The Education Minister Hon. Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh won the Overall Best Minister of the Year 2017 Award at the 8th Ghana Entrepreneur and Corporate Executives Awards in Accra on Saturday, April 28, 2018.
The award was in recognition of the Minister’s extraordinary role in the successful implementation of President of Ghana H.E. Mana Akufo Addo’s flagship policy ‘Free Senior High School’, which his critics doubted it’s role out and success, in the heat of economic challengess.
The Ghana Entrepreneur and Corporate Executive Award is organised by Entrepreneur Foundation of Ghana (EFG), which aims at exclusively recognizing the significance of outstanding Ghanaian entrepreneurs, government officials and corporate chief executives.
The award was presented to the Education Minister at dinner gala held at the Movenpik Ambassador Hotel in Accra, by the USA Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Robert Porter Jackson.
The theme for the 2018 award was “Enhancing Business Growth through Corporate Entrepreneur Development”.
Receiving the award, Hon. Dr. Opoku Prempeh, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Manhyia constituency in the Ashanti region, dedicated the award to Ghana president Nana Akufo Addo for having trust in him and giving him the opportunity to serve in his government.
“I thank the President of Ghana his visionary leadership in entrusting such delicate ministerial portfolio to my care, especially when his critics doubted the success of the implementation of the free Senior High School policy, in the heat of economic challenges, one of the campaign promises that brought his government to power,” he gladly acknowledged.
“I also dedicated the award to to all Ghanaians for their support in ensuring the successful implementation of the free SHS,” he added.
The free SHS, as a social intervention program, started in 2017 and has increased access to Secondary Education by removing the burden of paying fees from parents.
Under the policy, the government foots all the bills including feeding fees, tuition fess and all other charges, and over 420,000 eligible students have enjoyed the program when it took off in 2017.
Source: otecfmghana.com/Francis Appiah
