ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
This was a programme our late Minister for Defence, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, was desirous of seeing to full execution.
I charge the NSA and the GAF to bring life into the exercise for the benefit of the personnel and the training of our youth.
Speaker, my government has launched a wide range of initiatives aimed at transforming Ghana’s trade, agribusiness, and industrial sectors to boost our competitiveness in export markets, encourage value addition, and generate employment for Ghana's large youth population.
My recent visit with the Minister for Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, to inaugurate new factories and expansion works, convinced me that Ghana is on the right track for industrial transformation.
The ministry has begun implementing policies in the areas of textiles and garment manufacturing, pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing, automotive and component manufacturing, and contract farming and agro-processing.
As a first step, we are collaborating with the private sector to establish three garment factories in the Eastern, Central, and Bono East regions, creating an estimated 27,000 jobs.
Mr Speaker, this government will fulfil its commitment to revive key state-owned enterprises.
The Ministry is in the process of sourcing strategic investors to operationalise the Komenda Sugar Factory, Volta Star Textiles, Pwalugu Tomato Factory, Zuarungu Meat Factory and the Akosombo Textiles Limited.
Ghana’s Non-Traditional Exports recorded a 27.04% growth in 2025 with total earnings of $4.87 billion, up from $3.83 billion in 2024.
This reflects a very early impact of the Accelerated Export Development Programme (AEDP), launched only last year, and demonstrates the continued resilience and expanding contribution of the Non-Traditional Exports sector to Ghana’s export economy.
Mr Speaker, the mining sub-sector remains a cornerstone of Ghana’s economic development, making substantial contributions to employment creation, export earnings, and government revenue.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service, the mining and quarrying sub-sector accounted for 17.4 per cent of the overall 33.8 per cent industry share of Gross Domestic Product in 2025, emerging as the leading contributor within the industrial sector.
The sector generated export earnings of approximately $15.25 billion, accounting for 65.37 per cent of Ghana’s total export receipts, out of a total of $23.33 billion.
The abolition of Value Added Tax (VAT) on mineral exploration activities is expected to significantly reduce upfront costs for investors, improve project economics, and stimulate increased greenfield and brownfield exploration across the country Mr Speaker, the fight against galamsey remains complex and demands a multidimensional response that integrates strong enforcement, the application of technology, sound regulation, and active community participation.
The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, in collaboration with the Ministry of Transport, the Ghana Revenue Authority (Customs), and the Ministry of Finance, has registered 1,808 pieces of earth-moving and mining equipment at the port, of which 1,033 are being tracked.
The protection of our water bodies and forest reserves is ongoing with the deployment of 1,634 Blue Water Guards across the Western, Western North, Savannah, Upper West, Bono, Eastern, Ashanti, Central, Volta and Northern Regions.
This nationwide deployment aims to strengthen surveillance, improve rapid response, and enhance on-the-ground enforcement against illegal mining activities that threaten critical water sources, forest ecosystems and livelihoods.
NAIMOS will maintain regular, coordinated operations across all twenty-one (21) identified hotspots to prevent re-entry.
While temporary deployments yielded positive results, they proved insufficient for sustained enforcement.
Mr Speaker, the Works, Housing and Water sub-sectors are vital pillars of Ghana’s national development, shaping sustainable livelihoods through a reliable water supply and affordable housing that enhance citizens' well-being.
Sea defence works are ongoing.
We have successfully completed works at Komenda, Ningo–Prampram and Elmina.
Together, these three projects have protected approximately 15 km of coastline and safeguarded lives, livelihoods and property.
In March 2025, I visited Solakope, Agavedzi, and Amutinu in the Ketu South Municipality, where tidal waves had displaced thousands of residents.
We made a firm commitment to address the devastation.
True to that promise, the contract for Phase 2 of the Blekusu Coastal Protection Project was awarded, and in August last year, I officially broke ground to commence the project.
