18/07/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
PEOPLE from most of the ethnic groups in the three regions of northern Ghana at the weekend exhibited a sense of unity when they held a durbar to celebrate the birth of Prophet Mohammed (Dambafest), in Accra.
Despite the seemingly intractable conflict between the Mamprusis and the Kusasis in the Upper East Region and the Abudu and Andani gates (both Dagombas) in the Northern Region, it was a delightful scene watching the people mingle together and displaying their rich cultures with traditional dancing, drumming and songs, to the admiration of observers, including European tourists.
The variety of cultural displays gave meaning to the theme of the durbar, which was: “Cultural Consciousness for National Development”. The cultural extravaganza was organised by the Council of Chiefs and Opinion Leaders of the North Living in Southern Ghana (COCOON).
The other ethnic groups present at the grand occasion are the Gonjas, Walas, Bandas, Dagartis, Bermobas, Sammeres, Chakosis, Nanumbas, Frafras, Gurushies, Sissalas, Kokombas and Basares.
Re-enforcing the sense of unity, Vice-President John Dramani Mahama urged the people in the three regions of northern Ghana to shun ethnic and chieftaincy disputes and harness their potentials to develop their respective regions.
“For me, Dambafest presents us with an opportunity to take stock of our challenges and opportunities as a people from a common geographical area, and also to plan for the future,” he said in a speech read on his behalf by a Minister of State at the Presidency, Alhaji Amadu Seidu.
Mr Mahama said festivals were meant to galvanise the cultural consciousness of a people for national development.
However, he said, sometimes the ideals behind the celebration of festivals in the northern part of the country tended to be overshadowed by ethnic rivalries and tensions with dire consequences “which we must endeavour to avoid”.
Mr Mahama said chieftaincy disputes, ethnic animosities and land litigation had destroyed life and property in northern Ghana and affected the general development of the area.
“The phenomenon of insecurity in most parts of the north drives away potential investors and diverts government attention from using scarce resources otherwise meant for education, health, agriculture and other infrastructural facilities, to peacekeeping operations,” he said.
He expressed worry at some people in the southern part of the country who purchased and transported sophisticated weapons to north, and those who fanned chieftaincy disputes and other conflicts as a source of livelihood.
As a result, he said, most people in the north had not been able to go to school, and, therefore, lacked skills to engage in the productive sectors of the economy.
Therefore, Mr Mahama said, the Dambafest should remind the people of the need to emulate the “sterling” leadership qualities of the life of Prophet Mohammed so as to be able to provide quality leadership based on truthfulness, self-sacrifice and perseverance.
Besides, he said, Prophet Mohammed demonstrated tolerance in deed and word throughout his life, hence the need for the people “to show tolerance towards each other, and learn to live in peace and harmony with one another”.
On government support for initiatives in the north, Mr Mahama said the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) would address the social and cultural dimensions of the development of the north.
He said SADA would focus on broader economic development and wealth creation especially for small holder farmers.
The acting President of COCOON, Alhaji Osman Checkson Issahaku, said the chiefs and opinion leaders of the north living in the south were determined to mobilise Ghanaians, particularly those in the savannah area, for the emerging opportunities in the north.
“We also admit as chiefs that the days when we sat in our palaces and waited for our subjects to come to us are no more their expectation, but, rather, we as traditional rulers and opinion leaders, indeed, must reach out to our community in a way that mobilises and galvanises them in the course of national development agenda,” he said.
Alhaji Issahaku lauded the government for introducing the SADA to address the development needs of the north, and expressed the commitment of COCOON in the implementation of the project.
He said the rich cultures of the people of the north displayed at the durbar were a reflection of the holistic potential of natural and human resource.
He, therefore, asked development partners and investors to go to the north “in pursuit of great emerging economic potentials in agriculture, mining and industry to be powered by availability of abundant energy in the direction of Ghana’s emerging economy”.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Govt and GMA hold talks on salary
1/08/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE contentious issue of how much would constitute fair remuneration for Ghanaian doctors within the current economic circumstances is back on the negotiating table following the refusal of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) to accept a seven per increment proposed by the government.
The current negotiation, which is aimed at reaching a consensus on the issues of salary increment and allowances for doctors, involves the Fair Wages Commission (FWC) and the leadership of the GMA.
The President of the GMA, Dr Emmanuel Adom Winful, told the Daily Graphic that the first meeting, which was at the instance of the FWC, was held on Wednesday, at which both the GMA and the FWC demonstrated goodwill and the spirit to make compromises in order to reach a consensus on the contentious issues involved.
Dr Winful, however, declined to say what the compromises were, stressing that both parties had agreed to discuss the issues on the quiet till they reached an agreement.
The demands of the GMA, which necessitated the meetings, are contained in a communiqué it adopted at its fourth National Executive Council Meeting held in Bolgatanga.
The communiqué appealed to the government to urgently implement the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between it and the Minister of Health, Dr George Sipa Yankey, on May 26, this year, else the doctors would advise themselves.
The MoU was signed following the work-to-rule schedule embarked upon by the GMA.
It quoted the doctors as saying that they would not accept the proposed seven per cent increment, since public sector workers had been given a 17 per cent pay rise.
The communiqué said both parties agreed that salary negotiations that started in 2008 should be concluded, while the salaries for doctors for 2008 be increased by seven per cent with effect from January 2008.
It was also agreed that with effect from January 2009, 10 per cent basic salaries of doctors, including house officers, would be paid to them as on-call duty facilitation allowance, while doctors not housed in official government accommodation also received an allowance of 10 per cent.
According to the communiqué, the government accepted that the arrears should be paid in two tranches in July and August 2009, while those on conditions of service and salaries must be paid by the end of July 2009.
However, it said the Minister of Finance had postponed the payment of the arrears due members and stated that the arrears would be paid in four instalments, in violation of the agreement.
Dr Winful said the GMA and the FWC were making progress on the issues on the table.
However, he said the two parties did not agree on certain issues at the first meeting but stopped short of saying that the meeting had been deadlocked.
Instead, he said he was hopeful that the meetings would come up with a consensus on the issues under discussion.
He said the negotiations were ongoing but could not tell when they would conclude the meetings.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE contentious issue of how much would constitute fair remuneration for Ghanaian doctors within the current economic circumstances is back on the negotiating table following the refusal of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) to accept a seven per increment proposed by the government.
The current negotiation, which is aimed at reaching a consensus on the issues of salary increment and allowances for doctors, involves the Fair Wages Commission (FWC) and the leadership of the GMA.
The President of the GMA, Dr Emmanuel Adom Winful, told the Daily Graphic that the first meeting, which was at the instance of the FWC, was held on Wednesday, at which both the GMA and the FWC demonstrated goodwill and the spirit to make compromises in order to reach a consensus on the contentious issues involved.
Dr Winful, however, declined to say what the compromises were, stressing that both parties had agreed to discuss the issues on the quiet till they reached an agreement.
The demands of the GMA, which necessitated the meetings, are contained in a communiqué it adopted at its fourth National Executive Council Meeting held in Bolgatanga.
The communiqué appealed to the government to urgently implement the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between it and the Minister of Health, Dr George Sipa Yankey, on May 26, this year, else the doctors would advise themselves.
The MoU was signed following the work-to-rule schedule embarked upon by the GMA.
It quoted the doctors as saying that they would not accept the proposed seven per cent increment, since public sector workers had been given a 17 per cent pay rise.
The communiqué said both parties agreed that salary negotiations that started in 2008 should be concluded, while the salaries for doctors for 2008 be increased by seven per cent with effect from January 2008.
