the good policies of the Government, which has resulted in the borrowing rate dropping from about 40 per cent to below 25 per cent, as a result of the removal of nuisance taxes which had hitherto worked against businesses, and more importantly, the availability of power at a reduced cost for the private sector to awaken and rekindle it again. In 2017, 197 jobs were created in the private sector, and this is stated in paragraph 45 of the Budget Statement.

    Mr Speaker, in paragraph 170 of the Budget Statement, there is evidence that 570 small dams will be constructed, and the process of construction has already begun. This will create jobs in the construction of the dam itself, and there would be food production as a result of the availability of water all-year-round.

    Not to talk about the food processing factories that would arise and the linkages that we would have with those who would be selling and distributing these items in the value chain. Lots of jobs would be created. Mr Speaker, Ghana is working again.

    Mr Speaker, last year, 277,000 farmers benefited from the Government's flagship programme of Planting for Food and Jobs. — [Interruption].
    An Hon Member 12:50 p.m.
    Source?
    Mr Okyere-Agyekum 1 p.m.
    If you want the source, look at paragraph 163 of the Budget Statement.
    Mr Speaker, this resulted in the growth of Agriculture, reversing the 3.5 per cent growth to 8.5 per cent in just a single year. This is phenomenal. In 2018, the programme has been uplifted to 500,000 farmers, and it is budgeted to reach one million farmers in 2019. I cannot imagine the excitement and jobs that would be created as a result of this activity.
    Mr Speaker, One District, One Factory (1D1F) — Paragraph 174 of the Budget Statement states that 79 factories would be created in nine regions, and they would be operational in nine regions of the country in 2019.
    Mr Speaker, this would create jobs that did not exist previously. Assuming these factories even employ 100 youth per factory, that would create 7,900 jobs in the factories themselves, not to talk of the forward and backwards linkages that would be created.
    Those who would be growing products to feed the factories would get markets, get jobs and employ people. Those who would be selling the products
    of the factory would get jobs and would be making money. Ghana is working again.

    Mr Speaker, just last Thursday, the President visited a beneficiary of 1D1F at the Akyem Oil Mills at Kade. This factory which had benefited from the 1D1F would employ 300 factory workers.

    In addition, the factory would engage 10,000 workers to work on the 25,000 acre plantation to feed the factory. That is at half capacity of the project. At full capacity, the factory would engage another 10,000 workers.

    This is exclusive of out-growers who would feed the factory. Jobs are being created by just one factory. When we multiply it by the fact that we are aiming at over 200 factories, we could imagine the impact of 1D1F on job creation. Mr Speaker, Ghana is working again.

    Finally, Mr Speaker, in the area of National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), I recall that in the election year of 2012, under the then Government, this House was presented with a list of 512,000 people on NYEP. In 2013, the figure reduced to zero; in 2014, the figure stayed at zero; in 2015, it stayed at zero; and in 2016 which was another election year, we were told that, about 52,000 people had been engaged in NYEP.

    Mr Speaker, I am happy to say that under the new Government of H.E. Nana Akufo-Addo, 40,000 people have been engaged in afforestation; 45,000 people remain engaged in sanitation; 15,000 people have been engaged as Community Policing Assistants; 1,200 people have been engaged in Youth in Agriculture; and 5,000 people have been engaged in

    Youth in sports. So within a period of 18 months, we have moved from 52,000 to 109,260. Mr Speaker, Ghana is working again.
    MR FIRST DEPUTY SPEAKER
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1 p.m.
    Hon Albert Akuka? [Interruption.]
    Yes?
    Mr Albert Akuka Alalzuuga (NDC-- Garu) 1 p.m.
    I thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government christened, “A Stronger Economy for Jobs and Prosperity”.
    Mr Speaker, our elders have a saying that, “If a plant would yield good fruits, one would see the appearance of it at the germination stage.” -- [Hear! Hear!] All the mantra about job creation from the beginning of 2017 up to date has featured in all Budget Statements. Clearly, I have not seen jobs created; I have seen massive job losses. [Hear! Hear!]
    Mr Speaker, I would not quote so many examples but a few. From paragraph 676 of the 2016 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government, we recruited through the NYEP module 96,100, and this is quoted by the Minister for Finance in the 2017 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government.
    rose
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1 p.m.
    Hon
    Member, hold on. Switch off your microphone, so that you do not lose time.
    Yes, Hon Member for Atwima Nwabiagya South?
    Mr Emmanuel Agyei Anhwere 1 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague from the other Side of the House is misleading the House. He said that there has not been any job creation. If for nothing at all, Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) has created 100,000 jobs. [Uproar]
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1 p.m.
    Hon Member, you are out of order!
    Hon Member, continue.
    Mr Alalzuuga 1 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, as I said, in 2016, the NDC Government recruited 96,100 people through NYEP using various modules and not 52,000 as my Hon Colleague on the other Side of the House just mentioned. [Interruption] This is in paragraph 676 of the 2016 Budget Statement and Economic Policy. Mr Speaker, this went up from 47,000 in 2015.
    Again, Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague mentioned that in 2015, there was no recruitment. That is false. He should go and check his facts very well.
    Mr Speaker, per the presentation of the 2017 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government by our Minister for Finance, he projected that the number of youth to be employed through the Youth Employment Agency would move from the 96,000 in 2016 to 115,000. But sadly, only 62,115 were engaged, bringing it to a shortfall of 52,805.
    That is the job creation they talked about in 2017. A lot of noise, mantra and singing were made about job creation by
    this Government and instead of creating jobs, they have failed to even meet the target that they have indicated.
    Mr Speaker, if we go to paragraph 645 of the 2018 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government, the Government, again, promised to move the recruitment of youth under the NYEP from 62,000 achieved in 2017 to 120,000. But sadly, at the end of the year, they could recruit only 99,038. This again is a failure to meet target. Mr Speaker, where is the job creation that they have promised our youth?
    Mr Speaker, based on this and many others, in 2019, the target that they have quoted for us in the Budget Statement and Economic Policy -- In paragraph 843, their target is to recruit 106,386 youth through the NYEP. As I said from the beginning, based on their beginnings and the failure of the Government to meet previous targets or promises, I can tell without mincing words that this would be a massive failure.
    Mr Speaker, I would want to touch a little on the 1D1F for the past two years. Using job creation as a main basis for this Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government, one could see clearly that the 1D1F has left my Region. Not even all applications from the Upper East Region, which is also my region, have been considered.
    Per the statement of the Hon Minister for Trade and Industry on the Floor here, in his response to the Question from the Hon Member for Bole, I am really sad that the youth of my region, who usually look for jobs that --
    rose
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:10 a.m.
    Hon Member, you should hold on. Switch off your microphone.
    Yes, Hon Member for Asante Akim Central?
    Mr Anyimadu-Antwi 1:10 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you.
    Mr Speaker, my Hon friend used a language that I believe is unparliamentary, by saying that the Government had made a lot of “noise” on recruitment. I respect my Hon friend very well; he is not somebody that normally such a language would come from. I pray that same be withdrawn and he apologise.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:10 a.m.
    Hon Member, did you use the word “noise”? If you did, then you should please withdraw.
    Mr Alalzuuga 1:10 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you very much.
    Mr Speaker, I do not remember, but if I said so, then I so withdraw. As I said early on, the 1D1F Programme is meant to create jobs for the youth of this country, but sadly, the Hon Minister for Trade and Industry said on the Floor of this Parliament that they have not been able to site one in my region -- the Upper East Region. I do not know whether the Government wants to imply that the youth in my region do not need jobs. This is something that is unacceptable, and so we would call on the Hon Minister to come again.
    Mr Speaker, paragraph 849 of the 2019 Budget Statement says, and with your indulgence I read; it says:
    “The Department of Factories Inspectorate (DFI) registered 300 new factories, inspected 1,700
    workplaces, conducted 40 industrial hygiene surveys and prosecuted four occupational safety and health offences”.
    Mr Speaker, I would want to say that these 300 factories do not include my region as indicated by the Hon Minister, and I believe that if the Hon Minister could come back again and convince the Hon Minister for Trade and Industry to include the Upper East Region, it would be good, because the youth of the Upper East equally need jobs.
    Mr Speaker, allow me to quote from an organisation called the Centre for Socio- Economic Studies (CSS). Their report this year indicates that in Ghana, about three million people have lost their job. It says that three million people lost their jobs between the period of 2017 and 2018.
    Mr Speaker, with all the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) and all the statements about job creations, this is the result they presented. Per the report of that organisation, Ghana has lost so many jobs.
    rose
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:10 a.m.
    Hon Member, you have one more minute. You should hold on. Switch off your microphone.
    Yes, Hon Minister for Employment and Labour Relations?
    Mr Baffour Awuah 1:10 a.m.
    Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
    Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague on the floor just alluded to a publication by a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) talking about three million job losses within the past two years. Indeed, I have read that publication, and officially, as a
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:10 a.m.
    Hon Member, you have one minute.
    Mr Alalzuuga 1:10 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you very much.
    Mr Speaker, I would want to assure the Hon Minister that as a member of his Committee, I would do anything to support his Ministry to create jobs, but if the facts speak and if there are reports in the system, then it is his duty, as an Hon Minister, to be able to clarify. So I would want to state again that per this report, it means that many more Ghanaian families are collapsing because of the loss of jobs.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:10 a.m.
    Hon Member, the Hon Minister says that they have not substantiated it. You have repeated it, but it is not substantiated. Just leave it at citing the source.
    Mr Alalzuuga 1:10 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, therefore on the fore going argument, I could say without mincing words that the current Government with this Budget Statement, which has the theme “a stronger economy for job creation”, is not anything, but a mere propaganda to Ghanaians.
    rose
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:10 a.m.
    Hon Member, are you debating today?
    Dr A. A. Osei 1:10 a.m.
    No, Mr Speaker, I needed to make a point of correction.
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Member is a good friend of mine, and I know that he did not mean what he said. He said that as a “member of the Hon Minister's Committee”…
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Minister does not have a Committee. It is rather the Rt Hon Speaker's Committee. So since he is a new Hon Member, I would just want to aid him to correct himself.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:10 a.m.
    Thank you for the information. Hon Members must note the appropriate terminology. So the Hon Member who just spoke should take this in his stripe.
    Hon Members, it is the turn of the Hon Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, the Hon Deputy Minister for Mines and Energy.
    rose
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:10 a.m.
    Yes, Hon Member?
    Mr A. Ibrahim 1:10 a.m.
    Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
    Mr Speaker, last week, you made a very strong appeal that, at least, one of the Hon Ministers for Finance should be here to take notice of whatever contributions Hon Members would make. Since we started, none of them has even appeared before the House and this is a very intensive week. We are concluding the debate this week.
    If they have not prepared to be here, then signal must be given to them that they must be here as we are contributing, so that they would take note of the contributions being made.
    This is not a Statement; this is the Government's Financial Policy for 2019, which is very important for all of us. We are making contributions and sensitive inputs, and I believe that it would be better that, at least, one of them is here.
    rose
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:10 a.m.
    Yes, Hon Leader?
    Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 1:10 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague, from where he is sitting, looks directly behind me, and he is aware that the Hon Deputy Minister for Finance, the Hon Kwaku Kwarteng just stepped out. He is aware so he should not make it appear as if nobody has been here.
    Mr Speaker, he has been here with us. I agree with him that it is important that we have them here; even if we have two of them here, it would serve this House very well. But to say that nobody has been here is incorrect.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:10 a.m.
    Very well, I am also advised that officials at the Ministry are in the Chamber and they are taking notes.
    Yes, Hon Barbara Oteng-Gyasi?
    Ms Barbara Oteng-Gyasi (NPP -- Prestea/Huni-Valley) 1:20 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the 2019 Budget Statement.
    Mr Speaker, unemployment has been a significant problem facing this country
    within the past decade, and this problem has escalated to the point that we had an association of unemployed graduates being formed.

