Trade and Industry Minister, Kobinna Tahir (KT) Hammond was on Tuesday 13th July 2023 halted midway through question time in Parliament when members of the House complained about his speech.
The Minister who was responding to a Parliamentary question changed his speech and began using American slang and rumbled through his prepared response to a question.
A spontaneous protest erupted in the Chamber of Parliament when Parliamentarians, especially from the Minority side took issue with the way the Minister was reading his answer.
Member for Bole Bamboi, Alhaji Yusif Sulemana, who caught the eye of the Speaker and spoke on the matter insisted Hon. KT Hammond should necessarily refine his speech to enable members to understand him better.
He said, “I’m very sure that the Minister is here to read to us what is on that paper. And when he was reading, some of us could not hear anything.”
“We appeal to him to take his time and read so that we listen and understand what is in there so we can ask follow-up questions.”
“In fact, he is not reciting the Qur’an so he should take his time,” he said.
The question was by the MP for Pru, Kwabena Donkor who asked the Trade and Industry Minister what efforts the Ministry is making to develop the Water Bottling Industry to international standards and thus end the importation of water into Ghana.
In response to the question, Mr. KT Hammond explained there are conscious and well-laid plans to make manufacturing a mega thrust in employment besides the extractive sector.
According to him, since the inception of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, the Akufo-Addo government has put in place a comprehensive framework for industrial transformation dubbed the ten-point plan aimed at making Ghana the manufacturing hub in Africa.
The plans, he said, consist of ten components that include the national industrial revitalization programme (the stimulus package) to assist the acquisition of medium and long-term capital for distressed but viable companies to restore and enhance their production capacity among others