It was also agreed that with effect from January 2009, 10 per cent basic salaries of doctors, including house officers, would be paid to them as on-call duty facilitation allowance, while doctors not housed in official government accommodation also received an allowance of 10 per cent.
According to the communiqué, the government accepted that the arrears should be paid in two tranches in July and August 2009, while those on conditions of service and salaries must be paid by the end of July 2009.
However, it said the Minister of Finance had postponed the payment of the arrears due members and stated that the arrears would be paid in four instalments, in violation of the agreement.
Dr Winful said the GMA and the FWC were making progress on the issues on the table.
However, he said the two parties did not agree on certain issues at the first meeting but stopped short of saying that the meeting had been deadlocked.
Instead, he said he was hopeful that the meetings would come up with a consensus on the issues under discussion.
He said the negotiations were ongoing but could not tell when they would conclude the meetings.
GBC to be made a public broadcaster
3/08/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE Cabinet last Tuesday decided to review the legislation establishing the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC NLCD 226:1968 ) to make it a public broadcaster.
At the sixth anniversary celebration of TV Africa, a private television station in Accra last Friday, the Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, said the review of the legislation would model the GBC along the lines of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
The review of the legislation is expected to put to rest the raging debate about the status of the GBC.
He noted that the GBC “is suffering from identity crisis” as to whether to operate as a public broadcaster or a commercial broadcaster.
Mr Iddrisu told the Daily Graphic later that the review of the legislation would give the GBC the authority to serve the public well and support government’s efforts at building the country.
He said the change of status of the GBC would make the competition in the broadcasting industry keener.
“The GBC will take the pride of place in Ghana’s media landscape,” he stressed.
The minister, therefore, urged other media houses, including TV Africa, to accept the challenge and respond to the competition in the industry.
He again indicated that the government was committed to the passage of the Broadcasting Act.
Mr Iddrisu said the government wanted every district capital to have at least one public or private radio station to promote the dissemination of information across the country.
Equally, he said, television was important to serve as an effective tool in the dissemination of information within communities, saying that “It has the tendency of transforming social norms”.
Mr Iddrisu said some television stations created awareness about government policies and prepared the people to take advantage of such policies. He, however, said other television programmes “debase our cultural values, and promote child pornography, the use of violent weapons, and explicit sexual programming in the form of Telenovela”.
He, therefore, charged the management of TV Africa to support public education on societal ills, such as crime, fraud, HIV/AIDS, rural-urban migration, teenage pregnancy and street hawking.
Mr Iddrisu commended the station for extending its transmission to about 40 per cent of the viewing population in the country.
He reiterated the government’s commitment to respect, promote and guarantee the independence of the media, media pluralism and freedom of expression.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of TV Africa, Mr Kwaw Ansah, said the station would not use it medium to play politics with issues affecting the people, saying that “We cannot play politics with them.”
Rather, he said, the station would use its medium “to get the people out of the woods”.
The Managing Director of TV Africa, Mr Berifi Apenteng, said the station had come a long way in providing authentic and reliable information about Africa in an African context.
He said through its programmes - news, current affairs and entertainment - TV Africa had been projecting the values of Africa usually ignored by the Western media.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE Cabinet last Tuesday decided to review the legislation establishing the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC NLCD 226:1968 ) to make it a public broadcaster.
At the sixth anniversary celebration of TV Africa, a private television station in Accra last Friday, the Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, said the review of the legislation would model the GBC along the lines of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
The review of the legislation is expected to put to rest the raging debate about the status of the GBC.
He noted that the GBC “is suffering from identity crisis” as to whether to operate as a public broadcaster or a commercial broadcaster.
Mr Iddrisu told the Daily Graphic later that the review of the legislation would give the GBC the authority to serve the public well and support government’s efforts at building the country.
He said the change of status of the GBC would make the competition in the broadcasting industry keener.
“The GBC will take the pride of place in Ghana’s media landscape,” he stressed.
The minister, therefore, urged other media houses, including TV Africa, to accept the challenge and respond to the competition in the industry.
He again indicated that the government was committed to the passage of the Broadcasting Act.
Mr Iddrisu said the government wanted every district capital to have at least one public or private radio station to promote the dissemination of information across the country.
Equally, he said, television was important to serve as an effective tool in the dissemination of information within communities, saying that “It has the tendency of transforming social norms”.
Mr Iddrisu said some television stations created awareness about government policies and prepared the people to take advantage of such policies. He, however, said other television programmes “debase our cultural values, and promote child pornography, the use of violent weapons, and explicit sexual programming in the form of Telenovela”.
He, therefore, charged the management of TV Africa to support public education on societal ills, such as crime, fraud, HIV/AIDS, rural-urban migration, teenage pregnancy and street hawking.
Mr Iddrisu commended the station for extending its transmission to about 40 per cent of the viewing population in the country.
He reiterated the government’s commitment to respect, promote and guarantee the independence of the media, media pluralism and freedom of expression.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of TV Africa, Mr Kwaw Ansah, said the station would not use it medium to play politics with issues affecting the people, saying that “We cannot play politics with them.”
Rather, he said, the station would use its medium “to get the people out of the woods”.
The Managing Director of TV Africa, Mr Berifi Apenteng, said the station had come a long way in providing authentic and reliable information about Africa in an African context.
He said through its programmes - news, current affairs and entertainment - TV Africa had been projecting the values of Africa usually ignored by the Western media.
Vodafone asked to follow labour laws
5/08/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
A LABOUR consultant, Mr Austin Gamey, has urged the management of Vodafone to let the terms of the company’s Collective Agreement (CA) and Section 65 of the Labour Act be the basis for its decision to lay off 950 employees.
He told the Daily Graphic that the terms of the CA should supersede all other provisions in dealing with issues affecting employer-employee relations.
Mr Gamey said Vodafone had the right to lay off workers for economic and technological changes, but said it was required to follow the due process.
He was reacting to the decision of the management of Vodafone to lay off 950 employees by the end of November, 2009, under the company’s compulsory redundancy policy.
The Chief Manager of Corporate Communications of Vodafone, Mr Isaac Abraham, told the press that the lay-off of the workers was to pave the way for a new organisational structure that would take effect on December 1, 2009.
However, the Secretary-General of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Mr Kofi Asamoah, was reported to have said that Vodafone’s decision to lay off the workers undermined the legal practices governing the country’s labour relations.
Mr Gamey said it was wrong for the company to enter into any individual agreements with workers on the issue of laying them off.
Rather, he said, there should be a collective agreement on the issue of disengagement of workers.
The labour consultant asked the management of Vodafone to liaise with the Human Resource and the Industrial Relations departments of the company to sit down with the leadership of the workers to follow through the CA and Section 65 of the Labour Act, which deals with issues of employer-employee relations.
He said they could report to the National Labour Commission in case of any difficulties in understanding the provisions of the Labour Act.
Mr Gamey said it was “painful” for anyone to be laid off, aside of its impact on the labour front and the national economy as a whole.
However, he said, “there is nothing wrong” if an employer wanted to embark on a legal disengagement of workers - within the terms of the CA and the Labour Act.
Mr Gamey urged both the management and workers to stay calm while the issue of dispensing with the services of some workers was being discussed.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
A LABOUR consultant, Mr Austin Gamey, has urged the management of Vodafone to let the terms of the company’s Collective Agreement (CA) and Section 65 of the Labour Act be the basis for its decision to lay off 950 employees.
He told the Daily Graphic that the terms of the CA should supersede all other provisions in dealing with issues affecting employer-employee relations.
Mr Gamey said Vodafone had the right to lay off workers for economic and technological changes, but said it was required to follow the due process.
He was reacting to the decision of the management of Vodafone to lay off 950 employees by the end of November, 2009, under the company’s compulsory redundancy policy.
The Chief Manager of Corporate Communications of Vodafone, Mr Isaac Abraham, told the press that the lay-off of the workers was to pave the way for a new organisational structure that would take effect on December 1, 2009.
However, the Secretary-General of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Mr Kofi Asamoah, was reported to have said that Vodafone’s decision to lay off the workers undermined the legal practices governing the country’s labour relations.
Mr Gamey said it was wrong for the company to enter into any individual agreements with workers on the issue of laying them off.
Rather, he said, there should be a collective agreement on the issue of disengagement of workers.
The labour consultant asked the management of Vodafone to liaise with the Human Resource and the Industrial Relations departments of the company to sit down with the leadership of the workers to follow through the CA and Section 65 of the Labour Act, which deals with issues of employer-employee relations.
He said they could report to the National Labour Commission in case of any difficulties in understanding the provisions of the Labour Act.
Mr Gamey said it was “painful” for anyone to be laid off, aside of its impact on the labour front and the national economy as a whole.
However, he said, “there is nothing wrong” if an employer wanted to embark on a legal disengagement of workers - within the terms of the CA and the Labour Act.
Mr Gamey urged both the management and workers to stay calm while the issue of dispensing with the services of some workers was being discussed.
Political parties flout laws
7/08/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
Only one out of the seven political parties that contested the 2008 general election submitted its audited accounts for 2008 to the Electoral Commission (EC) as required by the Political Parties Law.
Section 21 Subsection (1) of Act 574 (2000) requires political parties to submit audited accounts of a preceding year to the EC by June 30 of the following year.
However, two months down the line only the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) has presented its audited accounts for 2008, according to the Director of Finance of the EC, Mr I. K. Boateng.
The others — the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the Convention People’s Party (CPP), the People’s National Convention (PNC), the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) and the Reformed Patriotic Democrats (RPD) — have not submitted their accounts to the EC.
Mr Boateng said some of the political parties which registered with the EC but did not contest the 2008 election had not submitted their accounts for between two and four years.
The audited accounts are meant to give the financial position of the political parties in terms of their assets and liabilities. They also give information on fixed assets (items that can be used for more than one year), current assets (assets that can be disposed of within a year), as well as their liabilities.
He said the audited accounts “tell a political party’s financial position, whether it is in debt or not. They also show whether the acceptable accounting procedure is followed”.
According to Section 14 Subsection 1 of the Political Parties Law, “A political party shall, within twenty-one days before a general election, submit to the commission a statement of its assets and liabilities in such form as the Commission may direct.”
Section (2) says, “A political party shall, within six months after a general or by-election in which it has participated, submit to the commission a detailed statement in such form as the commission may direct of all expenditure incurred for that election.”
And Section (3) provides, “A statement required to be submitted under this section shall be supported by a statutory declaration made by the general or national secretary of the political party and the national treasurer of that party.”
On the penalty, Section (4) stipulates, “Without prejudice to any other penalty provided in this Act or any other enactment, where a political party (a) refuses or neglects to comply with this section; or (b) submits a statement which is false in any material particular, the commission may cancel the registration of the political party.”
According to Mr Boateng, both the NDC and the NPP presented their audited accounts for 2007, while the CPP and the PNC presented theirs up to 2005.
He said the political parties were supposed to comply with the law requiring them to submit their audited accounts to the EC and indicated that their failure to do so amounted to flouting the law.
“The law says by 30th June the audited accounts of the preceding year should have been presented. So if they (political parties) do not comply, they have broken the law,” he said.
Mr Boateng, however, admitted that the political parties had not reorganised fully after the rigorous 2008 elections, noting that the leadership of none of the political parties had sent any correspondence to the EC regarding its inability to submit its audited accounts.
In the same way, he said, the EC had not written to the political parties to remind them of their constitutional requirement to submit their audited accounts.
He said the EC would take it up to write to the parties soon.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
Only one out of the seven political parties that contested the 2008 general election submitted its audited accounts for 2008 to the Electoral Commission (EC) as required by the Political Parties Law.
Section 21 Subsection (1) of Act 574 (2000) requires political parties to submit audited accounts of a preceding year to the EC by June 30 of the following year.
However, two months down the line only the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) has presented its audited accounts for 2008, according to the Director of Finance of the EC, Mr I. K. Boateng.
The others — the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the Convention People’s Party (CPP), the People’s National Convention (PNC), the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) and the Reformed Patriotic Democrats (RPD) — have not submitted their accounts to the EC.
Mr Boateng said some of the political parties which registered with the EC but did not contest the 2008 election had not submitted their accounts for between two and four years.
The audited accounts are meant to give the financial position of the political parties in terms of their assets and liabilities. They also give information on fixed assets (items that can be used for more than one year), current assets (assets that can be disposed of within a year), as well as their liabilities.
He said the audited accounts “tell a political party’s financial position, whether it is in debt or not. They also show whether the acceptable accounting procedure is followed”.
According to Section 14 Subsection 1 of the Political Parties Law, “A political party shall, within twenty-one days before a general election, submit to the commission a statement of its assets and liabilities in such form as the Commission may direct.”
Section (2) says, “A political party shall, within six months after a general or by-election in which it has participated, submit to the commission a detailed statement in such form as the commission may direct of all expenditure incurred for that election.”
And Section (3) provides, “A statement required to be submitted under this section shall be supported by a statutory declaration made by the general or national secretary of the political party and the national treasurer of that party.”
On the penalty, Section (4) stipulates, “Without prejudice to any other penalty provided in this Act or any other enactment, where a political party (a) refuses or neglects to comply with this section; or (b) submits a statement which is false in any material particular, the commission may cancel the registration of the political party.”
According to Mr Boateng, both the NDC and the NPP presented their audited accounts for 2007, while the CPP and the PNC presented theirs up to 2005.
He said the political parties were supposed to comply with the law requiring them to submit their audited accounts to the EC and indicated that their failure to do so amounted to flouting the law.
“The law says by 30th June the audited accounts of the preceding year should have been presented. So if they (political parties) do not comply, they have broken the law,” he said.
Mr Boateng, however, admitted that the political parties had not reorganised fully after the rigorous 2008 elections, noting that the leadership of none of the political parties had sent any correspondence to the EC regarding its inability to submit its audited accounts.
In the same way, he said, the EC had not written to the political parties to remind them of their constitutional requirement to submit their audited accounts.
He said the EC would take it up to write to the parties soon.
Prisons congested - report
13/8/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru & Natasha Lewis
THE rate of congestion in Ghana’s prisons worsened last year due to the increasing prison population, according to the 2008 annual report of the Ghana Prisons Service (GPS).
The cumulative prison population for 2008 was 5,170,840 as against the 2007 figure of 4,867,366, representing an increase of 5.9 per cent with an average daily lock-up of 14,128.
The report cited a high incidence of re-offending among ex-convicts as a contributory factor to the increasing prisoner population. Of the 9,377 convicted prisoners admitted in 2008, a total of 1,806 of them, representing 19.3 per cent, had been previously convicted.
It said 8,315 or 88.7 per cent of convicts admitted during the year were aged between 18 and 45.
The youthful nature of the prison population is highlighted in the report in relation to overcrowding with an emphasis on the need to expand facilities for more effective education and training of the inmates to make them productive.