    Mr Speaker, it is worth noting that employment underpins all the policies within the NPP manifesto -- One District, One Factory; Planting for Food and Jobs; Nation Builder's Corps (NABCO); One Village, One Dam; Afforestation, Diversification of our Mineral Resource Base and Planting for Export and Rural Development. All these policies are geared towards providing employment.

    Just to pick on a few, I would like to touch on the diversification of our mineral resource base and especially to speak to the bauxite industry. It has been the vision of many Governments till date to explore our mineral resources and to develop an integrated aluminium industry.

    During former President Kufuor's era, he spent a whooping amount of US$18million to acquire Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO). The next step was for us to ensure that we had a refinery within the country so that we could have an integrated industry.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:20 p.m.
    Hon Member, hold on.
    Mr Kpodo 1:20 p.m.
    On a point of order. [Interruption.]
    Mr Kpodo 1:20 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you. I just want to draw the Hon Member's attention -- Her office is located just opposite mine at Job 600. She is referring to One District, One Dam but what we know as a policy of the Government is, One Village, One Dam in the northern region. [Laughter.]
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:20 p.m.
    Hon Member, correct yourself and proceed.
    Mrs Oteng-Gyasi 1:20 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Develop- ment Corporation Bill is going to ensure effective management of our bauxite resources and to ensure that the country has an integrated aluminium value chain which will create over 100,000 direct and indirect jobs. [Hear! Hear!]

    I would also like to touch on the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC). We know that the Government of His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo is noted for social interventions.

    This social intervention was established by His Excellency, former President Kufuor and it made great impact on our economy, especially for our women who had difficulty in accessing funds for their businesses. Through this facility, they were able to access funds to grow their businesses.

    Mr Speaker, within the past 10 years, this facility has been so mismanaged that a loan recovery analysis done by the Centre as at the year 2016 indicates that the special project financing extended about GH¢87.7 million but the recovery rate to date is approximately 30.6 per cent.

    It is for this reason that we have been unable to disburse much funds to those who really need this facility for their businesses in order to significantly impact on the economy.

    We want to assure the teeming informal sector workers that the Government is dedicated to recovering these funds and also adding more funds to the Centre in order to facilitate their activities.

    I will also encourage the Centre in the disbursement of this facility to ensure, as the President has indicated, that the significant proportion will go to our women folk and not to our Hon Members of Parliament.

    This will indeed create many more indirect jobs and benefit households and the entire society by financially empowering women in the local income sphere which is widely acknowledged and is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

    Mr Speaker, I would also like to turn to the textile industry. The textile industry which was a major employer has virtually collapsed and if I may read with your permission, from paragraph 595 of the 2019 Budget Statement which states:

    “Mr Speaker, the unfair trade practices in the textile sector has literally collapsed local manufac- turing companies leading to a significant reduction in the number of employees in the sector from a record high of 30,000 in the early 90's to a current level of less than

    5,000.”

    Mr Speaker, faced with the challenges of the sector, what has been done within the past 10 years to address this? During the period of ex-President Kufuor, he introduced the Presidential Special Initiative on garments and textiles.

    We had a garment enclave which supported companies to set up and export to departmental stores outside the country and we gained foreign exchange. What has happened to these companies and all the support to that sector has dwindled?

    Mr Speaker, the current Administration is dedicated to revamping this sector to ensure that it takes back its pride of place and to provide the employment that our masses need. It is for this reason that His Excellency the President decided to support the Akosombo Textiles Limited (ATL) in order for it not to collapse.

    One of such companies which was doing well and exporting to international departmental stores but collapsed was the Premier Quality Limited. We have to support the sector to take back its pride of place.

    Mr Speaker, within the past two years of this Administration, a lot has been done to deal with the situation to ensure that the sector takes its rightful place. If I may read paragraph 597, some of the actions that have been taken by the Ministry of Trade and Industry are:

    “The introduction of Tax Stamps for locally manufactured as well as imported textiles;

    The introduction of a Single Dedicated Entry Corridor for imported textile products;

    The implementation of a Textile Import Management System to coordinate all imports of textiles, including the vetting of designs and logos;

    Providing support and incentives to local manufacturers to improve their competitiveness;”

    Mr Speaker, we all realised what this sector can contribute to the economy and we need to support it. This is because it can provide a lot of employment; and as the Hon Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture indicated, we could support the project they are spearheading called “Wear Ghana”.

    We can all support our local manufacturers by always wearing our local textiles and through this, we could support a garment industry to undertake export to the international market to generate the foreign exchange that we so badly need.

    Mr Speaker, --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:20 p.m.
    You have one minute.
    Mrs Oteng-Gyasi 1:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, just to briefly touch on Planting for Rural Export and Rural Development.
    Mr Speaker, this is also a very important policy by the Government of Ghana which is being spearheaded by the Ghana Exports and Promotion Centre. We all know that we need the foreign exchange and people in the rural areas are mainly engaged in agriculture.
    If we could support them with these seedlings so that they could undertake the planting of pineapples, coconut, cashew and palm seedlings because they could all be exported.
    Therefore I would want to commend His Excellency, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the Planting for Export and Rural Development because it is a two-pronged activity which would generate foreign exchange as well as provide employment for our teeming youth and the rural folk.
    Mr Speaker, this is a Budget Statement that is worth supporting, so both Sides of the House should support it and ensure its implementation to a successful end.
    Mr Speaker, thank you.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:30 p.m.
    Hon Member for Keta?
    Mr Richard Mawuli K. Quashigah (NDC -- Keta) 1:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Budget Statement for 2019 under the theme “A Stronger Economy for Jobs and Prosperity.”
    Mr Speaker, it is very refreshing to note that when this Government took over, the first Budget Statement that was presented
    in 2017 gave us lots of assurances and hope and it was under the theme “Sowing the Seeds for Growth and Jobs.”
    Mr Speaker, the expectation was that, having sown the seed then, by this time the seeds should have germinated and borne fruits for the people of Ghana to enjoy.
    In spite of the challenges that bedevilled the realisation of these seeds that were sown by the Government -- Apparently, it appeared there was drought throughout so most of the seeds could not germinate, but they decided in the 2018 Budget Statement to put “Ghana Back to Work” because the earlier intentions did not work.
    Mr Speaker, if indeed, Ghana was put back to work then we must not have had the numerous challenges that the economy suffered a few months ago. Mr Speaker, we know that the spare parts dealers in Abossey Okai and other areas generate jobs through the activities that they undertake.
    But these are people who are saying that their businesses are collapsing under the leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who promised that he would create jobs for the young people of these country and also create the enabling environment for jobs to be generated because it was the fulcrum to ensure that this nation would not collapse.
    Mr Speaker, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo told us in this Chamber that obviously unemployment is becoming the root of chaos in this country and for this country to collapse, he was going to create the jobs, but today we are being told by experts and technical people, people in our society that close to three million people have lost their jobs.
    Mr Speaker, meanwhile the Government is also telling us another story that they have created over one million jobs. If three million jobs have been lost, but they have created one million jobs then have we gone or we have come”?
    rose
    - 1:30 p.m.

