ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
The improved performance of the Zambian Kwacha and the ongoing reform agenda send positive signals to investors and regional partners alike.
Ghana looks forward to deepening trade, investment, and financial cooperation with Zambia to reinforce resilience and shared prosperity.
Ghana follows Zambia’s democratic journey with keen interest and confidence.
As Zambia prepares for general elections in August 2026, we express our trust in the strength of your democratic institutions and the commitment of the Zambian people to peaceful, free, and fair elections.
It is in this spirit that Ghana and Zambia have revitalised the Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation, providing a structured, results-oriented framework for collaboration across priority sectors, including trade and investment, energy, tourism, mining, agriculture, education, science and technology, youth development, and defence cooperation.
This afternoon, we have signed 10 Memorandums of Understanding as the framework for our cooperation.
Prominent among these is the MOU to allow visa-free travel for all categories of passport holders between Ghana and Zambia.
This is an important step towards the free movement of our people on the African continent.
Peace and security remain indispensable foundations for sustainable development.
Ghana values our cooperation with Zambia in defence training, intelligence exchange, and peacekeeping, and we remain committed to strengthening collective security across our continent.
Madam Speaker Equally important is the quest for justice, restoration, and dignity.
The African Union’s 2025 theme—Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations—is both a moral imperative and a forward-looking call to action.
As the African Union Champion for Reparations, Ghana will shortly sponsor a United Nations resolution on slavery, and we would be honoured to count Zambia among its co-sponsors.
Honourable Speaker, I am also addressing you this afternoon in my capacity as the African Union Champion for Gender and Development.
Ghana has moved beyond symbolism to action.
We have elected our first female Vice President and operationalised the Affirmative Action (Gender Equity) Act, mandating a minimum of 30 per cent female representation in public appointments.
Our Reset Agenda includes establishing a Women’s Development Bank to unlock financing for female-led enterprises.
But this is a continental struggle.
I urge us to advance together toward the Decade of African Women’s Financial and Economic Inclusion.
When we invest in women, we accelerate national development.
Madam Speaker, The future is African.
The African Continental Free Trade Area offers an unprecedented opportunity to boost intra-African trade, promote value addition, and accelerate industrialisation.
Ghana remains committed to working closely with Zambia to reduce trade barriers, harmonise standards, and stimulate private-sector partnerships.
Our people are the true custodians of this partnership.
The presence of Ghanaians in Zambia and Zambians in Ghana enriches both societies.
Africa’s demographic dividend, projected to account for a quarter of the world’s population by 2050, demands investment in skills, innovation, and representation in global governance.
Honourable Speaker, Honourable Members, I thank you sincerely for the honour of this invitation.
Ghana remains steadfast in its commitment to strengthening cooperation with Zambia, guided by implementation, mutual respect, and shared destiny.
Zikomo.
May God bless the Republic of Zambia.
May God bless the Republic of Ghana.
And may Africa continue to rise.
Vice President Biden, Mr.
Chief Justice, Members of the United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens: Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution.
We affirm the promise of our democracy.
We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names.
What makes us exceptional - what makes us American - is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
Today we continue a never-ending journey, to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time.
For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they have never been self-executing; that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth.
The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob.
They gave to us a Republic, a government of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed.
For more than two hundred years, we have.
Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free.
We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together.
Together, we determined that a modern economy requires railroads and highways to speed travel and commerce; schools and colleges to train our workers.
Together, we discovered that a free market only thrives when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play.
Together, we resolved that a great nation must care for the vulnerable, and protect its people from life's worst hazards and misfortune.
Through it all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society's ills can be cured through government alone.
Our celebration of initiative and enterprise; our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, are constants in our character.
But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.
For the American people can no more meet the demands of today's world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militias.
No single person can train all the math and science teachers we'll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores.
Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation, and one people.
This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience.
A decade of war is now ending.
An economic recovery has begun.
America's possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention.
My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it - so long as we seize it together.
For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.
We believe that America's prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class.
We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work; when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship.
We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.
We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time.
We must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, and reach higher.
But while the means will change, our purpose endures: a nation that rewards the effort and determination of every single American.
That is what this moment requires.
That is what will give real meaning to our creed.
We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity.
We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit.
But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.
For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty, and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn.
We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few.
We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm.
The commitments we make to each other - through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security - these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us.
They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.
We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity.
We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.
Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.
The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult.
But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it.
We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries - we must claim its promise.
That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure - our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks.
That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God.
That's what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.
We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.
Our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and courage.
Our citizens, seared by the memory of those we have lost, know too well the price that is paid for liberty.
The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilant against those who would do us harm.
But we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war, who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends, and we must carry those lessons into this time as well.
We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law.
We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully - not because we are na»ve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear.
America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe; and we will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad, for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation.
We will support democracy from Asia to Africa; from the Americas to the Middle East, because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom.
And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice - not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice.
