By Iddi Yire
Accra, Nov 24, GNA – Mr Dominic Nitiwul, the Minister of Defence on Friday touted the Ministry’s achievements during his tenure over the past seven years.
Contributing to the debate on the 2024 Budget on the floor of Parliament in Accra, Mr Nitiwul centred his debate around infrastructural development, training and moral within the armed forces, modernisation and reforms, the equipment state of the armed forces and international relations within the armed forces.
This, he said, was to let the people of Ghana know what the Government had done over the past seven years.
“Mr Speaker, this Government has taken the largest infrastructural development since 1992 within the Ghana Armed Forces; from housing to the military bases, to injection of capital into hospitals, it has taken the largest infrastructural development,” the Minister said
“In fact, on the coastal front, Mr Speaker, we’ve expanded hugely, the Military Academy into a world modern training facility that is there for everybody and I am inviting Members of Parliament to come on the 22nd of December to see for themselves the state of the Military Academy of Ghana today and compare to the ground zero that it was before we came to power.”
He explained that there was a Military Academy but the Government moved it to a new site and literally built a complete new Military Academy for the training of officers.
Under the infrastructure again, the Minister mentioned that the Government had built a very massive Military Naval Base at Ezilinbo in the Jomoro Constituency of the West Region.
He noted the Ezilinbo Naval Base was the biggest Naval Base in Ghana and that the project was about 54 per cent complete, adding that this was the brain child of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
He said in the northern sector, the Government was building about 12 storage operating bases in 12 different sites, as part of efforts to move the military to the people, and three Logistic Centres across three cities – Tamale, Wa and Bolgatanga.
He said these Centres and bases were cumulatively 40 per cent complete while some were about 50 per cent complete or more.
He reiterated that the Akufo-Addo Government had provided more housing facilities for the military than any other Government since 1992.
He said the housing facilities were in all the Military Galleries – Tamale, Ho, Michel Camp (Tema), Second Infantry Battalion (2BN) and Fourth Infantry Battalion (4BN).
He said thanks to the Minister for Roads and Highways, they had done more roads than any other Government within the Military Barracks; saying no Government has done asphalting of military roads than the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Government.
He noted that evidence of the construction of the military roads were there for everybody to see.
He also noted that in the 2024 budgets, the provisions were made to provide more equipment for the Ghana Army, the Air Force and the Navy.
He said the Akufo-Addo Government had never sold any military land to any private developer; declaring that it would never happen under his watch.
GNA