    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:30 p.m.
    Hon Minister for Employment and Labour Relations?
    Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah 1:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you.
    My good friend, Hon Quashigah, has just alluded to experts who have come out with figures that three million jobs have been lost. Indeed, he did not mention the names of those experts and I thought that being diligent enough, he would be able to mention their names.
    Mr Speaker, early on, an Hon Member who contributed actually alluded to the same three million and I refuted it. So I am surprised that my Hon Colleague is going back to that same record.
    Mr Speaker, I would want to say that we have officially challenged the group that did that work and they have not come back so I do not want us to use their record as an official record so far as they have not substantiated that particular work.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:30 p.m.
    Hon Minister, the Hon Member has not mentioned that record. If he mentioned that source then the ruling I made would apply.
    Hon Quashigah, would you provide your source?
    Mr Quashigah 1:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, yes. Obviously, the Centre for Socio-Economic Studies (CSS) is one of those institutions which actually have experts on employment issues in this country.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:30 p.m.
    Is it the same source earlier cited by the Hon Member?
    Mr Quashigah 1:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, rightly so.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:30 p.m.
    Very well.
    Since the Hon Minister said that they have officially challenged their figures, the only official source for these figures would be from the Ghana Statistical Service. If any institution brings out anything and the government challenges them with a different record but there has not been any response, then we should move away from citing that institution to make our arguments.
    Alhaji I.A.B. Fuseini 1:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Minister has challenged some facts and Mr Speaker has given an indication and I am happy that you are presiding.
    Mr Speaker, if a fact or allegation has been made or somebody asserts --
    Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 1:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, it is not an allegation.
    Alhaji I.A.B. Fuseini 1:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, could that statement made by the Hon Member who is contributing on the Floor of the House be traversed without more -- Without saying that the facts are by the statement of government policy captured in this report then this is the true and accurate fact.
    Mr Osei-Kyei-Mensah 1:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I believe that we should get the facts right. Firstly, an allegation has been made by a group without providing statistics about where the so called three million people were working and the jobs that they have lost.
    The Hon Minister then challenges that they should produce the source, but they are unable to do that. Then an Hon Member quotes the very source that the Ministry has challenged and the people are unable to --- Mr Speaker, that cannot be entertained in this House.
    Mr Speaker, in any event you had already ruled on this matter and so he cannot resurrect a matter on which a ruling has been given when he is not capable of generating the facts. In any event he attributed that publication to experts.
    Mr Speaker, who are those experts? Who qualifies to be an expert in this? The official source that this country takes records from is the Ghana Statistical Service, but they too have challenged the figures and the people have not come out and he comes to inundate this House with mere allegations.
    Mr Speaker, I believe that you should rule on this and put this matter to rest. It cannot have any space in this House or on our records.
    Alhaji I.A.B. Fuseini 1:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I just want to seek your guidance. Yes, the CSS -- [Interruption]. It does not matter. They have conducted a research and they have made their findings available, but it is a research which has been conducted by

    Mr Speaker, I was just seeking your guidance because this is a House of debates in the first place. That is why we are here. We are here to debate Government's policy. And in debating Government's policy, any Hon Member who has reasons to believe that one is not being accurate with the facts can raise an issue on it but he cannot just raise any issue and sit back.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:40 p.m.
    Hon Member, kindly address me.
    Hon Members, the ruling I made earlier stands. That alleged report has been challenged officially by the Ghana Statistical Service, and they should provide the evidence. So far, we do not have the evidence.
    Hon Member, please, move away from that and give your opinion.
    Mr Quashigah 1:40 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker. I appreciate your ruling, but to state that I would have provided a breakdown of the figures of the CSS Report --
    Mr Speaker, in this country, just recently and not too long ago in this very year, the figure of 745,000 jobs under the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme was dangled before us. It was challenged by experts within the agricultural sector but Government decided to stick to that.
    Mr Speaker, we were in this country when the then running mate, now the Vice President, challenged the Ghana Statistical Service with their figures. If we are talking about credibility of figures, I think my Hon Friends on the other Side are guilty than we are.
    More so, we are not saying these are figures that were generated by us. These were figures generated by a tink tank, people who are made up of experts.
    I would neithger allow nor permit the Hon Majority Leader 's tricks of intimidation to intimidate me in this House.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:40 p.m.
    Hon Member, firstly, the attack on the Hon Majority Leader is most unparliamentary, and you would withdraw that. Secondly, figures on the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme were provided in this House and in this Chamber by the Hon Minister. I recall you asked the Question. I admitted the Question and the Hon Minister came to provide the Answer.
    The other one you referred to as regards the running mate, if you brought the information here, he would have been required to provide the figures. That is the rule in this House. So if you do not provide your source which is credible, I will disallow it.
    Hon Member, please proceed without referring to that.
    Mr Quashigah 1:40 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity.
    Mr Speaker, it is interesting that President Nana Akufo-Addo in one of his addresses refigured the 145,000 jobs that were touted by his Ministers as jobs that have been created in this country. He mentioned 200,000 jobs.
    Mr Speaker, to deal with unemployment in this country, we need credible data on the number of people who are not employed. President Nana Akufo-Addo earlier promised that in March this year, he was going to furnish the people of Ghana with the list of unemployed people and the number of jobs that have been created. Up till today, we are still waiting for President Nana Akufo-Addo to give us those details.
    Mr Speaker, now, let us look at the 2017 Budget Statement that was presented in this House. It indicated to us that jobs would be created in various areas. For instance, on page 648 of the 2018 Budget Statement, they said and I beg to quote:
    “In 2018, the Ministry will collaborate with stakeholders to develop specific programmes and projects in the areas of Agri- business, Green Jobs, Industrial Parks, Business Incubation, ICT, Apprenticeship and Skills De- velopment. These interventions are expected to generate 65,000 job opportunities for the Youth.”

    Mr Speaker, again, we were told that 250,000 jobs were going to be created under the One District, One Factory Programme according to the 2017 Budget Statement.

    As we sit today, nothing is being said about the 250,000 jobs to be created under the One District, One Factory Programme just because we have come to a standstill; the programme is suffering a malice. That
    Mr Quashigah 1:40 p.m.
    particular programme has become so lame that it has collapsed like a pack of cards.
    Mr Speaker, where we are currently, we are being told that only 18 entities have been accredited. What is the meaning of accreditation? It means that nothing has even started. No job created as far as that programme is concerned.
    All the programmes that President Nana Akufo- Addo talked about which were presented to us by the Minister for Finance in this House have collapsed. We were told that the Youth Enterprise Programme was going to generate 118,000 jobs. Where are the jobs?

    Mr Speaker, when it comes to Youth Employment Agency, before the National Democratic Congress (NDC) left office, which was expressly pronounced and talked about by the Minister for Finance, Hon Ken Ofori Atta, in this House, the National Youth Agency, under the current Hon Minority Leader, the indefatigable Hon Haruna Iddrisu, generated 96,000 jobs under the Youth Employment Agency.

    Today, we are talking about a paltry 90,000 jobs which fell short of 6,000 jobs two years on. What jobs are they creating?

    It is becoming so disappointing that every Ghanaian is crying. Every Ghanaian is calling for the NDC Government to come back -- [Hear! Hear!] -- to actually address the challenges that have befallen this nation.

    Mr Speaker, it is obvious that our Government under President Nana Akufo Addo having demonstrated by rhetoric works, that he is the man who has the capacity and the men and would be able to deliver Ghana. They promised us a paradise. What are we experiencing today?

    Mr Speaker, today, when you go to the entities we have, the banking sector has totally collapsed. Several jobs have been lost in the banking sector; thousands of jobs.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:40 p.m.
    You have one minute more.
    Mr Quashigah 1:40 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, even today, the press corps that we have in this Chamber are all complaining because a number of them do not know whether they can have their jobs tomorrow. When you take TV3, for instance, 100 workers have already been sacked; when you go to Star FM, a number of people have been sacked.
    Even the establishment of a very good friend of this Government, Dr Mensah Otabil, is suffering; he is already complaining because his establishments are collapsing and he has been forced to lay off some of his teachers, lecturers at the University. He does not even know whether the University would continue to exist because his own friends are coming after him. They are collapsing his businesses.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:40 p.m.
    Hon Yiadom-Boachie?
    Mr Henry Yeboah Yiadom-Boachie (NPP -- Techiman South) 1:50 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you very much for this opportunity
    to debate on the Motion, the Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana for the year ending 31st December, 2019.

