{"id":104385,"date":"2025-11-27T20:42:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T20:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=104385"},"modified":"2025-11-27T20:42:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T20:42:03","slug":"mahama-ayariga-highlights-major-gains-in-mining-and-health-sectors-in-2026-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=104385","title":{"rendered":"Mahama Ayariga highlights major gains in mining and health sectors in 2026 budget"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga has defended the government\u2019s record in the mining and health sectors, insisting that the 2026 Budget demonstrates unprecedented progress.<\/p>\n

Closing the debate on the policy document, he dismissed attempts by the Minority to downplay the achievements, particularly in gold export earnings and the fight against illegal mining.<\/p>\n

\u201cGold export earnings surged by 71.4%, from US$7.7 billion in 2024 to US$13.3 billion in 2025,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Ayariga explained that small-scale miners were now selling more through official channels due to reforms, including the abolition of the 1.5% withholding tax and intensified anti-smuggling operations.<\/p>\n

He argued that the GHC 150 million allocated to the anti-galamsey fight was only part of a broader, multi-agency effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe retooling of the air force and other security agencies is also anti-galamsey spending,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n

On the health sector, Mr Ayariga criticised claims that the government had underfunded Agenda 111.<\/p>\n

He compared this with what he called a \u201cscandal of monumental proportions\u201d under the previous administration, alleging that hundreds of millions of dollars were spent without completing any hospitals.<\/p>\n

He cited examples where generators were hired solely for ceremonial commissioning events.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey hired generators for the President to commission hospitals and closed them after the event,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n

The Majority Leader also celebrated improvements to the National Health Insurance Scheme, including the uncapping of the NHIA and the record GH\u20b53.4 billion transferred to the authority in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur NHIS is now financially reliable, stable and trusted,\u201d he told Parliament, noting that claims payments had reached GHC2.84 billion by October 2025.<\/p>\n

He contrasted this with what he said were wasteful contracts under the previous administration, including a controversial $100 million IT contract.<\/p>\n

Concluding, he said the 2026 Budget reflects a renewed focus on social investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have shifted from strangulating social spending to expanding it significantly,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis government is building a stronger foundation for health, mining and social protection.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"MajorityMajority Leader Mahama Ayariga has defended the government\u2019s record in the mining and health sectors, insisting that the 2026 Budget demonstrates unprecedented progress.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4620,1185,2924,575,1883,117,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2026-budget","category-energy-sector","category-health-sector","category-mahama-ayariga","category-national","category-news","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}