Ghana\u2019s President John Mahama has announced a ban on state-funded first-class travel for government officials, including cabinet ministers, as part of measures to reduce government spending.<\/p>\n
The directive was issued on Friday, February 7, during the swearing-in ceremony of 17 new ministers at the presidential palace in Accra.<\/p>\n
President Mahama emphasized that only essential travel will be allowed and must first be approved by the office of the chief of staff. \u201cI have imposed a ban on non-essential travel forthwith to cut down on government expenditure. Any travel deemed essential must be undertaken in modesty\u2014no first-class,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He further urged officials to avoid displays of extravagance and make prudent use of public resources, stressing that government funds should be directed toward improving the lives of Ghanaians rather than luxury.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe resources you will be working with belong to the Ghanaian people. Those resources are not to be wasted on opulence and extravagance,\u201d Mahama told his ministers.<\/p>\n
The president also revealed that an ongoing audit into the use of state resources by officials of previous administrations would soon be completed. Appropriate action will be taken against those found guilty of misusing public funds.<\/p>\n
With the swearing-in of the new ministers, Ghana\u2019s cabinet now includes 42 ministers. The ban on first-class travel is expected to signal the government\u2019s commitment to responsible spending at a time when the country faces significant economic challenges.<\/p>\n
First-class travel, often chosen by senior officials for its comfort and privacy, comes at a high cost\u2014sometimes up to 70% more than economy class. Mahama\u2019s directive aims to ensure public funds are used more effectively to benefit citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ghana\u2019s President John Mahama has announced a ban on state-funded first-class travel for government officials, including cabinet ministers, as part of measures to reduce government spending. The directive was issued on Friday, February 7, during the swearing-in ceremony of 17 new ministers at the presidential palace in Accra. President Mahama emphasized that only essential travel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Africa News","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,33,27],"tags":[158,3559],"class_list":["post-15190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-politics","category-west-africa","tag-ghana","tag-john-mahama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}