    Mr Speaker, my debate will mainly centre on job opportunities and social interventions created by the NPP which is led by His Excellency, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

    Mr Speaker, I would like to address one or two issues raised by our Hon Colleagues on the other Side.

    Our Hon Colleagues talked about temporary jobs we claim we have given to young people, and also the fact that the jobs are not sustainable. But I would like to find out from them how many permanent jobs they created for the period of eight years that they were in office?

    Mr Speaker, during that period, we had nurses and health professionals who were at home after their studies. There were no jobs for them. There were teachers who could not get jobs to do. There were thousands of unemployed graduates out of which we had the Unemployed Graduates Association of Ghana for the first time in the history of Ghana. They could neither create a single permanent job nor could they create even a temporary one.

    Mr Speaker, if you look at article 24 (1) of the 1992 Constitution, it accords every citizen of Ghana the right to work and earn compensation. It states and I beg to quote:

    “Every person has the right to work under satisfactory, safe and healthy conditions, and shall receive equal pay for equal work without distinction of any kind”.

    Mr Speaker, the NPP Manifesto in 2016 had the theme “Change, an Agenda for Jobs; Creating Prosperity and Equal Opportunity for All”, building on the reaching social interventions that His Excellency, President Kufuor's Adminis- tration left in the areas of National Youth Employment, National Health Insurance Scheme, Free Maternal Care, Micro- Finance and Small Loan Centre, Mass Cocoa Spraying, Metro Mass Transit, Limited Ghana School Feeding Programme et cetera.

    All these are social intervention programmes, but let us find out from our Hon Colleagues on the other Side if they can mention just one or two social interventions that they brought during their time; not even one.

    Mr Speaker, having addressed the mess caused by the previous Administration, it is now time for the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's Government to build a stronger economy for jobs and prosperity for all.

    Mr Speaker, the 2019 Budget Statement and Economic Policy places more emphasis on creating jobs, thereby fulfilling the manifesto promise of agenda for jobs.

    The NPP Government led by His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo and through his creativity and competence addresses the issue of unemployment from the perspective of social intervention to eradicate or reduce poverty.

    Mr Speaker, I did a little research to find out what constitutes social intervention, and with your permission I would just like to quote what I found;

    “Social interventions are programmes and activities initiated and implemented by governments, social agencies or volunteers with
    Mr Quashigah 1:50 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague on the other Side said that in 2016, 47,000 jobs were created.
    Mr Speaker, that was in 2015. The Report is here. It is captured in the Budget Statement and Economic Policy for 2016. In 2015, 47,000 jobs were created under YEA, and in 2016 --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:50 p.m.
    Hon Member, that is exactly what he said. You may not have paid attention.
    Mr Quashigah 1:50 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, he said
    2016.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:50 p.m.
    Hon Members, having regard to the state of business, I direct that the House Sits outside the regular Sitting hours.
    Hon Member, you would please continue.
    Mr Yiadom-Boachie 1:50 p.m.
    Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
    Mr Speaker, I said in 2015 47,000 YEA jobs were created by their Administration.
    MR Speaker, I earlier said that we were all in this country when we had Unemployed Graduates Association of Ghana, and all kinds of associations of the unemployed. With the competence of His Excellency, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his team, we are talking of 100,000 jobs for these unemployed graduates, and our brothers are claiming that that is temporary jobs.
    If these 100,000 young people had not gotten that opportunity, could we imagine the future consequences in terms of social and other vices that we can think of and the security of the country? But during their time, they could not give the young people this opportunity.
    Mr Speaker, it is estimated that an amount of GH¢ 840 million would be provided annually to these nation builders, and a sum of GH¢2. 52 billion would be paid to the NABCo for the entire three-year contract.
    Mr Speaker, creativity is very crucial in governance. In other words, thinking outside the box is so important. That is why His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in his own wisdom brought this Free Senior High Education Policy, which also brought what we call the double-track system that has made available the employment of 8,872 teachers who have been deployed to the various Senior High Schools.
    Meanwhile, in the second and third term of the 2017/2018 academic year, a number of teachers and non-teaching --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:50 p.m.
    Hon Member, you have one more minute.
    Mr Yiadom-Boachie 2 p.m.
    A number of teachers and non-teaching staff were employed, that is 19,650.
    Mr Speaker, the question posed by H. E. the Vice President still remains when we talk of social intervention; they should still give us one or two social interventions that they did.
    Mr Speaker, looking at the School Feeding Programme, before the NDC left Office, they had provided a hot meal for 1,681,570 pupils in basic schools. They left a debt.
    Mr Daniel Kwesi Ashiamah (NDC -- Buem) 2 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Motion moved by the Hon Minister for Finance for the approval of the 2019 Budget Statement. Mr Speaker, in doing so, I would like to focus on the communications sector and then move out a bit to look at areas that would serve the interest of this debate.
    Mr Speaker, taking the 2019 Budget Statement into consideration, I am a bit sad, especially so at the communication budget that is in the 2018 Budget Statement.
    Even though there are some good things like the road that is to be constructed from Hohoe by Kute-Ayoma in my constituency, I am also very dissatisfied to look at the road that comes
    from Jasikan to Dodopepesu to Nkwanta. That was mentioned in the Mid-Year Budget Review only for this Budget Statement to cut the 110 kilometres to 56 kilometres.
    The reason is that the Dodopepesu- Nkwanta Road was the one Mahama's Government constructed but it was actually captured in the Mid-Year Budget Review on page 41 and I ask why that is so?
    Mr Speaker, we have approved the Mid-Year Budget Statement, so where is that money? We approved it in this House so we must know where that money went. I am sure in the latter days, the Hon Minister for Roads and Highways would tell us because the issue about the Ford Expedition was a major case in this country towards the 2016 election.
    But that very road has been captured, that the NPP Government would construct it. Now, they have taken it out. They should come and explain it to the House and I would be very happy with them.
    Mr Speaker, the Ministry of Communications hosts a lot of Agencies. In my view, for this country to develop, the major stakeholder is the Ministry of Communications. If we want to expand this country in terms of job creation and employment, it is this Ministry that may take the lead in doing so.
    Unfortunately, as I said earlier, what we need to really expand this economy for is to enhance sole proprietorship business to thrive to make sure that the whole nation is under internet architecture.
    That is to say that starting with former President John Dramani Mahama, where he started with the laying of 780 kilometres fibre optic from Bawku to Ho and as the Hon Minister did in 2018, I expected it to continue from Ho to Accra.
    Mr Daniel Kwesi Ashiamah (NDC -- Buem) 2:10 p.m.
    Well, it could be that they would do the aerial one but whether aerial or underground, the nation needs to be under internet architecture and when that happens, it opens up the economy to create jobs for our brothers and sisters.
    For example, if the internet is in my village, a lot of businesses like internet cafes could be set up which would be in all corners of this country. We may also talk about the communication centres as we have started but those ones were started in the big towns leaving the villages.
    Every part of this country counts in terms of development because the money Government gets is to be distributed fairly to every part of this country; but that has not happened.
    We can also move on to create businesses, or people in the rural areas can talk of mobile money business. Mr Speaker, as we sit here today, all that we do is just to focus on the big towns -- Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, Cape Coast, Ho and Tamale. Are villages in this country not part of this economy? That is why I expected to see a lot.
    Whether the Ministry is doing it, this Budget Statement must state it because wherever we go, this is the document that we would carry out there, that this is what our Ministry would do. There is some seeming “chameleonic” behaviour in the governance of this country.
    Mr Speaker, you would realise that when it comes to the Ghana Post GPS, it was handled outside. Even Parliament and the Committee did not hear anything. We just heard that about GH¢1 million or GH¢2 million was paid for somebody for the application to be uploaded. Today, we find that project in the Budget Statement.
    I would like to plead through the Rt Hon Speaker that whatever project we have under the Ministry of Communications should come to Parliament so that we do due diligence to it before it continues. We would have to do the same thing in respect of the 780 kilometre fibre optic project and I would appeal for that to happen.
    Mr Speaker, another business that could also be created is about the sale of call cards in the rural areas. It is sad Hon Nyindam is not in the Chamber. I was in his constituency with my NGO, Jirandongo, to support and for the number of days I stayed there, I could not even call my wife. The network was not available but this is the country that we govern.
    Mr Speaker, governance is continuous and so if the past Government started a project that is not seen to be continued, there is that opportunity for me to ask questions. This is because if you look at the business sector, or bringing the informal to the formal sector, the Ministry of Communications must move forward on that.
    So if former President Mahama started with laying the fibre optic, whether underground or aerial, and then moved to create the data centre that we have right here in Accra, and then the other one in Kumasi to serve as a backup, it means that when we move to the informal sector to gather the data of Ghanaians whom we would want to put on the tax roll, then this data could be captured.
    The MASLOC they talked about Mr Speaker, how do we bring these people on ? How do we target them so that the nation and the people in this country can benefit? The data could be made available to the Government for these moneys to be given to the appropriate persons for their businesses to grow.
    Mr Speaker, through that, once the people have been emopowered -- We are not talking about social interventions here -- The people must be empowered. When they beat their chests that they have done social intervention, the people of this country are not empowered.
    They make the people poor so that they issue out food for them to eat. If everybody were to have money, what is the need to, maybe, tell somebody that we are giving him social intervention?
    Mr Speaker, social intervention only comes when there is a problem and a challenge and we want to solve it. But when we empower the people of our country they do their own business and make money. Social intervention is about mediocrity and so we do not have to beat our chest that we have done social intervention.
    Mr Speaker, in any case, social intervention drives on social infrastructure.

