NCCE to struggle ahead of 2020 polls as support from EU ends

Many election-related activities of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) may be suspended in the run-up to the 2020 elections due to lack of funds.

This is because the European Union (EU) that provides funds for the NCCE to undertake its activities which have been in place since 2012 will run out by close of the year.

According to the Chairperson of the NCCE, Josephine Nkrumah, about 90 percent of their election-related activities which mainly covered programmes to educate the citizenry had been funded by the European Union.

Speaking on Eyewitness News on Thursday, Ms. Nkrumah indicated that, the failure of successive governments to prioritize the activities of the Commission is to blame for the current turn of events.

“If you look at what has transpired over the last few elections, there has been little funding from the government of Ghana. Typically, we have been funded by the European Union during the 2012 elections and the 2016 district level and general elections. But, that grant title has come to an end. So in the near future if we are going to fund as we currently are, then largely it means that little money will be going into rigorous election and education in anticipation of the 2020 general elections.”

“If you look at the Constitution, we are supposed to be funded by the government from the consolidated fund. But we have always had the complement of the development partners supporting us from various aspect. And for the last seven years, our consistent partner has been the European Union. Government usually gives us a part of what we are meant to get under the ceiling they compel us to operate under. The ceiling is inadequate and the releases are not timely so it is important that we are properly funded. I think that for a long time, the NCCE has not been a priority to many governments that have so we are constantly and consistently fighting to stay above waters.”

Madam Josephine Nkrumah further mentioned that the NCCE is, therefore, appealing to other developmental partners to come to their aid especially at a time where vigilantism is hovering around in order not to mar the conduct of next year’s polls.

“The Commission cannot sit down for this to happen so we are looking at specific collaboration. We believe that we can still continue to talk to developmental partners to see if we can get some support from them. For the developmental partners, they hold the view that as a country, we should be able to hold our own election activities without their support.”