The project is currently 25% complete, and calm has already been restored along the coastline.
Notwithstanding these actions, flooding remains a major infrastructural challenge in the country and a top priority for this government.
A task force on flooding is in place and coordinating the national mitigation efforts.
Mr Speaker, Ghana continues to grapple with a housing deficit currently estimated at over 1.8 million units.
Some significant strides have been made in the housing sector.
In line with the Government's earlier commitments to complete all ongoing housing initiatives, we have successfully concluded the Joint Venture arrangement for the completion of the Saglemi Housing Project.
The Attorney General is reviewing all related documentation to finalise and commence the project.
TDC Ghana is also steadily advancing work on 800 housing units under the Kpone Affordable Housing Project at Tema Community 26.
To position TDC Ghana as a key player in Ghana’s housing industry, I performed the sod-cutting ceremony last year for the Oxygen City Housing Project in Ho.
That project seeks to address Ghana’s housing deficit by developing 1,000 affordable housing units.
We have also continued with our resettlement housing efforts for the victims of the Akosombo Dam Spillage, with 251 of the planned 1,010 housing units in critical impact zones already under construction.
Collectively, these initiatives demonstrate the government’s continued resolve to expand access to affordable housing, strengthen urban planning, and provide relief to affected communities.
Mr Speaker, Ghana’s renewable water resources are estimated at about 54 billion cubic meters, with over 70% derived from the Volta Basin shared among six riparian nations.
We are implementing key interventions to expand and improve water services nationwide.
The following urban water supply projects are at various stages of completion: the Keta Water Supply Project, the Wenchi Water Supply Project, and the Sekondi-Takoradi Water Supply Project.
I am happy to announce that Anyako has good, clean drinking water today, and the Community Water and Sanitation Agency will commission the project next week.
It will also serve the island community of Seva.
We will begin preparatory work on the Damango and Sunyani Water Supply Expansion Projects and seek to finalise all financing arrangements for other water supply projects in Tamale, Yendi, Techiman, and Tarkwa.
The Danish Government has allocated grant support to improve water supply services in low-income and high-density areas in Wa and Bolgatanga, aiming to address water challenges and provide relief to vulnerable populations.
Mr Speaker, the following Rural Water Supply Projects are ongoing: Asankragwa, Sefwi Wiawso, Duadaso, Kweiman Danfa, Goaso, Juaben, Aveyime, and Adum Banso.
To strictly follow the Resetting Agenda and secure sufficient funding, the Ministry of Finance has allocated GHS 6.3 billion to the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF).
This amount covers four quarters of the 2025 fiscal year and is allocated to all 261 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to execute their activities outlined in the Medium-Term Development Plans and Annual Action Plans (AAPs).
Out of the amount released, a total of GHS 4.3 billion has been disbursed to all MMDAs.
The 4 th Quarter instalment is being processed for disbursement.
In fulfilment of the Government’s commitment to strengthen local governance and decentralisation, the Ministry has, for the first time in the history of local governance, disbursed a total of GHS 100 million in monthly allowances to all Assembly Members.
The Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, has finalised the designs for the 24-Hour Economy Modern Markets to be adopted and constructed by all MMDAs.
Procurement processes are far advanced to commence the construction of the 24-Hour Markets.
Tourism and Culture.
Our creative arts sector has so much to offer.
Creatives using new media are giving our nation greater prominence than we could achieve through any first-class media outlet.
Our economy will not be built only by traditional sectors but also by human-creativity sectors that will absorb those displaced from the shop floor by new AI technologies.
Ghana has become a favourite tourist destination because of our history, culture, arts, music, fashion, and food.
The government has allocated GHS 20 million to the film sector alone and another GHS 20 million to the broader creative sector.
I will be your personal ambassador for the tourism and creative sector.
Government will, in line with a new national MICE and Creative Events strategy, undertake the refurbishment of the Accra International Conference Centre to restore it to its iconic status as the country’s national and international events and conference venue.
