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18.01.2018 Politics

Akufo-Addo @1: We Have Done More Than Any Government Has Within Its First Year

By MyJoyOnline
Akufo-Addo 1: We Have Done More Than Any Government Has Within Its First Year
18.01.2018 LISTEN

A Deputy Chief of Staff, Samuel Jinapor says he believes President Akufo-Addo's government has achieved in one year what none of his predecessors achieved in their first year.

Comparatively, no administration during its first year in governance dating back to 2001 when Mr. J.A. Kufuor became president all through to 2013 under Mahama, has performed creditably as Nana Akufo-Addo has done, Samuel Jinapor bragged.

“In any aspect of national life, the government has done tremendously well. In the history of this country no government has done better than what this government has done,” the Deputy Chief of Staffer claimed.

Prior to the coming into office of the Akufo-Addo administration, the National Health Insurance Authority was indebted to service providers of the National Health Insurance Scheme in excess of GH Ȼ8 44 million. Within a year in office, the debt stock has been reduced by more than half with over GH Ȼ 476 million paid to the subscribers, Jinapor revealed.

He mentioned the President's "ambitious and monumental intervention" in education particularly the introduction of free senior high school education at the first year as arguably, one of the most important social intervention policies ever to have been introduced by a government on the continent.

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Samuel Jinapor was speaking on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM, Wednesday, January 17, ahead of the President’s media encounter to mark a year in office. It will be the President's second in six months since he took office on January 7, 2017.

Value for money contracts
According to the Deputy Chief of Staff, the Akufo-Addo government has made savings for the national kitty by renegotiating many contracts entered by his predecessor, John Mahama.

Jinapor identifies a key major contributing stress on the national coffers as sole sourcing of government contracts but under Akufo-Addo watch, “sole sourcing is an exception rather than the norm” he disclosed.

“Ministers and government officials have renegotiated numerous contracts and saved the Ghanaians millions of cedis,” he added.

He did not provide specific data to support this claim.

Despite the high praise, Samuel Jinapor acknowledges that government’s communication strategy has been a major blot.

“We can do a little better with communicating with the people,” he noted.

“We have a lot more to do, we’ve not gotten anywhere with regard to our programmes…but the government has started very, very, well.”

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