President John Dramani Mahama has announced a GH¢1 billion budget allocation to support the retooling of Ghana’s security agencies, including the Fire Service and the Ghana Police Service.
The move is aimed at strengthening their operational capacity and addressing long-standing resource constraints.
The announcement came on Friday, June 20, following a recent Security Council meeting where President Mahama raised concerns about the dire state of logistics and equipment across key security agencies.
“I have managed to squeeze the hand of the Minister of Finance to his back, and we will get a budget of a billion cedis for retooling of your various services,” the President said during a briefing with security officials.
Highlighting the Fire Service, President Mahama empathized with the public’s frustration over late response times but emphasized that the delays are often due to outdated or inadequate equipment.
“The Fire Service needs equipment urgently. I empathize with them when they get insulted by people when they do not get to fire incidents early. The issue is that they do not have the equipment. Some of the equipment was bought 10 years ago. There has not been a retooling,”