A former Vice Chairman of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee, Kwame Jantuah has asked the government to detail how the oil proceeds have been utilised since they came into office in 2017.
Speaking on the pre-budget analysis with Alfred Ocansey on TV3 Wednesday November 17 ahead of the budget presentation by the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta, he revealed that Ghana has accrued nearly 6 billion dollars from oil production since 2010 when the country commenced full commercialization of oil.
There is the need to explain how these funds have been utilized to u[lift the conditions of Ghanaians, he said.
“I have gotten to the stage where I am not in the business of castigating , I am in the business of being objective in terms of what government says in making sure that what they says is what they have done.
“I think the accountability issue , for instance, with regards to when you look at how much money we have earned within our oil industry from 2010 to now. we are talking about nearly 6.5 billion dollars . So for the time 2017 since the NPP government came in how much of that money have they used regards to the types of projects to pick Ghanaians’ livelihoods up,” Mr Jantuah who si also a private legal practitioner said.
It is recalled that one of the areas the Akufo-Add administration utilized the oil cash was in the rae of education, specifically the implementation of the free senior high school programme.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, said the educational investment being made in Ghana’s children was vital for the future of the country.
According to President Akufo-Addo, the development of the country’s human capital was what would enable Ghana transition from her current state into one of progress and prosperity, and thereby lift the standard of living of every Ghanaian.
Speaking at an interaction with members of staff and students of Mawuli Senior High School on Tuesday, 5th November, 2019, the 2nd day of his 2-day working visit to the Volta Region, the President indicated that prior him coming into office, an average of 100,000 children, annually, could not transition from Junior High School into Senior High School because of financial constraints.
“We couldn’t progress as a nation if we continued the hemorrhage of our human capital. 100,000 on the average every year for over ten years, one million young Ghanaians would grow up with the knowledge that they have at the Junior High school level and that’s it? That’s no way our future could be bright,” he said.
That’s why, the President noted, that his government took the decision “right from the beginning of our administration that we were going to change the direction of our country, we were going to change the educational policy of our country and bring in the Free Senior High School, so that those 100,000 that could not be captured in Senior High, now they are captured.”
With the Free SHS policy being financed by the country’s oil revenues, he stated that “I don’t have any regrets whatsoever about committing the oil revenues of our country to preparing our nation for the future. It is the best, most efficient, most equitable way all of us can participate in those revenues.”
President Akufo-Addo stressed that the oil revenues “are not there, sitting there, waiting for politicians like me to come and put their hands in oil revenues in their pockets, no. It is being used to prepare our nation for the future of our country. That’s the best way we can use the oil revenues.”
Knowledge and technology, according to the President, are what will determine the fate of nations in the 21st century.
“My modest contribution to the growth of Ghana is to make sure that we are not left out of the progress that is ahead of us in the 21st century,” he added.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana