The Ghana chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Ghana) has asked the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to ensure a closure in gender gap with regards to subsequent ministerial appointments.
The President of the FIDA- Ghana, Ms Afua Brown-Eyeson, in a statement said, considering the low number of women in the current list of appointments, it wished to respectfully request that subsequent appointments by the President would close the gender gap, as women were more than 50 per cent of the population.
This comes on the back of the first list of President Akufo-Addo’s nominees for sector Ministers and Regional Ministers designate which has eight women out of the 43 Ministers.
Ms Afua Brown-Eyeson, stated that, as it awaited, once again, for Parliament to pass the Affirmative Action law, it wished to state that Ghana’s Constitution prohibited gender discrimination, especially, in the appointments of state officials.
She further urged that, as the President was exercising his constitutional mandate to appoint persons to head ministries, agencies, departments, boards, embassies, high commissions and other such positions required by the Constitution, he should ensure that more qualified women were appointed to serve the nation in various capacities.
“Article 35(5) and (6) of the Constitution of Ghana instructs the State to actively prohibit discrimination on the ground of gender by taking appropriate measures to achieve reasonable gender balance in recruitment and appointment to public offices.
“The United Nation’s Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) recommends a minimum of 30 per cent of all appointments as reasonable gender balance.”
The Federation then congratulated President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on his re-election as the Fifth President of the Fourth Republic and also congratulated the first batch of female appointees and wished them a successful vetting process and term.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo in his list of nominated ministers selected eight women to man the affairs of some ministries in the country.
This was contained in a Jubilee House release signed by the Acting Director of Communications, Eugene Arhin which showed that, out of the 46 ministerial appointments, eight were women, six Ministers and two Regional Ministers.
They include the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tano North in the Ahafo Region and former Deputy Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Freda Prempeh, who has been nominated as Minister of State-Designate for Works and Housing.
The former Minister of State responsible for Procurement, Sarah Adwoa Safo, will head the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.
Mavis Hawa Koomsoon, who is the former Special Initiatives Minister now will also head the Fisheries Ministry.
Cecilia Abena Dapaah and Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey get to retain their seats at the Sanitation and Water Resources and the Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Ministries respectively.
Ursula Owusu-Ekuful also retained her Ministry, however. It has been given an additional responsibility as it’s been recaptured as the Communications and Digitalisation Ministry.
Justina Marigold Assan and Justina Owusu-Banahene have been nominated as Ministers for the Central and Bono Regions respectively.