According to the report, the most frequent offence committed by prisoners in 2008 was stealing, with an increase from 3,155 in 2007 to 4,263 in 2008.
The region with the highest occurrence of stealing offences in 2008 continued to be the Ashanti Region, with 1,518 convictions. The Eastern Region was second with 967 cases, followed by Western Region, 579; Central Region, 439; Brong Ahafo, 276; Volta, 191; Upper West, 99; Upper East, 90; Northern, 79 and Greater Accra with 25.
The number of prisoners held for abetment of crime more than doubled from 56 in 2007 to 119 in 2008. In both 2007 and 2008, the second most frequent offence committed was robbery but 2008 saw a decrease in cases from 792 in 2007 to 508.
A total of 131 people were convicted for murder and 11 imprisoned for manslaughter. Rape convicts numbered 79 with defilement recording 445 convicts.
Some 462 people were sentenced for possession of narcotic drugs, with 25 jailed for possessing firearms. A total of 174 people were jailed for driving offences.
Those convicted for assault/indecent assault numbered 287, causing damage/causing harm, 406; and threatening 142.
Fraud cases totalled 339 while conspiracy recorded 412 convicts. There was also a significant decrease in unlawful entry from 624 in 2007 to 330 in 2008.
Sixteen prisoners who escaped from custody were re-arrested and sentenced, while 45 people who could not settle their debts were also jailed and 42 persons convicted for dishonestly receiving.
According to the report, only one person was convicted in the Upper West Region for contempt of court, while nobody was convicted for child stealing.
Other offences were 1,600.
Given the youthful age (18-45) of the majority of prisoners, the report called for “a greater level of commitment to the effective reintegration of ex-convicts into society”, and indicated that projects had been “hampered by lack of funding”.
The Director-General of Prisons, William Kwadwo Asiedu, was quoted as mentioning “dwindling budgetary allocation, increasing prison population, lack of decent and adequate staff accommodation and the passiveness of society to the welfare of prisoners and its resentment towards ex-convicts” as the key challenges confronting the Prisons Service.
He, therefore, called for a “greater display of public goodwill towards the Ghana Prisons Service”.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru & Natasha Lewis
THE rate of congestion in Ghana’s prisons worsened last year due to the increasing prison population, according to the 2008 annual report of the Ghana Prisons Service (GPS).
The cumulative prison population for 2008 was 5,170,840 as against the 2007 figure of 4,867,366, representing an increase of 5.9 per cent with an average daily lock-up of 14,128.
The report cited a high incidence of re-offending among ex-convicts as a contributory factor to the increasing prisoner population. Of the 9,377 convicted prisoners admitted in 2008, a total of 1,806 of them, representing 19.3 per cent, had been previously convicted.
It said 8,315 or 88.7 per cent of convicts admitted during the year were aged between 18 and 45.
The youthful nature of the prison population is highlighted in the report in relation to overcrowding with an emphasis on the need to expand facilities for more effective education and training of the inmates to make them productive.
According to the report, the most frequent offence committed by prisoners in 2008 was stealing, with an increase from 3,155 in 2007 to 4,263 in 2008.
The region with the highest occurrence of stealing offences in 2008 continued to be the Ashanti Region, with 1,518 convictions. The Eastern Region was second with 967 cases, followed by Western Region, 579; Central Region, 439; Brong Ahafo, 276; Volta, 191; Upper West, 99; Upper East, 90; Northern, 79 and Greater Accra with 25.
The number of prisoners held for abetment of crime more than doubled from 56 in 2007 to 119 in 2008. In both 2007 and 2008, the second most frequent offence committed was robbery but 2008 saw a decrease in cases from 792 in 2007 to 508.
A total of 131 people were convicted for murder and 11 imprisoned for manslaughter. Rape convicts numbered 79 with defilement recording 445 convicts.
Some 462 people were sentenced for possession of narcotic drugs, with 25 jailed for possessing firearms. A total of 174 people were jailed for driving offences.
Those convicted for assault/indecent assault numbered 287, causing damage/causing harm, 406; and threatening 142.
Fraud cases totalled 339 while conspiracy recorded 412 convicts. There was also a significant decrease in unlawful entry from 624 in 2007 to 330 in 2008.
Sixteen prisoners who escaped from custody were re-arrested and sentenced, while 45 people who could not settle their debts were also jailed and 42 persons convicted for dishonestly receiving.
According to the report, only one person was convicted in the Upper West Region for contempt of court, while nobody was convicted for child stealing.
Other offences were 1,600.
Given the youthful age (18-45) of the majority of prisoners, the report called for “a greater level of commitment to the effective reintegration of ex-convicts into society”, and indicated that projects had been “hampered by lack of funding”.
The Director-General of Prisons, William Kwadwo Asiedu, was quoted as mentioning “dwindling budgetary allocation, increasing prison population, lack of decent and adequate staff accommodation and the passiveness of society to the welfare of prisoners and its resentment towards ex-convicts” as the key challenges confronting the Prisons Service.
He, therefore, called for a “greater display of public goodwill towards the Ghana Prisons Service”.
Local firm processes bio-diesel from sunflower
19/08/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru & Jasmine Arku
A local company, Tragrimacs Sunflower Ghana Limited, has set up a plant at Tema that processes 5,000 gallons of bio-diesel a day from sunflower.
The oil expeller processes sunflower seeds into crude oil while the bio-diesel processor refines the crude oil into bio-diesel, suitable for vehicles.
The bio-diesel produced from the sunflower is offered for sale, mainly to owners of tractors for farming and other purposes.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) supported the project with $25,000 under its Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme (GEF-SGP).
The Chief Executive Officer of Tragrimacs, Mr Issah Suleiman, made this known to the Daily Graphic after an inspection tour of a 40-acre sunflower plantation at Gomoa Adzentem in the Central Region.
The plantation has a portion for beekeeping for the production of honey.
According to Mr Suleiman, bio-diesel produced from sunflower had several advantages over other bio-diesel products.
For instance, he said bio-diesel from sunflower emit less carbon, thus making it environmentally friendly.
He said the decision to set up the plant to process sunflower into bio-diesel was necessitated by the huge demand and the increasing cost of fuel in the country.
Mr Suleiman appealed to the government to adopt the bio-diesel produced from sunflower as an alternative source of energy in the country.
He asked the government to work towards achieving five per cent production of bio-diesel from sunflower by 2015, and indicated that it would bring down the cost of fuel by 10 per cent.
The National Programme Co-ordinator of the UNDP GEF-SGP, Mr George B. Ortsin, said his outfit had provided funds to three categories of farmers to go into sunflower cultivation, processing and marketing.
The Chief of Gomoa Adzentem, Nana Asare I, who provided the land for the cultivation of sunflower, promised to offer more land to farmers to go into sunflower cultivation in the area.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru & Jasmine Arku
A local company, Tragrimacs Sunflower Ghana Limited, has set up a plant at Tema that processes 5,000 gallons of bio-diesel a day from sunflower.
The oil expeller processes sunflower seeds into crude oil while the bio-diesel processor refines the crude oil into bio-diesel, suitable for vehicles.
The bio-diesel produced from the sunflower is offered for sale, mainly to owners of tractors for farming and other purposes.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) supported the project with $25,000 under its Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme (GEF-SGP).
The Chief Executive Officer of Tragrimacs, Mr Issah Suleiman, made this known to the Daily Graphic after an inspection tour of a 40-acre sunflower plantation at Gomoa Adzentem in the Central Region.
The plantation has a portion for beekeeping for the production of honey.
