The Minister for Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has stated that this year’s Independence Day celebration will be hosted at the Jubilee House.
According to him, the regional rotational celebration has been paused to reduce cost. The minister revealed that the decision by this government, to celebrate this year’s Independence Day at the Jubilee House, is to reduce state spending and encourage prudent spending, while fulfilling its governmental mandates.
He stated that although the event was usually held in the national capital – Accra, in the last few years, the celebration has mostly been held in the regional capitals, through a rotational system.
Mr. Ofosu stressed on the cost effect of the regional rotation system, stating that, “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 the 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.”
The minister, in his address to the media, gave instances where the country had to spend quite an amount during the rotational system.
He said, “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 GHS 15 million, and every time it has been sent to a different regional capital aside from Accra, we’ve had to bear such cost.”
He assured Ghanaians of the promise of this government to be prudent in its spending while stating that, “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 the Independence Square, has become the subject of some rollback.”
He emphasized that the President’s decision is not to reduce the importance or relevance of the celebration but rather, he believes that it is a celebration which is significant in the country’s history, however, the current economic challenges and other pressing needs has caused the government to re-prioritise government expenditure.
There have been sparks of conversations among citizens, where people are arguing that suspending the regional rotation of the celebration will not give most Ghanaians, the chance to experience the celebration.
However, others are also of the view that currently, the topmost priority is to reduce government spending.
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