Shirley Ayorkor Botchway is Foreign Affairs Minister
Property rental for Ghanaian missions abroad cost the Foreign Affairs Ministry an estimated GHS62m approximately US$14m in 2017.
The ministry paid the GHS62m for 52 cities across the world which had Ghanaian missions situated there. This comprises missions in Africa, America, East Europe, Asia and Europe.
In Africa for instance, the ministry paid US$393,000 as rent in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, making it the expensive rent payment among the 23 regional African cities that is housing these Ghanaian missions.
Commenting on the issue in parliament on Friday, December 15, Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said the time has come for the Foreign Affairs Ministry to consider buying properties in such countries to be used by the Ghana's foreign missions in order to save the country some money.
On his part, Ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa lamented the poor conditions of service for Foreign Service Officers and called for improvement to help the officials provide better services.