According to Mr Suleiman, bio-diesel produced from sunflower had several advantages over other bio-diesel products.
For instance, he said bio-diesel from sunflower emit less carbon, thus making it environmentally friendly.
He said the decision to set up the plant to process sunflower into bio-diesel was necessitated by the huge demand and the increasing cost of fuel in the country.
Mr Suleiman appealed to the government to adopt the bio-diesel produced from sunflower as an alternative source of energy in the country.
He asked the government to work towards achieving five per cent production of bio-diesel from sunflower by 2015, and indicated that it would bring down the cost of fuel by 10 per cent.
The National Programme Co-ordinator of the UNDP GEF-SGP, Mr George B. Ortsin, said his outfit had provided funds to three categories of farmers to go into sunflower cultivation, processing and marketing.
The Chief of Gomoa Adzentem, Nana Asare I, who provided the land for the cultivation of sunflower, promised to offer more land to farmers to go into sunflower cultivation in the area.
Muslims start fast Saturday
18/09/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
Muslims in Ghana are to start this year’s Ramadan fast on Friday, August 21 or Saturday, August 22, 2009, depending on the first day that the moon will be sighted.
Thursday, August 20 is the first day for the sighting of the moon, and if the moon is sighted, Friday becomes the first day of fast, according to a communiqué issued by the National Hilal Committee at a two-day conference in Kumasi.
However, the communiqué said, if the moon was not sighted on Thursday, then Saturday becomes the automatic day for the start of the Ramadan fast.
The acting chairman of the National Hilal Committee, Sheikh Abdul Kadir Lomotey-Tagoe, who read the communiqué at a press conference in Accra yesterday, entreated Muslims to make it a point to sight the moon.
He said whoever sighted the moon in any part of the country was required to get a witness to confirm it. He is then supposed to inform the Regional Imam for onward relay to the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu.
Sheikh Abdul Kadir said because of the difficulties in determining the exact date that the Ramadan fast ends, there was a difficulty in fixing the holiday for the Eid-ul-Fitr celebration.
Besides, he said, there were many Muslim professionals and public servants in other parts of the country who could not join their families to celebrate the day due to the uncertainty of the agreed date for the holiday and the fact that it was only a day’s celebration.
Therefore, Sheikh Abdul Kadir said, the conference agreed that a request would be made to the government through the National Chief Imam for the extension of the Eid-ul-Fitr holiday to two days.
“In an event of not getting an immediate response from government over the request, the National Chief Imam would officially announce the date of the end of the fast, pending the one-day public holiday enjoyed by Muslims in the country,” he said.
Sheikh Abdul Kadir said the conference requested the National Hilal Committee to liaise with the Information Services Department (ISD) and media organisations to disseminate the dates for the starting and ending of the fast.
The Public Relations Officer of the Council of Muslim Chiefs, Chief Imoro Baba Issa, stressed the need for the government to consider extending the Eid-ul-Fitr holiday to enable Muslim public servants serving in remote areas to join their families to celebrate the day.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
Muslims in Ghana are to start this year’s Ramadan fast on Friday, August 21 or Saturday, August 22, 2009, depending on the first day that the moon will be sighted.
Thursday, August 20 is the first day for the sighting of the moon, and if the moon is sighted, Friday becomes the first day of fast, according to a communiqué issued by the National Hilal Committee at a two-day conference in Kumasi.
However, the communiqué said, if the moon was not sighted on Thursday, then Saturday becomes the automatic day for the start of the Ramadan fast.
The acting chairman of the National Hilal Committee, Sheikh Abdul Kadir Lomotey-Tagoe, who read the communiqué at a press conference in Accra yesterday, entreated Muslims to make it a point to sight the moon.
He said whoever sighted the moon in any part of the country was required to get a witness to confirm it. He is then supposed to inform the Regional Imam for onward relay to the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu.
Sheikh Abdul Kadir said because of the difficulties in determining the exact date that the Ramadan fast ends, there was a difficulty in fixing the holiday for the Eid-ul-Fitr celebration.
Besides, he said, there were many Muslim professionals and public servants in other parts of the country who could not join their families to celebrate the day due to the uncertainty of the agreed date for the holiday and the fact that it was only a day’s celebration.
Therefore, Sheikh Abdul Kadir said, the conference agreed that a request would be made to the government through the National Chief Imam for the extension of the Eid-ul-Fitr holiday to two days.
“In an event of not getting an immediate response from government over the request, the National Chief Imam would officially announce the date of the end of the fast, pending the one-day public holiday enjoyed by Muslims in the country,” he said.
Sheikh Abdul Kadir said the conference requested the National Hilal Committee to liaise with the Information Services Department (ISD) and media organisations to disseminate the dates for the starting and ending of the fast.
The Public Relations Officer of the Council of Muslim Chiefs, Chief Imoro Baba Issa, stressed the need for the government to consider extending the Eid-ul-Fitr holiday to enable Muslim public servants serving in remote areas to join their families to celebrate the day.
Hajj agents want pilgrims to fly from Tamale
22/08/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
HAJJ agents in the northern sector have appealed to the government to make it possible for prospective pilgrims in the three regions of the north to embark on their journey to Jeddah from the Tamale Airport.
By that arrangement, they said, they would be able to avoid the ordeal that prospective pilgrims from those regions went through by travelling down to Accra and sleeping under dehumanising conditions at the Aviance Village for days before departing to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The spokesperson for the Hajj agents, Alhaji Ayana Yakubu, told the Daily Graphic that it was possible to fly pilgrims from the Tamale Airport since a similar arrangement was effected in the 1970s.
He said the Tamale Airport had all the facilities and personnel to handle the departure formalities of the pilgrims.
Alhaji Ayana said, for instance, that competent personnel from the Ghana Civil Aviation, the Immigration Service and the Customs Excise and Preventive Service were stationed at the Tamale Airport.
In terms of proximity, he said the Tamale Airport was closer to the Jeddah Airport (five hours) than the Kotoka International Airport (six hours).
Alhaji Ayana, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Ayana Hajj Travel and member of the Ghana Hajj Agents Association (GHAA), told the Daily Graphic that in addition to prospective pilgrims from the Northern, Upper West and Upper East Region, those from the Brong Ahafo could also fly from the Tamale Airport to Jeddah, if the arrangement was made.
He said about 1,500, representing 50 per cent of the about 3,000 Ghanaian pilgrims, were from the three regions of the north and the Brong Ahafo Region.
Alhaji Ayana said prospective pilgrims from those areas were compelled under the current circumstances to come down to Accra and often got “stranded” at the Aviance Village for some days before leaving for the pilgrimage.
He said the plight of the pilgrims would be greatly reduced if they were made to take off from the Tamale Airport.
“Flying the pilgrims direct from the Tamale Airport to Jeddah will reduce the tension and difficulty that the pilgrims go through,” he stressed.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
HAJJ agents in the northern sector have appealed to the government to make it possible for prospective pilgrims in the three regions of the north to embark on their journey to Jeddah from the Tamale Airport.
By that arrangement, they said, they would be able to avoid the ordeal that prospective pilgrims from those regions went through by travelling down to Accra and sleeping under dehumanising conditions at the Aviance Village for days before departing to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The spokesperson for the Hajj agents, Alhaji Ayana Yakubu, told the Daily Graphic that it was possible to fly pilgrims from the Tamale Airport since a similar arrangement was effected in the 1970s.
He said the Tamale Airport had all the facilities and personnel to handle the departure formalities of the pilgrims.
