Madam Fatimatu Abubakar, the Minister-Designate for Information has advocated more investments and more support for the Ministry and its agencies, so that they can thrive.
She made the appeal in her response to a question by Mr Samuel Nartey George, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) during her vetting at the public sitting of the Appointments Committee of Parliament in Accra.
Mr George asked the nominee what necessary interventions were needed to put in place to save the Ministry from being scrapped.
He asked: “Given the lack of funding for the Ministry of Information, there’s the school of thought that says we should scrap the Ministry and handover the communication functions of the Ministry to the Presidential Communications Directorate, since there is a Presidential Spokesperson, let them speak on every aspect of Government, so that the Office of Government Machinery, which has more resources will then be to finance Government’s communications properly.
“What is your candid opinion?”
Madam Abubakar in her response noted that as Ghanaians live in an information age, it would be an incurable harm if the Ministry of Information was scrapped.
” I believe that we should advocate more allocation (of resources) and to let people know the importance of the Ministry,” she stated.
“Honourable Chair, when the Ministry was merged at a point in time with the Communications Ministry, if you had been to the Ministry of Information building, all the ISD (Information Services Department) buildings as we have today, the evidence of the struggles of the various agencies under the Ministry was not something that you could even have words to explain.”
She reiterated that it pays that Ghanaians had a sector Ministry that was minded that even though the key entities under the Ministry were not income generating, they played a public duty, and Ghanaians need to pay attention to them.
The Nominee underscored that the Information Ministry has helped improve the fortunes of the agencies under it.
“Also, Honourable Chair, I am happy to inform you that the GBC (Ghana Broadcasting Corporation) that we knew of yesterday, is not what we have today, the GBC is growing, although steadily,” she said.
She added: “The GBC that we had, used to have one channel, as I speak to you today, Honourable Chair, apart from the GTV that you know, we have the GBC News, we have the GTV Sports, we have G-Learning Channel, we have the Life Style Channel and Obonu and I wouldn’t be surprised if the management adds other platforms to the GBC brand.”
She said it was very good, because in difficult times, they had really come through for Ghanaians in terms of sports and online education.
“So, please Honourable Chair, let’s keep the Ministry of Information and advocate more investments and more support for the Ministry and its agencies, that they can thrive.”
GNA
BM/AD
08 March 2024
Caption:
Madam Fatimatu Abubakar
