President Mahama’s Spokesperson and Minister of State for Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has revealed that this year’s 6th March Independence Celebration will be held at the Flagstaff House, the seat of Government.
This is part of steps taken by the incumbent government to reduce the continuously increasing cost of hosting the independence parade in various regions, as has been embarked on by the previous government.
Addressing the press on Wednesday, 12th February, Mr. Kwakye Ofosu indicated that the Independence parade organized in the year 2023 amounted to a whooping Ghc 15 million.
President Mahama’s administration seeks to scale down this year’s Independence Day celebration as part of measures to cut down on expenditure.
He emphasised that the government is committed to prudent spending while delivering on its core mandate as promised during his campaign in the build-up to the December 7, 2024v Presidential and parliamentary elections. According to him, although the event used to be celebrated mainly in the national capital, in the last few years, there has been an effort to rotate the celebrations amongst various regional capitals.He said, “Whereas the intentions may be noble, President Mahama has asked that the rotational policy be suspended because of the need to scale down, and this has become necessary due to escalating costs. It has been discovered after some review that the rotation imposed additional cost, and therefore, at a time when our national budget is severely constrained due to economic difficulties, it was not going to be sustainable to keep rotating the national celebrations.”
He added “Indeed, if I were to put figures on how much it costs, you would find out that depending on where the celebrations are sent, there are significant cost implications. For instance, the last celebrations held in Ho cost the country a staggering GHS15 million, and every time it has been sent to a different regional capital aside from Accra, we’ve had to bear such cost.”
“In the spirit of cutting down on non-essential expenditure, President Mahama has instructed that this rotational policy be suspended. In addition to this, the main celebration, which ordinarily would have taken place in Accra at Independence Square, has become the subject of some rollback.”
According to Felix Kwakye Ofosu, the President alludes to the importance of celebrating Ghana’s Independence in all its glory but added that the country needs to save up more money to run the economy and undertake projects that will be beneficial to all and sundry. “He believes that it is entirely possible to hold a modest but significant event to mark this important occasion without breaking the national purse,” Felix Kwakye Ofosu stated. Source : Kobina Darlington/Peacefmonline.com