    Are we going to issue the National Health Insurance card under trees or under the sea? It must be in the buildings. What about the women who are pregnant that we want to give the free services to? That must happen in the hospital.

    Could they tell me the number of hospitals that they are focused on building for these pregnant women that they are talking about who are going to receive the services? Could they tell us?

    Mr Speaker, in moving forward, the ICT sector could also create another job platform where the producers and distributors could meet to transact business for the development of this nation.

    A forward-looking and a visionary Govenment would always ensure that these facilities are provided and then the people in the business circle could do very good business in this country for which they would not need social intervention.
    Mr Speaker, moving to paragraph 749 of the Budget Statement, I beg to quote 2:10 p.m.
    “Mr Speaker, the Ministry through GIFEC established 400 telephony sites to provide voice signals to 2,000 underserved and unserved communities to bridge the digital divide. In 2019, GIFEC will deploy additional 600 telephony sites to provide voice signals to 1,800 communities where coverage is limited or non-existent due to the inability of the existing license operators to expand their networks.”
    Mr Speaker, this is where I come in to ask, must we wait for the private operators to connect the communities for us to do internet business? That is why I am calling on the Government and the Ministry to focus very well on the Ministry of Communications so that this infrastructure could be made available.
    If voice signals are only given and then we pick girls from all over the country to train at the Accra Digital Centre, and they go back to their villages where there is no internet, what is the value- for- money for that exercise?
    Learning must continue even in their homes and villages. But if such facilities are non-existent then it is an exercise in mediocrity. And I would always advise that we move forward in that aspect.
    Mr Speaker, moving forward again, paragraph 753 talks about e-transform project; that is e-procurement project.
    rose
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:10 p.m.
    Hon Ranking Member, you would hold on, you have one and a half minutes more.
    Yes, Hon Member?
    Mr Ato Cudjoe 2:10 p.m.
    Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
    The Hon Member is misleading this House. If he could tell us when RLG collapsed; if he could remember one of the issues that led to the collapse -- [Interruption]He said we caused its collapse. [Interruption] He should not create the impression that NPP came and RLG collapsed.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:10 p.m.
    Hon Member, what has he said that is not true? That RLG has collapsed? That is a fact.
    Mr E. K. A. Cudjoe 2:10 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I would like to say that, it collapsed under their watch.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:10 p.m.
    Very well, it is the fact that RLG collapsed, so, please continue.
    Mr Ashiamah 2:10 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I thank you for intervening. He was not in this House during the Sixth Parliament and we saw what happened in this country.
    Mr Speaker, the issue as you have said is that, RLG company exists no more. If it were to be in existence, could it not be
    a back-bone, support to the Ministry of Communications? That is what we are talking about. [Interruption] Please, the stories and all that came were not there.
    Mr Speaker, we are talking about coding for kids by GIFEC, as I have mentioned, and the learning of the online or digital marketing. This is also very good and this is the first time —
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:10 p.m.
    Hon Member, you have one minute more.
    Mr Ashiamah 2:10 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I am taking the position of the Hon Ranking Member so I have fifteen minutes.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:10 p.m.
    Hon Member, check; it is 14 minutes, fifteen seconds.
    Mr Ashiamah 2:10 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, to wrap it all up, you would realise that today, we are dying under the taxes of the NPP Government. How could a civil servant be taxed 35 per cent after shouting that they would bring it to 30 per cent, when meanwhile, the corporate tax of this country is 25 per cent?
    Ghanaians are suffering under the NPP Government. With the double taxation, a car that is cleared at the harbour has the specifications charges at the import tax. You come to the Driver-Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) where Mr Speaker, your good Self was a former Chief Executive of the DVLA, they would ask you to pay another levy; double tax.
    Are we trying to make Ghanaians poor in this country so that they cannot live and we would continue to give them social intervention? Ghanaians need to be empowered so that they could work on their own.
    Look at the type of revenue collection in this country; it is just decreasing. From GH¢4million, the compliance rate was 2.5 per cent; GH¢4.5million, the compliance rate was 1.5 per cent; GH¢6million, compliance rate was 1.0 per cent.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:10 p.m.
    Hon Adrew Mercer, you would have ten minutes.
    Mr Andrew Kofi Mercer (NPP-- Sekondi) 2:10 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Motion that this Honourable House approves the Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana for the year ending, 31st December,
    2019.
    Mr Speaker, before I proceed, I think it is important to set the records straight that RLG's continued existence as a company had clearly become untenable. This is because the shareholders of the company had allowed themselves to be used as an instrument for creating, looting and sharing.

