NPP Women’s Wing Hails Government for Passing Affirmative Action Bill

The National Women’s Wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has commended the government for passing the Affirmative Action (Gender Equity) Bill 2024 into law. The bill, which aims to address gender imbalances in public and private sectors, was passed by Parliament after years of advocacy.

Kate Gyamfua, National Women’s Organiser of the NPP, praised President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s government for its commitment to women’s empowerment and development. She noted that the passage of the bill is a testament to the NPP’s women-centric policies, including free maternal care, microfinance initiatives, and the appointment of women to key positions.

Gyamfua expressed gratitude to individuals and groups who contributed to the bill’s passage, including the President, Vice-President, Ministers, Parliament, queen mothers, women’s wings of political parties, and women advocacy groups.

The Affirmative Action Bill seeks to promote gender equity by encouraging efforts to address socio-cultural, political, economic, and educational gender imbalances. It aims for a minimum of 30% representation of women in public and private sectors.

The NPP Women’s Wing sees this achievement as a demonstration of the party’s promise-keeping and commitment to the collective agenda of empowering women in Ghana.

Read full statement:

NPP Women’s Wing Lauds Government for Passage of Affirmative Action Bill

Yesterday, the Parliament of Ghana, after several years, passed the Affirmative Action (Gender Equity) Bill 2024 into law. The Bill, which had been in and out of the August House and transcended several administrations, seeks to encourage efforts towards addressing socio-cultural, political, economic, and educational gender imbalances in private and public sectors, in accordance with Article 17 (4) of the 1992 Constitution.

Among other things, the objective of the Bill is to encourage the progressive increase and active participation of women in public and private sectors, aiming for a minimum of 30 percent representation.

Following the second-term victory of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government in January 2021, I pledged my full support to the new Minister of Gender, Children, and Social Protection in ensuring that the Bill gets passed.

In my statement on the 2021 International Women’s Day (IWD) celebration held on March 9, 2021, I stated, “While acknowledging the fact that the Akufo-Addo government has been a government that is women-centric, and has developed policies that go to the heart of women’s development, I believe our party will achieve the most if we are able to bring this to fruition. (i.e., pass the Affirmative Action Bill – see https://eveningmailgh.com/kate-gyamfua-writes-lets-get-the-affirmative-action-bill-done/)”.
I highlighted that “As a party credited with the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law, the passage and establishment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act and office, the passage of the Right to Information Act, among other groundbreaking laws, passing the Affirmative Action Bill will cement our position as the true party with the interest of the people at heart.”

It therefore gladdens my heart that after years of back and forth, the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government has once again proven its commitment to women’s empowerment and development by passing this Bill into law.
This again emphasizes our long-held position that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is women-centric, as has been shown vividly in our various policies such as free maternal care, the establishment of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) which mostly targets women, providing them with loans to expand their businesses, the school feeding programme to alleviate the burden of feeding basic school pupils for mothers, and the masterstroke Free SHS that has ended the age-old phenomenon of mothers selling their properties to provide secondary education for their children.

It needs emphasizing that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is the first president to have appointed a woman to the high position of Chief of Staff. Additionally, the NPP is the only party in the Fourth Republic to have appointed all three female Chief Justices since the coming into force of the 1992 Constitution.
As the government achieves yet another important feat with the passage of the Affirmative Action Bill, I use this opportunity to express appreciation to all individuals and groups that have been at the forefront of seeing to the attainment of this feat. I express my appreciation to the President, Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the first female Chief of Staff, Mama Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, past and present Ministers of Women and Children Affairs and Gender, Children and Social Protection, the Parliament of Ghana, queen mothers of Ghana, women’s wings of various political parties, women leaders in various fields including market associations and trade unions, female politicians, women advocacy groups, women commissions of the various students’ associations and unions in Ghana, among others.

We have proven as people and as a government that we can achieve what we set our minds to do if we push a collective agenda with a collective voice.
And the NPP has also proven that it is a promise-keeping party. Where all parties fail to see possibilities, we tell Ghanaians to set their minds on what seems impossible and believe that if we set our minds to do it, everything is POSSIBLE.
#IT IS POSSIBLE

Signed,
Kate Gyamfua
National Women Organiser,
NPP

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