Alhaji Ayana said, for instance, that competent personnel from the Ghana Civil Aviation, the Immigration Service and the Customs Excise and Preventive Service were stationed at the Tamale Airport.
In terms of proximity, he said the Tamale Airport was closer to the Jeddah Airport (five hours) than the Kotoka International Airport (six hours).
Alhaji Ayana, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Ayana Hajj Travel and member of the Ghana Hajj Agents Association (GHAA), told the Daily Graphic that in addition to prospective pilgrims from the Northern, Upper West and Upper East Region, those from the Brong Ahafo could also fly from the Tamale Airport to Jeddah, if the arrangement was made.
He said about 1,500, representing 50 per cent of the about 3,000 Ghanaian pilgrims, were from the three regions of the north and the Brong Ahafo Region.
Alhaji Ayana said prospective pilgrims from those areas were compelled under the current circumstances to come down to Accra and often got “stranded” at the Aviance Village for some days before leaving for the pilgrimage.
He said the plight of the pilgrims would be greatly reduced if they were made to take off from the Tamale Airport.
“Flying the pilgrims direct from the Tamale Airport to Jeddah will reduce the tension and difficulty that the pilgrims go through,” he stressed.
Impose non-custodial sentences...to decongest prisons
24/08/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru & Jasmine Arku
A CRIMINOLOGIST, Professor Ken Attafuah, has urged the Judiciary to impose suspended or non-custodial sentences on convicts who commit less serious crimes as a way of decongesting the country’s prisons.
Besides, he said the increasing number of re-offending among ex-convicts “indicates a clear failure of the rehabilitation of prisoners by the Ghana Prisons Service (GPS)”.
He said “the courts are enjoined to impose custodial sentences only when it is the reasonable option”, and stressed that “the goal of rehabilitation is a cardinal concern in the imposition of custodial sentences”.
Prof. Attafuah was reacting to the 2008 annual report of the GPS which indicated that the rate of congestion in Ghana’s prisons worsened last year due to the increasing prison population.
The report cited a high incidence of re-offending among ex-convicts as a contributory factor to the increasing prisoner population. Of the 9,377 convicted prisoners admitted in 2008, a total of 1,806 of them, representing 19.3 per cent, had been previously convicted.
Prof. Attafuah said: “Statistics indicate that the Judiciary continues to impose custodial penalties on convicts instead of liberally exercising their discretion to impose non-custodial penalties in appropriate cases as prescribed by the law.”
He mentioned probation, parole, fines, community service, apologies and compensatory service by the perpetrator to the victim as some of the non-custodial penalties that could be exercised under the country’s laws.
He stressed that the high incidence of repeated crimes showed the inadequacy of the resource base of the GPS “in ensuring effective rehabilitation and re-moulding of the character of prisoners.”
According to him, facilities at the prisons “are not only primeval, but also severely inadequate”, while the occupational skills imparted to the inmates “are not in keeping with contemporary needs and standards of society”.
Prof. Attafuah mentioned antiquated blacksmithing, tailoring with ancient machines, leather bag making and basket weaving as some of the out-of-fashion skills at the country’s prisons.
As a result, he said upon their return from prison, the ex-convicts were not able to find any gainful employment.
Prof. Attafuah, who is also the Executive Director of the Justice and Human Rights Institute, said many employers refused to engage ex-convicts, even when the crime committed was not related to the work they were going for.
“That discrimination is unjustified. It forces ex-convicts to hinge on the arms of criminals who are ready to offer them comfort,” he said.
Besides, Prof. Attafuah said most of the ex-convicts were not able to form lasting relationship with women, thus making them careless.
Besides, he said the society rejected ex-convicts, which compelled them to seek solace from their colleague criminals, and thus forcing them to continue committing crime.
He, therefore, urged the public to let ex-convicts feel the sense of belonging, since it had the potential for reducing the incidence of crime in the country.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru & Jasmine Arku
A CRIMINOLOGIST, Professor Ken Attafuah, has urged the Judiciary to impose suspended or non-custodial sentences on convicts who commit less serious crimes as a way of decongesting the country’s prisons.
Besides, he said the increasing number of re-offending among ex-convicts “indicates a clear failure of the rehabilitation of prisoners by the Ghana Prisons Service (GPS)”.
He said “the courts are enjoined to impose custodial sentences only when it is the reasonable option”, and stressed that “the goal of rehabilitation is a cardinal concern in the imposition of custodial sentences”.
Prof. Attafuah was reacting to the 2008 annual report of the GPS which indicated that the rate of congestion in Ghana’s prisons worsened last year due to the increasing prison population.
The report cited a high incidence of re-offending among ex-convicts as a contributory factor to the increasing prisoner population. Of the 9,377 convicted prisoners admitted in 2008, a total of 1,806 of them, representing 19.3 per cent, had been previously convicted.
Prof. Attafuah said: “Statistics indicate that the Judiciary continues to impose custodial penalties on convicts instead of liberally exercising their discretion to impose non-custodial penalties in appropriate cases as prescribed by the law.”
He mentioned probation, parole, fines, community service, apologies and compensatory service by the perpetrator to the victim as some of the non-custodial penalties that could be exercised under the country’s laws.
He stressed that the high incidence of repeated crimes showed the inadequacy of the resource base of the GPS “in ensuring effective rehabilitation and re-moulding of the character of prisoners.”
According to him, facilities at the prisons “are not only primeval, but also severely inadequate”, while the occupational skills imparted to the inmates “are not in keeping with contemporary needs and standards of society”.
Prof. Attafuah mentioned antiquated blacksmithing, tailoring with ancient machines, leather bag making and basket weaving as some of the out-of-fashion skills at the country’s prisons.
As a result, he said upon their return from prison, the ex-convicts were not able to find any gainful employment.
Prof. Attafuah, who is also the Executive Director of the Justice and Human Rights Institute, said many employers refused to engage ex-convicts, even when the crime committed was not related to the work they were going for.
“That discrimination is unjustified. It forces ex-convicts to hinge on the arms of criminals who are ready to offer them comfort,” he said.
Besides, Prof. Attafuah said most of the ex-convicts were not able to form lasting relationship with women, thus making them careless.
Besides, he said the society rejected ex-convicts, which compelled them to seek solace from their colleague criminals, and thus forcing them to continue committing crime.
He, therefore, urged the public to let ex-convicts feel the sense of belonging, since it had the potential for reducing the incidence of crime in the country.
New guidelines to streamline advertising
2/09/09
New guidelines to
streamline advertising
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
FOUR institutions have come up with guidelines to prevent the haphazard mounting of advertising billboards and to ensure standard designs for billboards in the country.
A technical team from the National Standards Board (NSB), the Department of Urban Roads (DUR), the Advertising Association of Ghana (AAG) and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), drew up the guidelines to bring sanity into the operations of outdoor advertisers.
A traffic engineer with the DUR, Mrs Pat Onny, made this known at a seminar on the new guidelines for members of the AAG in Accra on Tuesday.
She noted that “there is chaos in the placing of billboards”, and therefore the guidelines sought to regulate the citing of billboards in terms of spacing and sizes.
For instance, Mrs Onny said, some advertisers mounted billboards on walkways, and thus creating discomfort for pedestrians.
Other advertisers also placed advertising billboards at junctions, making it difficult for motorists to see the other side of the road.
She said the guidelines required advertisers to ensure some respectable spacing between billboards on some major roads to ensure sanity.
Mrs Onny said the guidelines also demanded of advertisers to present structural integrity reports (technical details of the degree to which billboards can stand the effect of natural disasters and accidents) to the technical committee.
