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According to him, the benefits of the President’s foreign trips far outweigh the costs involved.
“The President travels across the world and brings back a lot of dividends. I am surprised when anybody suggests that all that he has seen is the cost but does not want to look at the benefits,” the Minister told Accra-based Citi FM.
Last month, it emerged that the Presidency spent over GHc60 million on foreign travels and other related activities within the first nine months of 2019.
READ ALSO: Presidency spent over GHc62 million on foreign travels in 2019
This was contained in a budget estimate presented to Parliament on Thursday by the Presidency.
An amount of GHc62,578,224 was spent on foreign trips, while GHc5.8 million and GHc1.9 were spent on hotel accommodation and refreshments, respectively.
Also, GHc1million was spent on printed materials and stationery within the nine-month period.
These figures led to criticism of the President, with some suggesting too much was being spent on his foreign trips.
Responding to this, Oppong Nkrumah said the benefits Ghana derives from the President’s foreign travels far outweigh the costs involved.
“For example, when the President traveled to Germany with the Minister for Finance, Ghana had the opportunity to be put in the Compact which gives us a lot of money to roll out a number of interventions and support for General Budget Support. The President has travelled to jurisdictions like China. Take that Chinese trip, for example, we are getting $2 billion worth of infrastructure from that single Chinese trip,” he said.
“I am surprised when anybody says, I just want to look at the cost but I don’t want to look at the benefits that come on the other side. You have got to look at all of these matters in context and the kind of benefits that the President brings on board when he travels abroad.”