The original contractors of the Centre, EnergoProjekt Ghana Limited, have conducted a structural integrity assessment at the request of the Chief of Staff and made recommendations for the facility's renovation and refurbishment.
They will commence the works in the next few weeks.
But, Mr Speaker, the AICC is not enough for a country seeking to develop its creative sector and become West Africa’s destination for meetings, musical concerts, entertainment, and conferences.
Working with the private sector, work will also commence this year on a befitting Convention and Creative Events Centre to position Ghana as West Africa’s leading hub for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions, and Creative Events.
The government will also begin this year the renovation of the State Banquet Hall, which has been closed for a couple of years.
Mr Speaker, this year, we will strengthen Ghana’s standing in major global and continental sports events.
We will make our 5 th FIFA World Cup appearance, and for us, this is an opportunity to boost national branding and the economy beyond just sports.
The Black Queens will compete at the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, building on their bronze medal finish in Morocco.
At the youth level, Ghana will participate in the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar with a multi-disciplinary team aimed at strengthening long-term elite pathways.
We will also compete at the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow, reinforcing Ghana’s presence across the Commonwealth sporting landscape.
Mr Speaker, as a member of the Ghana Journalist Association, I have been deeply concerned about abuses suffered by journalists at the hands of some errant security personnel.
I have asked the leadership of the security agencies to take firm action and to reorient their men and women on the need to be accommodating to journalists who are only doing their job of keeping citizens informed.
I have also been concerned about the state of the State-owned media, almost all of which have suffered from historical underfunding and are grappling with deteriorating infrastructure and facilities.
I recently toured these media houses to learn about their challenges, and we are currently putting together a revitalisation plan to leverage their valuable assets and reinject life into their operations.
The reintroduction of the Media Development Fund is also being reconsidered to support the Ghanaian media.
CONCLUSION Mr Speaker, during my recent trip to Zambia, we saw what a united Ghana can achieve on the global stage.
A simple mislabeling of our culture could have reduced us to a punchline.
Instead, we moved with speed and confidence.
We corrected the record.
We turned ridicule into reach.
We turned confusion into connection.
We turned what could have been a negative social media trend into a handshake of friendship with our Zambian brothers and sisters.
For most, that episode was just a fleeting social media frenzy.
Yet it served a greater purpose.
It showed a nation that understands its brand equity.
It showed citizens aligned around a common identity.
It showed a country that knows who we are and refuses to be defined by others.
But let us be honest.
Unity in moments of cultural pride has proved easier than unity in moments of political disagreement.
If we can mobilise that same collective resolve for our development agenda, we will see real progress.
That mobilisation is possible.
We are the descendants of a people who united against political subjugation, resisted economic exploitation, and fought oppression.
Mr Speaker, our pursuit of national development today demands the same unity.
We must reject misrepresentation and distortion that detract from our collective progress.
We must guard our development as firmly as we guard our identity.
And we must act as one people with one purpose.
Mr Speaker, in public life, there is a simple maxim we are all very familiar with: the buck stops with the President.
I not only agree with this; every day I hold the office of President, I live by it.
The ultimate responsibility for the direction of this nation rests with the office I hold, and I would never shirk that duty.
But nation-building is not merely a question of who provides strategic direction and who bears final responsibility.
It is the long chain of effort that carries intent into reality — from policy conception to laws enacted, to resources mobilised, to services delivered, to value created on farms, in workshops, in classrooms, in markets, and in enterprises across our land.
It is here that the strength of a Republic reveals itself: in the countless acts of competence, integrity, and industry by citizens of every calling, whose work turns national purpose into lived reality.
While the buck may stop at the Presidency, the work of nation-building goes beyond it; through the labour, enterprise, and civic spirit of millions of Ghanaians, whose daily efforts give policy life.
I will continue to carry the weight of final accountability.