The committee would have to approve the reports before an advertiser could mount the billboards.
Mrs Onny dispelled the fear of some advertisers that the new guidelines were meant to get them out of business.
Rather, she said, they were meant to improve the standard of their work and prevent the risk associated with the billboards as they sometimes fell down and hurt people in the process.
The President of the AAG, Mr Reginald Laryea, said the guidelines would be incorporated into a draft bill and presented to Parliament by the end of the year.
That, he said, would go a long way to streamline the operations of outdoor advertisers in the country.
The Executive Chairman of the Great Argon Holdings Limited, Mr Torgbor Mensah, said Ghana was doing better than many African countries in terms of outdoor advertising but challenged the country’s advertisers to try to compete with those of the emerging and developed economies.
A member of the technical team, Mr Victor Ameyibor, who chaired the function, urged advertisers to repackage and rebrand their advertising to meet the current demands in the advertising industry.
New guidelines to
streamline advertising
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
FOUR institutions have come up with guidelines to prevent the haphazard mounting of advertising billboards and to ensure standard designs for billboards in the country.
A technical team from the National Standards Board (NSB), the Department of Urban Roads (DUR), the Advertising Association of Ghana (AAG) and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), drew up the guidelines to bring sanity into the operations of outdoor advertisers.
A traffic engineer with the DUR, Mrs Pat Onny, made this known at a seminar on the new guidelines for members of the AAG in Accra on Tuesday.
She noted that “there is chaos in the placing of billboards”, and therefore the guidelines sought to regulate the citing of billboards in terms of spacing and sizes.
For instance, Mrs Onny said, some advertisers mounted billboards on walkways, and thus creating discomfort for pedestrians.
Other advertisers also placed advertising billboards at junctions, making it difficult for motorists to see the other side of the road.
She said the guidelines required advertisers to ensure some respectable spacing between billboards on some major roads to ensure sanity.
Mrs Onny said the guidelines also demanded of advertisers to present structural integrity reports (technical details of the degree to which billboards can stand the effect of natural disasters and accidents) to the technical committee.
The committee would have to approve the reports before an advertiser could mount the billboards.
Mrs Onny dispelled the fear of some advertisers that the new guidelines were meant to get them out of business.
Rather, she said, they were meant to improve the standard of their work and prevent the risk associated with the billboards as they sometimes fell down and hurt people in the process.
The President of the AAG, Mr Reginald Laryea, said the guidelines would be incorporated into a draft bill and presented to Parliament by the end of the year.
That, he said, would go a long way to streamline the operations of outdoor advertisers in the country.
The Executive Chairman of the Great Argon Holdings Limited, Mr Torgbor Mensah, said Ghana was doing better than many African countries in terms of outdoor advertising but challenged the country’s advertisers to try to compete with those of the emerging and developed economies.
A member of the technical team, Mr Victor Ameyibor, who chaired the function, urged advertisers to repackage and rebrand their advertising to meet the current demands in the advertising industry.
The ugly side of Soddom and Gomorrah
5/09/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
MANY were those who heaved a sigh of relief when the government announced its intention to evict the more than 40,000 squatters of Sodom and Gomorrah. The reason is that people shared the government’s position that the squatters there are a danger to national security.
As the name connotes, Sodom and Gomorrah, located within the central business district of Accra, gives true meaning to the Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah, a communities that were destroyed by God because of their grave sins.
So in effect, whenever a community navigates towards the way of the Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah, that community is bound to face the ‘wrath’ of God or that of the government of the day.
The Ghana Sodom and Gomorrah, formerly called Old Fadama or Ayalolo, became a shelter for some displaced people from northern Ghana fleeing the Kokomba-Nanumba war in the 1980s. Ever since then, more people, mainly from the three regions of northern Ghana, have also joined the fray.
Intelligence reports indicate that the squatters, who are divided along political, ethnic and chieftaincy lines, illicitly acquire small arms and light weapons, which they use to attack one another at the least provocation.
They are also alleged to be smuggling the weapons to their people up north in breach of national security.
The recent clashes between people suspected to be supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and from the Abudu and Andani Gates at the Kokomba Market that resulted in the loss of four lives, gives credence to the porous security situation at Sodom and Gomorrah.
Police reports indicate that of the number of suspected criminals rounded up in police and army swoop at Sodom and Gomorrah some time past, a number of criminals were identified and some of them were later identified as armed robbers. The police found “wee” and cocaine on some of them. There have been occasions when wanted criminals, including murderers wanted by the police, have been arrested at Sodom and Gomorrah.
Rape and defilement are common occurrence at the slum.
A walk through the slum paints a picture of disorder, desperation and a bleak future. People virtually sleep in filth. The ramshackle wooden structures stand close to choked gutters.
There are no roads while the walkways are right in people’s homes or even rooms.
Interestingly, there are squatters who claim to own the land, because of the structures they have put up. They take rent from other squatters.
There are indeed some youth as old as 18 who were born and bred in the area. School is of no essence to the squatters, although they have a nursery that some single parents ‘dump’ their children there to relieve themselves of the burden of having to cater for them.
The slum has a large number of chop bars and beer bars. Marijuana (wee) and other narcotic drugs are sold and smoked in the open, with the young ladies competing with their male partners.
There are people who sell cooked food there under very unhygienic conditions, further complicating the precarious health situation there.
The disorderly nature of Sodom and Gomorrah makes it susceptible to fire outbreaks; the slum records not less three fire outbreaks in a year, which destroy lives and property.
Interestingly, hardly does the fire settle down than the squatters begin to reconstruct their burnt structures. The reason is that if they delay, other squatters will trespass.
Due to the almost non-existent roads, fire officers from the Ghana National Fire Service are not able to access the road to put out fire; they are forced under the circumstances to break into some of the structures to get to the fire, a situation that allows the fire to rage for hours.
Another worrying scenario is that the activities of the squatters of Sodom and Gomorrah obstruct work on the Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project (KLERP). The squatters dump solid waste into the lagoon, thus compelling the engineers working on the KLERP to use excavators to clear the waste at a huge cost to the state.
Some of the structures have been constructed at the banks of the lagoon. According to the engineers, the squatters threaten them anytime they speak against their indiscriminate disposal of solid waste.
The Director of the Metropolitan Public Health Department, Dr Simpson Boateng, in an earlier visit to the slum, reportedly said that the squatters would be evicted because their “persistent dumping of refuse and human excreta into the Korle canal by the squatters at Sodom and Gomorrah is undermining work on the KLERP”.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashietey, has indicated the government’s resolve to evict the squatters without any form of compensation or relocation. That is a bold decision. But the question many people are asking is whether the government has the political will to carry through this laudable exercise of nipping in the bud the security threat that the squatters of Sodom and Gomorrah pose to the nation.
It is the responsibility of the government to provide security to all Ghanaians, and that requires of the government to take decisive action to deal with any group of people who threaten national security.
The squatters are asking the government to relocate them somewhere, since they do not have any financial means to rent rooms in other parts of Accra. They are also not ready to go back to northern Ghana.
Some people have cautioned the government not to rush in evicting the squatters, since it could lead to the creation of smaller slums in parts of the city.
Human rights activists also feel that the government must of necessity try to relocate the squatters, since they have a right to shelter. They have blamed the government for allowing the people to stay there for long and assumed some right to their settlement there.
That argument is sound. But is the government bound to perform a task that it has not initiated, although the government could be said to have encouraged it by not acting fast?
It may not be out of place, though, if the government out of consideration finds a place to relocate the squatters, provided it has the means.
