Parliament has approved the nominations of Mahama Ayariga and Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings as Ministers of State, clearing both to take up portfolios that have stood vacant or in transition for the better part of a year. Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin put the question in the Chamber on Thursday, 27 August, hours after the Appointments Committee completed its vetting of the two Members.
The approvals came during the emergency sitting the Speaker recalled the House to attend this week. Ayariga takes the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, while Agyeman-Rawlings, Member of Parliament for Klottey-Korle, takes Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation.
Approval Comes Without Debate
The Speaker moved briskly. Noting that the House had heard its Members on the matter throughout the process, he questioned what remained to be deliberated and proceeded directly to put the question.
The ayes carried it on a voice vote, and Bagbin declared the nominations approved under Article 78(1) of the 1992 Constitution before congratulating both Members on behalf of the House.
Article 78(1) requires prior parliamentary approval for ministerial appointments, and the two names formed part of the batch President John Dramani Mahama submitted to the Speaker on 7 August as part of a wider reshuffle.
Ayariga Pledges Digital System for Assembly Revenue
At his vetting, Mahama Ayariga set out plans for a digital platform to bring transparency to the revenue that Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies raise for themselves. The system would cover property rates, market tolls and other internally generated funds, identifying the nature and applicable charges of properties and feeding into central monitoring.
His case is that assemblies cannot address development challenges on the resources they currently collect, and that the leakage in collection is largely a function of records that nobody can check. Centralised oversight, on his account, would tighten accountability and lift the amounts actually reaching assembly coffers.
Internally generated funds have long been the weak point of Ghana’s decentralisation framework. Assemblies depend heavily on transfers from the District Assemblies Common Fund, and the fund’s distribution formula was among the areas Committee members raised with the nominee, alongside religious affairs and the delivery of development projects at local level.
Galamsey Licensing at the District Level
Mahama Ayariga also addressed illegal mining, and located the problem where his new ministry has direct authority.
He called for closer attention to how small-scale mining licences are issued at local level, arguing that Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives must ensure mining within their jurisdictions is conducted lawfully and on an economically sound basis.
The position places a share of responsibility for galamsey with the chief executives his ministry supervises, a departure from the tendency to treat illegal mining as a matter for the Minerals Commission and the security agencies alone.
Environment Nominee Targets Waste, Chemicals and Mercury
Hon. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings used her appearance to sketch a programme built around waste management, climate action and tighter control of hazardous chemicals entering the country.
On waste, she pointed to the need for improvement in both sewage and solid waste handling, and raised the prospect of converting plastic waste into fuel. On chemicals, she pledged stronger monitoring at Ghana’s ports of entry to track what comes into the country, and said underground water, soil and farmland would be monitored to establish how far mercury has spread.
The mercury commitment connects her portfolio directly to Ayariga’s. Mercury used in small-scale gold processing has been the most persistent contaminant associated with galamsey, and its movement through water bodies and farmland has been documented for years without a systematic national assessment of the extent.
She also told the Committee that tackling illegal mining requires an all-of-government and all-of-society approach, a framing that acknowledges the limits of what any single ministry can deliver.
Carbon Markets and Guardrails for Artificial Intelligence
On climate, Agyeman-Rawlings said Ghana would pursue opportunities in carbon dioxide trading through the development of a carbon market, with support from the World Bank. Ghana has been among the more active African participants in Article 6 arrangements under the Paris Agreement, and the ministry she now leads carries the technical brief for that work.
Asked about artificial intelligence, she argued for appropriate legislative safeguards and human oversight to secure transparency and accountability in how public agencies deploy the technology.
The remark places the incoming minister on the side of statutory controls at a point when Ghana has no dedicated AI legislation and the African Union’s continental strategy is nearing the end of its first implementation phase.
Vacancies Left by the Helicopter Crash
Both appointments trace back to the Ghana Armed Forces helicopter crash of August 2025, which killed eight people including two serving ministers. Agyeman-Rawlings takes the environment portfolio previously held by the late Dr Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed, one of those who died.
She has represented Klottey-Korle since 2017 and is a medical doctor by training. She has served on the Environment, Science and Technology Committee of the House, which gives her a working familiarity with the ministry’s brief.
Mahama Ayariga moves from the front bench, having served as Majority Leader until the reshuffle. His departure from that role opened the way for James Agalga, MP for Builsa North, who is leading government business in the Chamber this week for the first time.
Hon. Mahama Ayariga represents Bawku Central, a constituency at the centre of the Bawku chieftaincy conflict, and the portfolio he now holds carries the chieftaincy brief. The House sits through Friday, with further government business still on the order paper.
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