And I ask, in equal measure, that our citizens bring their full measure of energy, skill, and patriotism to the common task of advancing our country.
That is how nations build influence.
That is how economies grow.
No policy can substitute for civic duty.
No programme can replace the quiet discipline with which millions of Ghanaians sustain their families, serve their communities, and carry this Republic forward each day.
Mr Speaker, we are sometimes tempted to judge our nation only by the failures and difficulties we face.
But a country is not defined solely by its burdens.
It is defined by the choices its people make in response to them.
Repeatedly throughout our history, Ghanaians have chosen steadiness over despair, cooperation over division, and purpose over cynicism.
That is the deeper strength on which our future rests.
We have faced testing moments before.
Periods of economic strain.
Transitions that have demanded much from our citizens and public servants alike.
Mr Speaker, there is an old African proverb, (QUOTE) “However long the night, the dawn will break.”
(UNQUOTE) The dawn is breaking for Ghana.
The moment we are in requires not only endurance but also action.
It reminds us that renewal belongs to those who prepare for the morning, while others still speak of darkness.
For Ghana today, that dawn is not a promise we recite.
It is a reality we must build into our institutions, in our economy, and in the ethic of responsibility we pass on to the next generation.
So let us live each day, mindful that the Republic is larger than any one political party, any office, or any moment.
This Republic belongs equally to the farmer and the trader, the teacher and the nurse, the artisan and the entrepreneur, the young citizen just finding her voice and the elder who has carried faith in this nation for decades.
Each has a stake.
Each has a duty.
Each has a claim on the future we shape together.
Mr Speaker, nations endure not because they are spared trial, but because their people refuse surrender.
Ghana has been tested before.
We did not yield then.
We will not yield now.
And so, with gratitude for how far we have come, and with resolve for the work ahead, I say, Mr Speaker, the State of our Nation is resilient, the state of our nation is renewing, and our nation is firmly in the hands of its people.
Shocking and unexpected are words that both describe your dramatic entry onto the political scene of Ghana and also your silent exit from this world.
It would take a whole book to write a tribute to a man whose life was so eventful; a man who has had a profound impact on several generations of Ghanaians.
All the world is a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.
You strode onto Ghana’s political stage like a colossus and played many parts.
Your part in the political drama has left an enduring legacy for our nation.
No man is perfect and “as it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one’’ (Romans 3:10).
And yet, the sum of your role in Ghana’s history will be remembered positively.
Your role in bringing peace and stability to ECOWAS Subregion, especially the Liberian and Sierra Leone civil wars, is acknowledged and celebrated.
Your leadership in what was the most difficult decade in Ghana's history led to important reforms that created the political stability and economic growth that we now consider absolutely normal.
Your signature promulgating the 1992 Constitution gave birth the most enduring democratic Republic Ghana has experienced in its entire historical existence.
Ghana has you to thank for this.
The decentralised local government system based on the District Assembly concept is also a lasting legacy of your stewardship in Ghana's political space.
Your contribution to the African success story in collaboration with other progressive African leaders culminated in ending apartheid in South culminated in ending apartheid and swearing-in of Nelson Mandela as its first black president.
Your penchant for saying it as it is without regard for political sensibilities earned you the moniker "Mr.
Boom".
A proud son of the Volta Region, you gave Ghana another chance and a new breath of life under the 4th Republic.
On this lifelong quest to achieve truth, probity and accountability, you gave your soul, your thoughts, your heart and all your energy ceaselessly.
Last year, during the celebration of the 31st December anniversary Winneba you were in high spirits.
Little did any of us who were with you that day know that we'll celebrate the next anniversary of the revolution without you.
As founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) your death leaves a vast vacuum that would be hard to fill.
None can match your political astuteness, wit and charisma.
For those of us the comrades you've left behind, it is time to close ranks and collectively work to guarantee the unity and survival of your party NDC as a vehicle that entrenches your memory and legacy for posterity.
