President John Dramani Mahama has provided clarity on why the Information Services Department (ISD) was moved to be under the presidency as part of the 23 newly announced ministries.

The President stated that the decision was partly aimed at streamlining the government machinery, aligning with a key promise from the National Democratic Congress’ campaign manifesto in preparation for the 2024 general elections.

He shared this reasoning during a meeting with a delegation from the Institute of Public Relations-Ghana at the Jubilee House on Wednesday, January 22, 2025.

"With regards to government communications, you will notice that there is no Information Ministry in the line-up of 23 ministries that we recently announced. That was partly in response to our promise to downsize government," he explained. 

"But then it also meant that we have to be very strategic how we dealt, especially with the flow of information from government because that is critical to the success of whatever we intend to do," the President added. 

He continued: "So the structure we put in place was to bring information into the presidency and that is how come we have a Minister of State in charge of government communications."

The President also emphasized that the new structure is supported by a team of communication experts, who will ensure that information regarding government activities, particularly in key sectors, is regularly communicated to the public.

"And then to make sure that we are able to anchor it with a string of strong communication professionals in the most critical sectors so that we are able to guarantee as much information flow to the public as possible," he stated.

"One of the things that is remain to be done is to bring the Information Services Department under the presidency and modernise that organisation from a civil service organisation into a modern organisation that gives guaranteed information flow to the public in respect of whatever government is doing," he added.