    So clearly, their sources of funding having been cut, there was no way that the company could continue to exist. We all support Ghanaian private sectors but when the private sector—
    rose
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:10 p.m.
    Hon Member, you would hold on.
    Yes, Hon Member for Keta?
    Mr Quashigah 2:10 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, this is a House of records and My Hon Colleague on the other Side has just made a very serious allegation that an entity called RLG was used as a conduit to undertake
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:10 p.m.
    Hon Member, why do you say it was used as an avenue to create, loot and share? What is your evidence?
    Mr Mercer 2:10 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, we all live in this country and we know the media reportage regarding the role that RLG played in the ICT project which are well documented. But Mr Speaker, if withdrawing is what would satisfy him, I am prepared to —
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:20 a.m.
    Hon Member, just speak to facts; there was an Auditor-General's Report saying that they were paid money which they were not supposed to receive. If you do not know that, it is official and on record.
    Yes, proceed.
    Mr Mercer 2:20 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, this Budget Statement gives me a lot of excitement. The Budget Statement, as was presented by the Minister for Finance, gives me a lot of exhilaration, hope, aspiration, expectation --
    rose
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:20 a.m.
    Hon Member, hold on.
    Yes, Hon Member?
    Alhaji Bashir F. Alhassan 2:20 a.m.
    Thank you Mr Speaker.
    The crux of the matter is that he is making an emphatic statement that RLG, as an entity, was an instrument for perpetrating “create, loot and share”. The Report the Rt Hon Speaker indicated just said money was paid. It did not indicate that it was an instrument for creating what he said. It is completely separate.
    Mr Speaker, this being a House of records and given his palpable failure to show evidence but to cite media reports -- If you are being sacked in the evening, you do not greet goodnight. He must withdraw the statement because he has failed to provide any evidence to back the allegation.
    Mr Speaker 's intervention not- withstanding, that does not constitute evidence on the basis of which he could make the categorical statement he made. He must have the humility -- I know my Hon Colleague, we are on the same Committee. I know that he is a very humble man. He must eat the humble pie, withdraw and apologise accordingly.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:20 a.m.
    Hon Members, the phrase “create, loot and share” was coined by a judge referring to specific acts. Now, a Report was put before this House, so it is on record in this House that the Auditor-General said that the company was paid money to supply 200,000 pieces of laptop computers but it supplied only about 28,000. That is a record before this House. [Interruption]
    Hon Member, you would continue.
    Mr Mercer 2:20 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, I was not a member of the Sixth Parliament. In any event, the Auditor-General's Report was widely reported in the media. So if I made references to media reportage, clearly --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:20 a.m.
    Hon Member, use your time for your debate, please.
    Mr Mercer 2:20 a.m.
    Very well, Mr Speaker.
    Mr Speaker, as I said, this Budget gives me a lot of hope that the future of this country is indeed in good hands. The destiny of my children, your children and our children, clearly from the Budget Statement that was ably presented are in safe hands.
    Ghana is, indeed, rising again and by the grace of God, we shall not return to Egypt where “creating, looting and sharing of public resources was the order of the day and where abysmal economic performance was the norm rather than the exception.
    Mr Speaker, why do I say so? Paragraph 14 of the 2019 Budget Statement states and with your kind permission, I read:
    “Mr Speaker, it is important to remember what it was-in order to appreciate the work that has been done to fix the mess…
    Declining economic growth that fell from 14 per cent in 2011 to 3.7 per cent in 2016 -- the lowest for two decades;
    Declining growth in agriculture and negative growth in industry, which led to significant job losses and brought about untold hardships;
    Rising unemployment that resulted in the formation of the Unemployed Graduates Association, which I understand was disbanded this year;
    High Fiscal Deficits reaching 9.3 per cent of GDP in 2016;
    Fast rising Public Debts which pushed the debt-to-GDP ratio to 73.1 per cent at the end of 2016;
    Fast-falling Cedi, affecting even the meagre profits that street hawkers struggle daily to make;
    High interest rates killing businesses and discouraging entrepreneurs from unleashing their creativity;
    Effective return to “Cash and Carry” under NHIS as a result of mounting Government arrears;
    Weak Banking System and unstable financial system;
    And lest we forget, Mr Speaker, Ghanaian businesses, big and small, were working only to pay electricity bills or to buy diesel for the generator. We cannot forget so soon the havoc that five years of ‘Dumsor' caused to households, businesses and all, up and down the country.”
    Mr Speaker, within 23 or so months, what is the story? In paragraph 16 of the Budget Statement, the story is that:
    a change in the management of the economy -- a change which has deleted “in” as prefix to the word “competence”;
    a change from macroeconomic instability to macroeconomic stability;
    a change from a rising debt-to-GDP ratio of 73.1 per cent to a declining debt-to-GDP ratio of 55.6 per cent;
    changing from a weak banking system to a strong, well-capitalised and better supervised banking system;
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:30 p.m.
    Hon Ras Mubarak?
    Mr Ras Mubarak (NDC -- Kumbungu) 2:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I am exceedingly grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the Budget Statement and Economic Policy for the year ending, 31st December,
    2019.
    Mr Speaker, before I delve into the details of my contribution on the communications sector, I would want to make a few corrections. I tried earlier to catch your eye when Hon Okyere- Agyekum referred to the Youth Employment Agency as the National Youth Employment Authority. This is a House of records and we need to indicate the appropriate names for Government Agencies and Departments.
    Mr Speaker, to pick up from where my Hon Friends had left off earlier in respect of the employment sector, I would say that indeed, an opportunity that gives young people a salary of GH¢700 monthly, especially to graduates, is not an employment, but exploitation.
    Mr Speaker, the communications industry is very massive. It has the potential to employ a lot of people across the country, but there is nothing in the Budget Statement that backs this key industry. This Budget Statement is a culmination of two years of this Government's failure; failure to spur growth in the telecommunication sector, a failure to inspire confidence in industry, a failure to meet revenue target and clearly, a failure to tackle inequality in our country.
    Mr Speaker, the test of a real Budget Statement is how it improves some
    people's lives. The truth is, ordinary Ghanaians, the young men and women of our country, people in my constituency, Kumbungu, and people in our respective constituencies do not only suffer -- the two years' Budget Statement did not improve upon their lives and this 2019 Budget Statement clearly would not be any different.
    The standard of living of people in the country is declining, the telecommu- nication sector is in decline, and I have the 2019 Budget Statement to indicate that.
    Mr Speaker, with your permission, I would want to make reference to Appendix “1A”. The growth in the telecommu- nication sector has actually declined. The previous NDC Government left an industry that was rising, an industry that was growing, but clearly from their own projections, facts and evidences, the telecommunication sector is sadly in decline.
    Mr Speaker, in 2017, the theme for the Budget Statement was ‘‘Sowing the Seeds for Growth and Jobs''. What this super incompetent Government ended up doing was to sow the seeds for decline and joblessness.
    The Government's first Budget Statement was built on sand and there is a lot of joblessness in our country.
    So bad was the sowing for growth and jobs that the economy derailed and indeed, it needed to be put back on track, and that was why in the 2018, after failing to sow seeds for growth and jobs, having sown seeds of decline and joblessness, they attempted to put the economy back on track by christening their Budget Statement ‘‘Putting Ghana back to work'' and we all know it was not really sowing seeds for growth and jobs, but actually declining the economy.
    rose
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:30 p.m.
    Hon
    Member, please, hold on.
    Dr Appiah-Kubi 2:30 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague has made a categorical statement and assigned values to them as if they were founded on evidence.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:30 p.m.
    Hon Member, please, tell me which statement you are complaining about?
    Dr Appiah-Kubi 2:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Member asked, ‘‘how many MDAs have been trained in ICT?” And he answered that “It is zero''. Where did he get that information from? What is the basis for that assertion? Where is the evidence? This is a House of records and whatever is said must be substantiated.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:30 p.m.
    He asked, how many MBA students would be supported in this Budget Statement? If there is any, he must point it out then I would affirm that he is misleading the House, otherwise, when you had your chance and you contributed ---
    Hon Member, continue.
    Mr Ras Mubarak 2:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague has wax in his ears. I said how many MDAs --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:40 p.m.
    Hon Member, that is totally unparliamentary.
    Mr Ras Mubarak 2:40 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I humbly and respectfully withdraw.
    rose
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:40 p.m.
    Hon Member, hold on.
    Hon Minister for Communications, what statement do you want to complain about?
    Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful 2:40 p.m.
    On a point of Order. Mr Speaker, paragraph 748 of the Budget Statement states clearly, and with your permission, I beg to quote:
    ‘'The Ministry will commence the connection of the e-Government Network (GovNet) to all MMDAs, Senior High Schools, hospitals and clinics, other Government Institutions and 254 Local District points of present sites in all the ten regions would be established.
    Mr Speaker, the Budget Statement does not say that zero MDAs would be —
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:40 p.m.
    Hon Member, you are out of order. Please withdraw the statement that it would not support any MDAs. This is because the Budget Statement clearly states that.
    Mr Ras Mubarak 2:40 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I indicated clearly that the 2017, 2018 Budget Statements having —
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:40 p.m.
    Hon Member you said this Budget Statement, what would this Budget Statement support? If you intended to say 2018, fine.
    Mr Ras Mubarak 2:40 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I withdraw. — [Interruption]
    Mr Speaker, if we look at the 2017 Budget Statement, there was a promise on page 94, paragraph 521, and with your leave, I beg to read,
    “The e-parliament system which will allow a paperless flow of information within the Parliament of Ghana is 60 per cent complete and expected to be completed in 2017.”
    Mr Speaker, as we speak, they have not cruised us into having a paperless Parliament of Ghana and these are the facts that I am speaking to.
    Mr Speaker, again, they made commitments in the 2018 Budget Statement that they would amend the Ghana Meteorological Service Act because of a certain conflict between the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMET) and the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:40 p.m.
    You have one minute more.
    Mr Ras Mubarak 2:40 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, as we speak, they have reneged on that commitment to have that amendment done. The Communication Industry, undoubtedly, is bleeding and the Government is standing by watching it bleed; jobs in the sector are being lost, thanks to the inaction of this particular Government.
    There are huge opportunities in the sector, but the Government, undoubtedly, is failing to rise to the occasion.
    Mr Vincent Sowah Odotei (NPP — Dade Kotopon) 2:50 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you very much. I must say that I am extremely grateful for the opportunity given me, not only because of the unprecedented achievements of this Government within the short period of 22 months, but confident in the fact that for the first time in our history, we have a government that believes in putting our money and actions for the benefit and prosperity of this country, and not being a dead goat government.
    Mr Speaker, we have a government that is committed to ensuring that never again should we throw our hands in despair or rise up to the darkness with no hope. We are going to live with the hope and the knowledge that very soon, our future and destiny would be in our own hands.
    Mr Speaker, before I zoom in on the Communication sub-sector, I would want to remind my Hon Colleagues about the employment issue. Records from SSNIT indicate that there have been over 220,000 proper jobs created in the economy.
    The Government sector has also employed over 88,000 and financial clearance has been given for over 88,000 and when we top it up with the 100,000 created by Nation Builders Corps (NABCO), we are talking of real opportunity and not exploitation.
    I believe that any opportunity that gives those who were hitherto in the Graduate Unemployment Association to get some disposable income to impact their lives is one which they cherish and
    it is not about the exploitation that our Hon Colleague on the other Side would like everybody to believe in.
    Mr Speaker, indeed, I believe that the achievements of this Government so far are there for all to see.
    Mr Speaker, when it comes to the realisation of the key role of ICT and Technology of building a very unique, robust, and all-comprehensive digital ecosystem, this is the Budget Statement that is giving us the opportunity. This is the Budget Statement that is giving us vision; where the Government is seeing technology as the main driver of our prosperity and our journey towards Ghana beyond aid.
    Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleagues spoke about infrastructure. I would want to assure them that this Government realises the role that ICT plays, and the role that opening up the unserved and underserved areas of the economy — and making sure that every corner of this country has access and is connected to the digital world. This is what the Government is pursuing.
    Mr Speaker, let me please refer us to paragraph 749 of the Budget Statement, and I beg to read with your permission:
    “Mr Speaker, the Ministry through GIFEC established 400 telephony sites to provide voice signals to 2,000 underserved and unserved communities to bridge the digital divide.”
    Mr Speaker, the “digital divide”, if my Hon Colleagues do not understand what it means, is to ensure that we do not centre the benefits of technology only in the big cities. Bridging the digital divide is to ensure that through digital literacy and through access to connectivity, all these underserved areas come into the digital economy, and this is what this government is doing.
    Mr Speaker, it is worth noting, and I would want my Hon Colleagues to know that for the eight years of the NDC Government, it only provided 78 telephony sites. We have provided 400 telephony sites, bringing over 2,000 communities to accelerate the digital and connect the rest of the country.
    As specified in the same paragraph 749, we are again to provide additional 600 telephony sites which would connect over 1,800 communities. This is a government with vision and it wants to harness the benefits of ICT.
    Mr Speaker, I wish to proceed to paragraph 750. This Government inherited a mere paper; National Cyber Security on Policy Strategy. A paper which was even a stillbirth. Since we came into Government, we have rewind the National Cyber Security Policy and Strategy and have come up with a policy which is the envy of the whole of Africa.
    Mr Speaker, when we go back to paragraph 750, we talked about the establishment of Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) for the NCA, we have done that for the Bank of Ghana.
    Mr Speaker, it is important that in building the whole ecosystem, the issue about cyber security and the achievements of this Government is brought to bear.
    We have established the institutional framework, the National Cyber Security Awareness Programme, to ensure that the citizenry know that in the accelerated development of this country and digitalisation of this country, which is evident by the EID, the paperless clearing ports, the digital property addressing system, and the numerous interoperability
    systems that we have established, we are also aware of cyber security. And this is why the establishment of the CERT is key.
    Mr Speaker, we can go on and on about data protection and why we are ensuing that our citizens and not only the networks, or the Apps, but also the data, which data collectors collect in this country are also protected.
    Mr Speaker, I was surprised when my Hon Colleague who spoke before me spoke about the public sector.

