The proposed Citizenship Identification Project was initiated by government to facilitate national planning and not a pretext for expelling aliens from the country.
A Deputy Government Spokesman on Finance and Economic Affairs, Nana Ohene Ntow who gave the assurance warned against the harassment of suspected aliens, if the exercise commenced next year. He was speaking at a Peoples Assembly at New Abirem in the Birim North District of the Eastern Region. Nana Ntow said it would be imprudent for the government to use the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Fund to defray the more than three trillion-cedi Tema Oil Refinery debt. He said instead, the amount would be used in providing health, education and social infrastructure among other projects for national development.
Nana Ntow said the Ministry of Finance has approved funds for the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation for the procurement of equipment including transmission machines to improve television reception and telecommunication system in the region. He also said a new agreement has been signed with the Telenor Company of Norway for the provision of telephone facilities through out the country within the next three years. Nana Ntow gave the assurance that the Ghana Standards Board and the Ghana Cocoa Board would be mandated to undertake regular inspection of weighing scales in order to check fraudulent cocoa purchasing clerks from cheating cocoa farmers.
The Deputy Minister of Interior, Mr Kwadwo Affram Asiedu said the government would employ qualified football coaches and provide logistics and incentives towards the development of soccer in the country. The Eastern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Adi Ankamah, said women engaged in agricultural would be considered for loans to enable them improve the work. He warned that party members who would dabble in chieftaincy dispute would be sanctioned.