Fellow Ghanaians, The season of Christmas is upon us again, signaling the end of yet another year.
On behalf of the First Lady, my wife Rebecca, my daughters, my grandchildren and my entire family, and on behalf of Government, I send best wishes to all Christians in Ghana, and, indeed, around the world, for a Merry Christmas, and best wishes for a Happy New Year to all Ghanaians and citizens of the world.
As we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and as we give and receive His Goodwill in this Holy Season, I urge all of us to bear in mind the true meaning of His life on Earth.
He was born to reconcile man to God, and, in so doing, demanded that we love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind… and love our neighbours as our ourselves.
The cardinal principles of Christianity – charity, faith, humility, love and reconciliation – should guide us in this festive season and beyond.
Fellow Ghanaians, I know these are difficult times for us.
Undoubtedly, 2021 has proven to be a tough year not only for us, but also for everyone on the planet.
COVID-19 has affected every sector of the global economy and our national life; nothing, in its path, has been spared its ravages.
Our economy, which was growing at an average of 7% in 2017, in 2018 and in 2019, grew by 0.4% in 2020, because growth in industry, services, tourism and manufacturing sectors, which drive the economy and provide jobs for many Ghanaians, contracted dramatically in 2020, as a result of the sudden disruption in the global supply chain and the steep decline in the global economy, which sent the global economy into recession.
This is the stark reality of the situation, not an excuse.
Indeed, but for the bold and timely measures put in place by Government to cushion Ghanaians against the worst effects of the pandemic, our situation would have been more precarious.
For the purposes of propaganda and narrow partisan and parochial interests, some would have you believe that the difficulties we are facing are purely Ghanaian phenomena, made by the NPP government under my leadership.
Pay no heed to such persons.
They know the truth, but cannot speak it.
The significant fact for me is my determination to pull us out of this situation.
Government has designed a solid programme for the recovery and revitilisation of the economy, which is the one hundred-billion-cedi Ghana CARES ‘Obaatampa’ Programme.
We have completed the implementation of the Stabilisation Phase in 2021, which saw the economy grow at 6.6% in the 3rd quarter of 2021, with a projected overall growth of 4.4% for 2021.
2022 and 2023 will be the years of Recovery and Revitilisation and faster economic growth.
Already, there are clear signs that the economy is bouncing back strongly, just as there are welcome indications that the global economy is also recovering.
The work undertaken by my government, over the last five (5) years, in education, healthcare delivery, agricultural and industrial transformation, infrastructural enhancement, especially in the road sector, the empowerment of the security services, and the development of the digital economy, amongst others, is evident.
I appeal to you to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with my government in these trying times.
You have stood with me most of my adult life; you gave me a resounding victory in 2016, and you returned me to office again, with the help of God, with another decisive victory in 2020, because I fulfilled, largely, the commitments I made to you in 2016.
United in our democracy, we will emerge from this difficult patch stronger and even more resilient.
Let us not see the economic difficulties of today as the blueprint for tomorrow.
I am a firm, passionate believer in our national potential.
We have it in us to rise up and revive our fortunes.
There are brighter days ahead for Mother Ghana.
As Christmas fills our hearts with gratitude, let us not forget that COVID-19 is still very much in our midst.
The number of active cases is currently on the rise.
So, let us act and live responsibly, let us continue to adhere to the protocols of social distancing, enhanced hygiene and mask wearing.
We have, for nearly two (2) years, been wearing masks, avoiding shaking hands and using sanitizers, which have been uncomfortable experiences for us all, even though they have helped keep us safe.
The science tells us that getting vaccinated is the most effective way to defeat the virus and go back to our normal way of life, re-open fully our economy, and return our nation onto the path of progress and prosperity.
Government has succeeded in securing considerable quantities of vaccines for the country, numbering nearly twenty-three million (23 million) doses so far.
So, I entreat all those who have not been vaccinated to do so.
Our responsibility to one another requires that we be vaccinated.
Let us all celebrate the season safely and responsibly, and maintain the peace of the nation.
It is my fervent hope that this Christmas will be celebrated without any road accidents.
Drivers must minimize their speed, take due precaution for other road users, drive without the influence of alcohol, and wear their seat belts, as must all passengers.
And please, in the name of Christian charity, remember to help those who are less fortunate in this festive season.
Me ma mo nyinaa afeyhia pa !
Min ha nyɛ fɛɛ afi oo afi, afi eya ni eba nina wͻ.
Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.
The opposition National Democratic Congress held a press conference on the Imposition of Restrictions Bill 2020, below is a full text of the briefing.
Good morning to you our friends from the media.
A few days ago, we learnt of a Bill titled “Imposition of Restrictions Bill, 2020” presented to Parliament by the Honourable Attorney General, Miss Gloria Akuffo, on behalf of President Akufo-Addo for expeditious passage and implementation.
The Bill is purported to be part of measures government is taking to manage the CODVID 19 pandemic.
