President, Nana Akufo-Addo has named 54 persons to serve as ministers of state at the presidency and deputy ministers of state in his government.
In a letter addressed to the speaker of Parliament on Wednesday, March 15, 2017, the president urged the house to approve the nominees which include the deputy majority leader, Adjoa Sarfo, penned to be a Minister of State at the Officer of the President in charge of Public Procurement.
The President of the Central University College, Professor Kwesi Yankah will also be the Minister of State at the Ministry of Education in charge of Tertiary education.
This brings the number of ministers and deputies in the Akuffo-Addo administration to 110, with a political commentator describing it as the largest government in the history of the Fourth Republic.
In Jerry John Rawlings’ first term after the 1992 elections, he had Nineteen (19) substantive ministers, but he increased to Twenty-Five (25) in his second term. John Agyekum Kufuor in his first time increased the number of substantive ministers to Thirty-One (31), and maintained the same number in his second term.
The late John Evans Atta Mills in his first term managed to beat down the number to Twenty-Three (23) to fit into his vision. It must however be noted that, he had six (6) Ministers of State in addition to the Twenty-Three (23) bringing the number to Twenty-Nine (29).
John Dramani Mahama had Twenty-Four (24) substantive ministers, with Five (5) Ministers of State at the presidency, making it Twenty-Nine 29, the exact number Atta Mills had.