"Boss" - you may be gone but your memory will continue to inspire countless generations of Ghanaians to challenge the status quo and use their non-conformism to spur societal progress.
You were and remain the soldier of a lifelong and restless quest for freedom and justice.
Flt Lt L. Rawlings, Chairman of the AFRC.
Chairman of the PNDC, leader of the revolution, 1' President of the 4th Republic of Ghana, rest in eternal peace.
Our best days are ahead of us my brothers and sisters!
A while ago, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana declared me the winner of the 2024 presidential elections.
I give thanks and praise to God almighty because this successful outcome is the doing of the Lord.
I want to thank the Vice President for his statesmanship in conceding the election long before the Commission declared the results.
This concession largely diﬀused the tensions that characterise high-stakes elections such as this.
The results as declared by the EC show that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) with me, John Dramani Mahama, as leader, has just chalked one of the most emphatic victories in the electoral history of the Fourth Republic.
We have, therefore, been bestowed with a very outstanding mandate by the good people of Ghana.
I am deeply honoured and humbled to receive such an overwhelming endorsement from the Ghanaian people, and I wish to thank all who made this possible by going out to vote for me.
I thank all Ghanaians for your continued belief in our democracy despite the severe crisis our nation is going through.
I also congratulate our Parliamentary Candidates who have also swept the electoral landscape with a resounding victory.
I have a legion of thanks to give for this emphatic electoral success.
Let me begin by thanking the Almighty God—the creator of heaven and earth, for protecting and preserving us through this whole campaign period.
To paraphrase the Psalmist, I also give thanks to God for preparing a table before me in the presence of my ‘enemies’.
And for anointing my head with oil and making my cup overﬂow.
Let me begin by thanking my wife, Lordina, and my family for standing by me through all the diﬃcult Dmes when victory and success appeared elusive and out of sight.
On those gloomy occasions, you came through and oﬀered me the encouragement to keep soldiering on.
I would like to thank the Vice President-elect Professor Jana Naana Opoku-Agyemang for being an exemplary and inspirational running mate.
Naana, your decency, humility, and sense of responsibility added so much to this campaign.
The eyes of every young girl, not only in Ghana but in nations across this continent and the world are on you today.
Your name has become synonymous with breaking boundaries.
You have opened the door for boundless opportunities for our female citizens.
Because of you, the people of Ghana can celebrate the fact that we have made history by electing our FIRST WOMAN as Vice President.
I must also thank my very loyal and dedicated staﬀ, who have been with me over the last eight years in opposition, for the sacriﬁce and hard work they have put into this endeavour.
To my campaign team members and the countless volunteers who spent uncountable hours, day, and night, working to secure victory, I cannot thank you enough.
To the Council of Elders, the gallant leadership of the National Democratic Congress led by Chairman Johnson Asiedu NkeDa, and our general membership, I am deeply grateful for your dedication and commitment to this cause and your willingness to give everything to ensure success in this election.
To all the religious leaders who prayed for me, to all the Civil Society organisations, and professional groups we consulted in building our message, to all the traditional leaders who warmly welcomed me to your palaces during the campaign, our security oﬃcers across the country, the media, and EC staﬀ; to you all I say a big thank you.
For all its historic undertones, this mandate represents many things for all political actors and those who seek to lead our country.
It shows that the Ghanaian people have little tolerance for bad governance, particularly of the sort witnessed in the last eight years, and that they are willing to take decisive action at critical moments when it matters most.
These eight years have witnessed some of the darkest periods of governance.
The crises our beloved country has been through these last several years have lea a scar on our national psyche which may take some time to erase.
This mandate also serves as a constant reminder of what fate awaits us if we fail to meet the aspirations of our people and govern with arrogance.
My brothers and sisters, there is much to do to salvage our country and reset it.
It would have to start with a reset of the relationship between citizens and elected oﬃcials.