    Mr Speaker, I would want to refer him to paragraph 748 again, where the issues of e-Justice, e-Immigration and con- necting all the Districts as highlighted by my Hon Minister would come into play.

    Definitely, Mr Speaker, Ghana is working again. We do not want to be bypassed by the industrial revolution. We want to ensure that we use technology to leapfrog our development and to ensure that our citizenry also benefit from technology.

    Mr Speaker, I wish to zoom in on the ICT capacity development. This Government inherited a gap in the ICT day celebration. The previous Government only celebrated Girls in ICT for one day. Since we took Government, we have moved from “Girls in ICT Week” to “Girls in ICT Month”.

    Last year alone, under the “Girls in ICT Week”, 600 girls from the Ashanti Region were given the training opportunity in the basics of coding and true mentorship.

    Mr Speaker, this Government is committed to ensuring that this country does not only remain consumers but producers of technology. That is why we are reviving the Community Information Centres (CICs) which were run down and
    Mr Vincent Sowah Odotei (NPP — Dade Kotopon) 2:50 p.m.
    closed down and replacing them with the electronic Community Information Centres (e-CICs) to ensure that the basic fundamentals of programming are learnt in all the schools.

    Mr Quashigah —rose—
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:50 p.m.
    Hon Member, hold on and switch off your microphone.
    Yes, Hon Member for Keta?
    Mr Quashigah 2:50 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague has grossly misled this House. He made reference to paragraph 748 in relation to matters on ICT. When we turn to paragraph 748, it says and I beg to quote:
    “The Ministry will commence the connection of the e-Government Network (GovNet) to all MMDAs, Senior High Schools, hospitals and clinics, other government institutions…”
    This is very different from what he read. What he read is not what is captured in paragraph 748. To worsen matters, he also just indicated that CICs were run down by the previous Government. Meanwhile, the CICs were built by the previous Government. So at what point were they built by some other Government and run down by the same Government?
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:50 p.m.
    Hon Member, it is the fact of the statement; I do not get the point. Paragraph 748 states:
    “The Ministry will commence the connection”..
    What is your complaint about that one?
    Mr Quashigah 2:50 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, what he read was very different from what was captured in paragraph 748. In fact, he mentioned ICT even in what he read, but there is no mention of ICT. Clearly, he read a different paragraph. That is not paragraph 748.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:50 p.m.
    Hon Member, please continue. You have just about one minute five seconds.
    Mr Odotei 2:50 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, this Government has a vision for the Aviation Sector in this country. This is ably captured in paragraph 760 of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy.
    Mr Speaker, with your permission, I would want to read;
    “Mr Speaker, the Ghana Meteorolo- gical Agency set up a Central Analysis and Forecast Office (CAFO) to strengthen aeronautical weather reporting services to the aviation industry. In 2019, the Agency will pursue the achievement of Quality Management System (QMS) certification for international air navigation to implement the QMS at Kotoka, Kumasi and Tamale Airports.
    In addition, the Agency will procure two weather radars and two Automatic Weather Observatory Station (AWOS) equipment for the middle and northern belts.”
    Mr Speaker, all these would make Ghana the aviation hub of West Africa.
    Mr Speaker, in conclusion, this Government is not only digitalising this economy; it is putting its money - and
    Mr Samuel Nartey George (NDC -- Ningo-Prampram) 2:50 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I thank you very much.
    In contributing to the virtually non- existent policy direction of the Ministry of Communications in the 2019 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government, I would like to highlight several inconsistencies and untruths that have been put out both by the Ministries of Communications and Finance in the Budget Statement and Economic Policy and also by the Hon Deputy Minister for Communications in his submission.
    First and foremost, because this is a House of record, let the records bear that the NDC did not run down any CICs or e- CICs. We built the CICs and e-CICs. If we built them, we could not have run them down. There was nothing there for us to run down. We built them and they are running them down.
    They are shutting them down and currently, MMDCEs are beginning to convert our e-CIC buildings into buildings for their MMDAs.

    Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful —rose—
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:50 p.m.
    Hon Member, hold on. Switch off your microphone so you do not lose time.
    Yes, Hon Minister for Communications?
    Mrs Owusu-Ekuful 2:50 p.m.
    On a point of order.
    Mr Speaker, the NPP Administration under H.E. President John Agyekum Kufuor started building CICs in this country. So it is factually incorrect to state that it is the NDC which started building CICs in this country. It is a programme that has been implemented by the Ministry of Communications since the time of Ex- President John Agyekum Kufuor.
    Mr George 2:50 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, it is easy for one to just make allegations when he or she does not have facts and cannot give us examples. I can give you a list from the 2015 and 2016 Budget Statements and Economic Policy of Government of the e- CIC buildings we built.
    I challenge the Hon Minister for Communications to show us evidence of CICs that were built by the erstwhile Kufuor Administration. Facts are sacred!
    Mrs Owusu-Ekuful 2:50 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I would give him just one.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:50 p.m.
    Hon Minister, you are the next person to talk, so leave his ten minutes for him, please.
    Mr George 2:50 p.m.
    I thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
    In paragraph 745, the Ministry makes a claim that they have completed 37 Digital Terrestrial Transmission (DTT) sites in eight regions to facilitate the process of migrating from analogue to DTT. Once again, that is a misrepresentation of the facts.
    The Ministry has only completed and turned on 21 of these sites and not 37. The contractor has completed all 42 in all
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3 p.m.
    Hon Member, you know certain words are not parliamentary, so do not use “lies”. Please withdraw and substitute that.
    Mr George 3 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I respectfully withdraw that and substitute it with “blatant untruth”.
    Mr Speaker, the Ministry chooses to peddle blatant untruths using my constituency by saying, in paragraph 746, which I beg to quote:
    “The construction work of the ICT Technology Park to provide multi- tenant and infrastructure in Dawa is ongoing…”
    Mr Speaker, the last time anybody from the Ministry visited my constituency to look at that land was two months ago; before the Ministry started its National Cyber Security Week and the Hon Minister travelled to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) meeting where she retained Ghana's seat. Since the past two months, nobody from the Ministry has visited that site. I put it on record that not even one cement block has been put on that site.
    So when we are told that work has commenced -- For a project that has a lifespan of 18 months, and we are told that the project would be completed in the year 2019, except -- Well, this Budget Statement clearly appears to have been
    made in China. It is only a made-in-China project that an 18-month project could be completed in 12 months, because as far as I am concerned, the 2019 calendar year has 12 months and not 18 months.
    So this deliberately misleads the people of Ghana -- to tell us that they would complete an ICT Park, which has a lifespan of 18 months, in 12 months, that they have not started --
    Mr Speaker, in paragraph 747, they talked about the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) signing a contract with Lebara Mobile Ghana Limited. I have had cause to ask a Question in this Chamber on the state of commercialisation of NITA's infrastruc- ture.
    When Hon Mercer contributed, he spoke about the fact that this Government was proactive to commercialise excess capacity. I hold in my hand the advertisement that we ran that time I was a member of the Board of NITA; that was as far back as the year 2016. The date for the submission of tenders was Wednesday, 8th June, 2016.
    I wonder how that was the initiative of the Government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in commercialising NITA's infrastructure on 8th June, 2016. When they paint a picture that they are commer- cialising NITA's infrastructure -
    Again, the Ministry is confused when it comes to the commercialisation of NITA's infrastructure. In the 2017 Budget Statement, they said that they would sell off excess capacity. In the 2018 Budget Statement, they said that they would sell off 50 per cent of excess capacity.
    Now, in the year 2019 Budget Statement, they tell us that they have shed off 50 per cent of capacity.
    In technical terms, these are completely different things. I would use one of the components of the commer- cialisation of NITA's infrastructure to explain this point.
    The 780 kilometre eastern corridor fibre optic is part of the commercialisation project. It has 48 core fibre in there. When they say that they are selling off excess capacity, it means that if MTN has taken two core and the Government decides to use four core, which is even excessive for the needs of the Government at this point
    -- 3 p.m.

