President of the Republic Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo has bemoaned the maintenance culture of the country’s public institutions, emphasizing that “we are not good at ensuring the proper maintenance” of state assets.
Addressing a delegation of chiefs, elders and opinion leaders of the Western and Western North Regions of Ghana at the Jubilee House when they paid a courtesy call on him, President Akufo-Addo in identifying with a request by the leader of the visiting delegation, Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyebi II, President of the Western Regional House of Chiefs, to rehabilitate the deplorable Effia Nkwanta Hospital, said every Ghanaian needs to make a decision about developing a careful and well thought out culture of maintainance.
“We are not good at it and we need to be good at it because it will save us a lot of money in the future. We build something, we don’t maintain it, it means that five years, ten years, twenty years’ time, we have to have more money to build it again. If we are able to maintain them, it means that little bits of money over the years will keep these institutions going,” President Akufo Addo said.
“All of us, chiefs, politicians, opinion leaders, ordinary citizens, we need to imbibe the maintenance culture. It costs us a lot of money allowing situations like Effia Nkwanta Hospital to go to pieces because effectively now, it may be not be necessarily pulling it all down but what is involved in rehabilitating it perhaps could build a new hospital,” the President pointed out.
Export of Raw Materials
The President during his address noted that government in the very near future will be introducing a law that will prohibit the expoxt of all raw materials in Ghana. According to the President, a law has already been passed that will prohibit within the next five years, the export of raw bauxite from Ghana.
“I want to add manganese to that and in due course, may be we will have a law that prohibits the export of all our raw materials so that we have the processing and the value adding here inside Ghana,” the President stressed.
Chief and Leader of Delegation
Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyebi II, President of the Western Regional House of Chiefs, in his brief remarks as leader of the delegation beseeched the President to use his good office to ensure that the payment of accumulated balance which were outstanding before he took office on the payment of royalties due MMDCs and Traditional Authorities are paid. President Akufo Addo on that score said he will speak with the treasury of the state to see how the payment could be made. On the matter of the concerns of the Chiefs about the poor road network in the Western and Western North Regions, the President said same will be addressed with upcoming massive infrastructure development that is going to sweep across the country.
