PREZ NANA ADDO IN UPPER EAST FOR TWO-DAY TOUR 13th AUGUST, 2019

Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is in the country’s Upper East Region for a two-day tour which will afford him the opportunity to assess the impact of his government’s programmes and social interventions in the lives of his fellow countrymen. The President, as part of the tour, will also interact with the chiefs and people of the region through durbars during which he will update the citizenry about government’s development efforts and as well, listen to feedback from them.

On day one of the tour, the President and his team made a first stop at the Bolgatanga Senior High School [BIG BOSS] where he addressed students and school authorities. He announced here that, he will undertake similar working visits to the Northern and Upper West Regions to see for himself the work his appointees such as municipal and district chief executives as well as ministers were executing on the field in order to actualise government’s mandate and promises and also, to better the lives of the people. He added that, he had already been to the six newly created regions, the Western and Central regions for similar reasons.

Students of BIG BOSS listening keenly to the President

President Nana Addo in his address remarked that “you cannot develop a country unless you develop its human capital while the central role of education in our national development can never be over-emphasised”. According to him, some critiques have often accused him of spending hugely on education but said he was never perturbed becuase, his conviction has always been that, it was far better to spend more on the future of Ghana than consuming on only today’s needs and wants. He recalled that during his campaigns in the 2016 elections, he undertook to ensure that many children got a good chance to affordable and quality education and that, this desire pushed him to implement the Free Senior High School [SHS] Programme.

Responding to a request by Headmaster of BIG BOSS for the school’s land area to be fenced and for the provision of a school bus, the President said the request would be forwarded to the Ministry of Education and the GETFund authorities for their necessary action. Meanwhile, he pledged that from the Presidency, he would work out something positive regarding the request for a school bus.

The President also hinted that in the next two weeks, a contract would be awarded for the construction of a new dormitory block and a 12-unit classroom block for the school all geared at significantly improving academic work. He also announced that effective September 2019, all students at all the three levels of the SHS will become full beneficiaries of the Free SHS Programme across Ghana. This he noted, will work out to about one-point-two million students or a little more than that being enrolled in SHS education, a feat never recorded in the past decades.  

Education Minister, Hon. Matthew Opoku Prempeh who was part of the President’s team also made some remarks at the school and conceded that the challenges that came with the roll out of the free SHS Programme since September 2017 were not too strange to government and insisted that no matter the obstacles, the programme had come to stay. He gave the assurance that government would always find a way out in as far as the continuous implementation of the programme was concerned stressing that, it had relieved so much burden on parents especially, the rural poor.

The Minister stressed that education was indeed very paramount to President Nana Addo and his government in that even before the Free SHS implementation, the President had already instructed the increment of the Capitation Grant for basic schools from the previous 4.50 Ghana Cedis since 2009 to Nine Ghana Cedis in 2017. He revealed that the Capitation was further raised to 10 Ghana Cedis in 2018 and expressed high hopes that, the figure may shoot up again in the coming years under the Nana Addo administration. Meanwhile, the number of schools benefiting under the Ghana School Feeding Programme, also keeping increasing throughout the country.

According to Hon. Prempeh, government had also periodically distributed free school uniform to pupils whilst female students were also given special gender-specific aids such as menstrual pads, to help them cope with academic work whenever they hit that time of the month. He disclosed that, since 2007 that some attempts were made by the past government to supply core textbooks to schools, it was only under the Nana Addo government that adequate core textbooks were supplied to every student in Ghana. Mathematics Revision Books have also been procured and supplied to schools as a booster to studies in this important subject area, which many students often dread. 

President Nana Addo at the Binaba Durbar grounds

From the Bolgatanga Senior High School, the President and his entourage including Upper East Regional Minister, Madam Tangoba Abayage, Health Minister – Hon. Kweku Agyemang Menu, Agric Minister – Hon. Owusu Afriyie Akoto and Local Government Minister, Hajia Alima Mahama among other ministers and government officials, left for Binaba in the Bawku West District where he addressed a durbar of the chiefs and people of the area.

Meanwhile, the President made a whistle stop on the way and inspected ongoing works on the about 110-kilometre Bolgatanga-Bawku-Polmakom road as government had released over 60 million EUROs to the Brazilian contractor, Queiro Galvao who had since returned to site. The team also inspected works on a major bridge that connects the Bawku Municipality and the Pusiga District to Kulungugu.