The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has disclosed that government is working towards retooling the Intelligence Agencies in the country.
Presenting the Mid-Year Budget review before Parliament,;he revealed that government will do this through the deployment of enhanced intelligence infrastructure.
“Mr. Speaker, we are also working to further retool the Intelligence Agencies through the deployment of enhanced Intelligence Infrastructure to ensure that the intelligence agencies are able to effectively provide early warning as well as targeted responses to any envisaged threat.”
Ken Ofori-Atta
He disclosed that,;the Ministers for National Security, Defence, and Interior have begun extensive consultations with the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament with the objective of designing a holistic strategy to retool the security agencies and bring them up to the desired standards under the National Security strategy.
“Implementation of this strategy will be critical if we are to preserve the peace, order and security of the State.”
Ken Ofori-Atta
This move and improvement comes on the back of the recent security and terrorism threats the country and its neighboring countries across the subregion is currently facing.
The Finance Minister based on this indicated that, it has become imperative to address the existing vulnerabilities, and intensify pre-emptive, preventive and counter measures to any potential threats to the nation’s security and sovereignty in the light of the risk of the sub-region suffering from the contagion effects in the short to medium term.
Government deploys preventive response along borders
Following an assessment of the threat on the Northern border of the country,;Mr.Ofori-Atta said government has deployed a robust pre-emptive and preventive response along the border.
“Plans are underway to install state of the art ground and air Integrated Intelligence Infrastructure,;upgrade immigration border cabins at the major entry points, and integrate communications infrastructure which will be reinforced by heavy military deployment with ground and air support in the short-term.”
Ken Ofori-Atta
He further said Ghana continues to demonstrate leadership on sub-regional security issues, coordinated through the Accra Initiative, which serves as a coordinating and intelligence sharing platform with neighboring countries with the objective of preventing spillover of terrorist activities from the Sahel, and to address transnational organized crime and violent extremism in member countries border areas.
Seven countries involved in initiative
Mr. Ofori-Atta also stated that the countries forming the initiative are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Togo.
“Mr. Speaker, owing to our consistent track record of a stable democracy, good governance, respect for rule of law, able political leadership in a volatile sub-region and notable leadership in the region, the African Union and ECOWAS unanimously endorsed Ghana’s membership as a non-permanent member to the United Nations Security Council.
“When polls closed on 11th June 2021, Ghana had the highest number of votes of 185 out of 190 ballots. Consequently, Ghana will begin her term on the UN Security Council from 1st January, 2022 and serve until 31st December, 2023.”
Ken Ofori-Atta