    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3 p.m.
    You have one minute more.
    Mr George 3 p.m.
    As far back as the year 2015, we had a set that ran at NITA, which was taken care of by the knob that we had in the building of the Ministry of Communications. So I do not see how this could be clamoured to be a new definition.
    The Ministry should focus because the role that NITA plays -- they should ensure that NITA's set is up to scratch and world class; it is more critical infrastructural benefit to us than that of the NCA which they have trumpeted here.
    Mr Speaker, they talked about the Accra Digital Centre. My heart breaks -- the Accra Digital Centre was built to support 10,000 young Ghanaians in jobs. In fact, when we take the 2018 Budget Statement, the Hon Minister told us that they would have 100 start-ups in the Accra Digital Centre.
    We should read what has been said here -- they said that they trained 476 youth in basic information technology and digital marketing. This is what our CICs do.
    Mr Speaker, in wrapping up, they talked about the NIA and its success. Digital Addressing System -- Today, if I stepped out of this Chamber and decided to pick a
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3 p.m.
    Hon Minister for Communications, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, you have 15 minutes.
    Minister for Communications (Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful) (MP) 3:10 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker.
    Mr Speaker, the communications policy of this Government, far from being confused, as we have been made to understand, is very clear, strategic and designed to formalise our economy, digitise it, and move it into the 21 st Century. I am happy that because of the visionary Government of His Excellency Akufo-Addo, Ghana is now touted as an example for others to emulate.
    Our country is now the example that others look up to in terms of specific activities designed to digitise and formalise the economy. A snap shot of that is provided in the Budget Statement for the year 2019 and the economic performance for the year 2018.
    Underpinning that strategy is a three- fold initiative built around infrastructure, skills training, and applications, and software development. Mr Speaker, under infrastructure, we are determined to connect the unconnected parts of this country by the year 2020. So rural telephony is a key priority of this Government.
    I am happy to reemphasise the fact made in the Budget Statement that 400 telephony sites have been constructed in one year as against 78 in eight years and that is no mean achievement.
    I went to a little town called Asumura in the Brong Ahafo Region which had just been connected to the internet, data and voice telephon; it is deep in the forest.
    The joy on the face of a little child, whose father had been transferred to that community, in being able to access the internet and communicate with her friends in the big city she came from, makes all this worthwhile. We are making a difference in people's lives through technology.
    The Hon Dr Kwaku Afriyie was just telling me that he is a living witness to how providing rural telephony in the cocoa growing areas that he farms in - he mentioned the villages and if he were here, he would testify to that--- This is making it possible for farmers in that community to use e-marketing to market their produce. That is the difference that it is making to people's lives.
    It is all well and good to grand stand and play to the gallery but when one child says that they can use the internet to learn because we provided connectivity in their village makes it all worthwhile. That is what this Government is determined to do as we would leave no one behind in the infrastructure that we are putting in place.
    Mr Speaker, Cabinet has given approval for us to use aerial fibre which is cheaper to deploy so that we could have the backhaul infrastructure that we need to build the last mile to extend connectivity to their villages and towns so that they can sit there and participate in the digital economy that we are building.
    Skills training--- The Budget Statement clearly states that Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) alone under its Coding for Kids Project has trained 24,000 children across the 10 regions.
    Minister for Communications (Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful) (MP) 3:20 p.m.
    We are sending 500 NABCO digital
    module trainees to ICT centres around the country to provide basic computer literacy, e-marketing skills to our people so that they can also participate in the digital economy.
    Mr Speaker, 2,600 youths have been trained in entrepreneurship and digital media entrepreneurship nationwide and online marketing. They walk straight into jobs; the banks are hungry, the industries are thirsty for people with digital skills and it is incumbent on us to provide our youth with the skills they need to be able to compete and survive in the digital economy that is rapidly unfolding before us.
    Ghana is rapidly becoming a hub for the technology, applications and software industry. Our young people are winning awards globally and we have a story to be proud of. We need to celebrate the achievements that our young people are chalking instead of petty politicking and grand standing.
    Mr Speaker, I am happy to state that we are building on foundations of our predecessors and acknowledge what has been done in the past from the time of ex- President John Agyekum Kufuor to date and we will improve upon what we have inherited.
    When the Accra Digital Center was incomplete, it was inaugurated in November 2016 and we came to meet structures with leaking roofs. It was meant to be plug and play -- no internet access, no electricity, no security but a gaping structure.
    Today, it is a thriving hotbed of activity. [Hear! Hear!] Our young people are actively innovating and producing
    world class applications and software over there. We do need to celebrate achievements.
    Mr Speaker, it is important that we reiterate the fact that this Administration would not pay companies to supply non- existent computers as it happened in the Ghana Youth Employment Entrepreneur- ship Development Agency (GYEEDA) scandals of the past.
    We are determined to equip all our schools with computer laboratories and so we would not hand the computers over to Hon Members of Parliament and influential people to distribute willy-nilly.
    We will fix and install them in our schools and so far, 182 basic schools have not just been provided with computer laboratories but their teachers have been trained in coding skills and are imparting them to our children.
    Those are basic schools and we intend working with the Ministry of Education to equip all our second cycle institutions with computer laboratories. We will do that. The future of this country depends on us providing our young people with the digital skills that they need to thrive and prosper in the digital economy.
    Mr Speaker, the paperless port, mobile money interoperability system, digital address system, national identification and data exchange are all deliberate actions being taken by this Government to put in place the infrastructure to support the growth of the “Ghana Beyond Aid” agenda that would be the example for others to emulate.
    So we are not working in isolation; we do have a plan. It may not be obvious to the uninitiated but we know exactly what we are doing and we are working assiduously to achieve that.
    Also, persons with disability in the University of Cape Coast have been assisted with computer assistive technology which is better than Braille to be able to learn. We have built a computer laboratory for them and they can use them just like you and I do though they are visually impaired.
    We are extending that facility to all our schools for the blind and our tertiary institutions as well, so that they would also know that they are part of this digital revolution that is taking place in our country.
    Mr Speaker, I laugh when I hear that the Government network, National Information Technology Agency (NITA), was in the process for commencement of the commercialisation in the previous Administration. Yes, they went through some kind of procurement process which ended up as a marred litigation in court and held up the entire process for over a year.
    It took concerted negotiation to bring the parties to the table, to get them to resolve their difficulties, move out of the courtroom and work to ensure that the investment that the Government had made in building that infrastructure would not be made waste.
    So yes, 50 per cent of the excess capacity will be commercialised and we know exactly what we are doing. This is because we intend to connect all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to that network. We also intend to provide all our schools around the country with internet capabilities.
    We intend to utilise that capacity to open up our country and make it possible
    for the fishmonger in Yeji to sell her produce by sitting on that shore without sitting in a rickety transport and being subjected to the vagaries of our roads.

    Mr Speaker, we intend to promote electronic commerce in this country. We intend to promote the use of digital financial services, and all of this demands a robust backhaul infrastructure with sufficient capacity to be able to ensure that we would have high speed connectivity in every part of this country and not just in the national capital.

    So we have to reserve sufficient capacity for that forward looking growth that we anticipate. We would not sell all of it off like our predecessors have sold off all the spectrum such that there is none available even for emergencies.

    We need to be able to -- as the motto of Mfantsipim Senior High School says -- dwen hw3 kan, to wit, we need to have foresight and thankfully we have a very farsighted President who is determined to move this country to become the hub of all things digital in the West African sub region and also the go- to place for all things digital.

    Mr Speaker, so I am happy to announce that Google has set up its first artificial intelligence centre in the sub-region in Ghana. This shows just how well Ghana is positioned currently.

    I am also happy to announce that the African Union and the European Union are setting up a taskforce to put in place the structures that would assist African countries to grow their digital economies.

    Mr Speaker, the Hon Minister for Communications is co-chairing that taskforce because of the strides that Ghana has made in the digital economy.
    Minister for Communications (Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful) (MP) 3:20 p.m.


    Mr Speaker, this is just the beginning because we are not done yet. MTN built 50 sites with Erickson in 2015 but none of them is currently operational. Ghana under the watch of this Government has worked with the equipment manufacturer, Huawei, to develop a revolutionary rural telephony sites which is called the Rural Star.

    Mr Speaker, it is affordable, scalable and it is winning awards globally. We have deployed 400 of this in one year; we would deploy 600 in the coming year and by 2020, with God's grace, every part of this country would be connected not just to voice but to data telephony.

    Mr Speaker, the Hon Minister for Communications is the mother of Rural Star. We are proud of what we have been able to achieve; if we have been able to work with technology companies to develop innovative solutions tailored to meet our needs and which are now being deployed globally, then it is something we must be proud of. Mr Speaker, thank you.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:20 p.m.
    Hon Majority Leader, it is almost half past 3.00 O'clock. What is your pleasure?
    Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 3:20 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, if you ask me about my pleasure, then indeed, it is for us to continue with the consideration of the Right to Information Bill, 2018. Mr Speaker, but you have already overruled me behind the curtain and so I am not sure I would have the confidence to resurrect my pleasure.
    Mr Speaker, the time being past 3.00 O'clock I believe that we could take an adjournment, but to announce that beginning tomorrow we should create space and try to complete the consideration of the Right to Information Bill, 2018.
    Mr Speaker, thank you.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:20 p.m.
    Hon First Deputy Minority Whip, I would not ask you. I just wanted to --
    Mr Ahmed Ibrahim 3:20 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I have nothing to add.
    ADJOURNMENT 3:20 p.m.