The NDC as a political party has no objections to laws that will assist our country to deal with the current COVID19 pandemic.
We will even encourage and assist in drafting such legislation if required.
However, the Bill before Parliament bears the hallmarks of authoritarian rule and the NDC would like to state right from the onset that we are totally opposed to it in its current form.
We have therefore brought you here to share with you our concerns and give the reasons for our opposition to same.
LADIES & GENTLEMEN of the media We acknowledge the need for the State to take effective measures to fight the COVID19 pandemic.
It is that fact that makes this bill all the more alarming.
Indeed, the present crisis requires a comprehensive set of policy measures that respond to its attendant public health, social and economic impacts.
A single draconian measure like the proposed Restriction Bill is limited in its utility and myopic in its constitutional considerations.
All Ghanaians including the NPP majority itself must be alarmed at the content of this bill.
The bill gives to the President broad powers and authority devoid of any checks and balances.
This bill is the most egregious attack on our fundamental human rights and freedom since the inception of the 4th Republic.
It is the type you would expect from dictators like Iddi Amin and President Bokasa of the Central African Republic who ended up crowning himself Emperor.
The reach of the bill, including the power of the President to specify offences and penalties by an executive instrument, is so unprecedented that we are reminded of the dark days in our political history when our liberties counted for nothing.
Our scepticism over the intent of this bill is founded on the inconsistency and lack of candor displayed by the President in the enforcement of those measures needed to address this pandemic.
In the first instance, the announcement of a $100 million allocation to that fight has turned out to be a political gimmick.
The Finance Minister confirmed as much when he stated that those funds were not presently available, and would have to be sought from the IMF.
As yet, there is still no clarity as to when these desperately needed funds may be available.
Further, the response of the NIA and the EC to the President’s directive on social distancing continue to undermine the urgent necessity for total compliance.
The former, which is an agency under the Office of the President, was first to disregard the call and continues with its careless disregard for public safety.
And although it is within the authority of the President to call the institution to order, no such action has been taken yet.
The belligerence of the EC also undermines the public health response.
At a time when all efforts should be directed at expanding awareness of the lethal virus and measures to prevent its transmission, the EC’s behaviour is distracting the public attention.
And the expenditure associated with the compilation of the needless new register is a luxury this nation can ill afford in the face of an impending economic crisis.
The insistence on this exercise reflects a dangerous lack of priorities that is also inconsistent with the demands of the emergency we face.
Ladies and gentlemen, to quote Pastor Mensah Otabil, there is something on the prowl.
We do not trust the underlying intent of this bill, and we do not trust this particular President to exercise the wide powers the bill seeks to grant him for the limited purpose of addressing the threat to public health that COVID-19 poses.
In any case there is currently in our Statute Books pieces of legislation, namely, the Public Health Act 2012 (Act 851), the Public Order Act 1994 (Act 491) and the Immigration Act 2000 (Act 573) and together, these laws provide sufficient measures that the state can employ to address the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic.
For example, the Public Health Act provides in adequate detail the powers that state authorities can exercise without the extensive threat to human rights that the bill under consideration is envisaging.
In addition, the Public Health Act 2012 incorporates into our laws the well-measured, balanced and specifically tailored World Health Organization’s International Health Regulations to help us confront this threat to our public health.
The Immigration Act additionally equips the Immigration Department with sufficient authority to control movements in and out of the country without the sweeping powers granted the president in the bill to virtually toy with the lives of our countrymen and women.
Again, the Public Order Act 1994 (Act 491) empowers the Minister of Interior to take certain actions “ in the interest of “public safety” and “public health”.
Ladies and gentlemen, the powers President Akufo-Addo will assume under the bill are no different in substance from those that were granted by the Preventive Detention Act to our first President and the National Liberation Council under the Protective Custody Decree.
The current Act presented has at Section3(1)(d) the following: “The President may impose a restriction under subsection (1) of section 2 where (d) the restriction is reasonably required for the purpose of safeguarding the people of Ghana against the teaching or propagation of a doctrine which exhibits or encourages disrespect for the nationhood of Ghana, the National symbols and emblems or incites hatred against other members of the community.”
How does this section have any bearing on COVID19 or any other health issue for that matter?
We are convinced, beyond all peradventure, that President Akufo-Addo will use these powers to settle scores, restrict the lawful activities of individuals, including opposition political parties and generally make it impossible for the tenets of democracy to thrive in this election year.
In short, as far as the NDC is concerned, President Akufo-Addo is using the excuse of the coronavirus pandemic, which does not even receive a passing mention in the bill, to complete the erection of the rigging infrastructure that he has been engaged in since he assumed office.
In any case, ladies and gentlemen of the media, Article 31 of the 1992 Constitution provides elaborate measures for how this country should be governed in a state of emergency.
Those provisions give Parliament very wide powers of oversight such that rights guaranteed by the Constitution are not abused by a president with evident dictatorial tendencies.