But the government could not be faulted in a way for evicting the squatters of Sodom and Gomorrah. But when is the axe going to fall?
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
MANY were those who heaved a sigh of relief when the government announced its intention to evict the more than 40,000 squatters of Sodom and Gomorrah. The reason is that people shared the government’s position that the squatters there are a danger to national security.
As the name connotes, Sodom and Gomorrah, located within the central business district of Accra, gives true meaning to the Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah, a communities that were destroyed by God because of their grave sins.
So in effect, whenever a community navigates towards the way of the Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah, that community is bound to face the ‘wrath’ of God or that of the government of the day.
The Ghana Sodom and Gomorrah, formerly called Old Fadama or Ayalolo, became a shelter for some displaced people from northern Ghana fleeing the Kokomba-Nanumba war in the 1980s. Ever since then, more people, mainly from the three regions of northern Ghana, have also joined the fray.
Intelligence reports indicate that the squatters, who are divided along political, ethnic and chieftaincy lines, illicitly acquire small arms and light weapons, which they use to attack one another at the least provocation.
They are also alleged to be smuggling the weapons to their people up north in breach of national security.
The recent clashes between people suspected to be supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and from the Abudu and Andani Gates at the Kokomba Market that resulted in the loss of four lives, gives credence to the porous security situation at Sodom and Gomorrah.
Police reports indicate that of the number of suspected criminals rounded up in police and army swoop at Sodom and Gomorrah some time past, a number of criminals were identified and some of them were later identified as armed robbers. The police found “wee” and cocaine on some of them. There have been occasions when wanted criminals, including murderers wanted by the police, have been arrested at Sodom and Gomorrah.
Rape and defilement are common occurrence at the slum.
A walk through the slum paints a picture of disorder, desperation and a bleak future. People virtually sleep in filth. The ramshackle wooden structures stand close to choked gutters.
There are no roads while the walkways are right in people’s homes or even rooms.
Interestingly, there are squatters who claim to own the land, because of the structures they have put up. They take rent from other squatters.
There are indeed some youth as old as 18 who were born and bred in the area. School is of no essence to the squatters, although they have a nursery that some single parents ‘dump’ their children there to relieve themselves of the burden of having to cater for them.
The slum has a large number of chop bars and beer bars. Marijuana (wee) and other narcotic drugs are sold and smoked in the open, with the young ladies competing with their male partners.
There are people who sell cooked food there under very unhygienic conditions, further complicating the precarious health situation there.
The disorderly nature of Sodom and Gomorrah makes it susceptible to fire outbreaks; the slum records not less three fire outbreaks in a year, which destroy lives and property.
Interestingly, hardly does the fire settle down than the squatters begin to reconstruct their burnt structures. The reason is that if they delay, other squatters will trespass.
Due to the almost non-existent roads, fire officers from the Ghana National Fire Service are not able to access the road to put out fire; they are forced under the circumstances to break into some of the structures to get to the fire, a situation that allows the fire to rage for hours.
Another worrying scenario is that the activities of the squatters of Sodom and Gomorrah obstruct work on the Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project (KLERP). The squatters dump solid waste into the lagoon, thus compelling the engineers working on the KLERP to use excavators to clear the waste at a huge cost to the state.
Some of the structures have been constructed at the banks of the lagoon. According to the engineers, the squatters threaten them anytime they speak against their indiscriminate disposal of solid waste.
The Director of the Metropolitan Public Health Department, Dr Simpson Boateng, in an earlier visit to the slum, reportedly said that the squatters would be evicted because their “persistent dumping of refuse and human excreta into the Korle canal by the squatters at Sodom and Gomorrah is undermining work on the KLERP”.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashietey, has indicated the government’s resolve to evict the squatters without any form of compensation or relocation. That is a bold decision. But the question many people are asking is whether the government has the political will to carry through this laudable exercise of nipping in the bud the security threat that the squatters of Sodom and Gomorrah pose to the nation.
It is the responsibility of the government to provide security to all Ghanaians, and that requires of the government to take decisive action to deal with any group of people who threaten national security.
The squatters are asking the government to relocate them somewhere, since they do not have any financial means to rent rooms in other parts of Accra. They are also not ready to go back to northern Ghana.
Some people have cautioned the government not to rush in evicting the squatters, since it could lead to the creation of smaller slums in parts of the city.
Human rights activists also feel that the government must of necessity try to relocate the squatters, since they have a right to shelter. They have blamed the government for allowing the people to stay there for long and assumed some right to their settlement there.
That argument is sound. But is the government bound to perform a task that it has not initiated, although the government could be said to have encouraged it by not acting fast?
It may not be out of place, though, if the government out of consideration finds a place to relocate the squatters, provided it has the means.
But the government could not be faulted in a way for evicting the squatters of Sodom and Gomorrah. But when is the axe going to fall?
Media urged to focus on dev issues
10/09/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
SPEAKERS at a political parties/media seminar in Accra have criticised journalists and politicians for using divisive, acrimonious, untrue and defamatory language, which threaten peace and stability in the country.
They, therefore, urged the media to shift their focus to serious development issues, such as the effects of climatic change on the country’s future, the health implications of poor waste management, the falling standard of education, the alarming poverty levels and omissions and commissions in governance.
They further asked politicians to be cautious in their utterances.
The President of the African University College of Communications, Mr Kojo Yankah; a former member of the Council of State, Mrs Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie; the General Manager, Newspapers, Graphic Communications Group Limited, Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh; and a senior fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Brigadier-General Francis Agyemfra, made the appeal in Accra yesterday at the seminar, organised by the IEA.
The Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Kwabena Adjei; the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Ohene Ntow; the Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan, and the Chairman of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Mr Ladi Nylander, in their separate contributions also admitted infringements of the code on the part of politicians and journalists.
The seminar was to assess whether or not journalists and politicians have complied with the terms of the Political Parties Code of Conduct of 2008, which they all assented to. At the end of the presentations and contributions, both the media practitioners and politicians concluded that they had gone contrary to the terms of the Political Parties Code of Conduct before, during and after the election.
Mr Yankah, who spoke on “An Accountable Media and Politician”, said some of the reports in the print and electronic media were ill-informed, unprofessional and without any background information, while some politicians were dictatorial, arrogant and intolerant of divergent opinions.
He cited poor communication skills on the part of both media practitioners and politicians as the main cause of the use of divisive and inflammatory language by journalists and politicians.
He, however, ruled out any form of strict regulation of the work of the media.
“The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Code of Ethics cannot be isolated from a general course of study and body of knowledge called journalism. It is not code of ethics that makes a professional. A doctor is not a doctor because he knows the Hippocratic Oath. A Christian is not a Christian because he knows the Apostolic Creed,” he stressed.
Mr Yankah said both politicians and journalists were leaders, and indicated that despite their differences in ideology and party identification, “the media person and the politician should share common concerns for the public”.
He said while some media personnel were contributing to the country’s democratisation, others were highlighting attitudes that portrayed them as irresponsible and unaccountable.
Mr Yankah urged the media to give more voice to the marginalised in society, play their watchdog role and serve as channels for the expression of varied views and opinions.
He said polarisation of society through foul and insulting communication on party lines should be considered a subversion of the country’s ethos and asked journalists to refrain from attributing personal statements of politicians to their parties.
Mr Yankah proposed the adoption of a timetable during which all political activities must start and end, and recommended that six weeks after elections, all political party symbols should be taken off the streets.
Besides, he said, the media should have a timetable during the six months to introduce political party campaigns, and suggested that more energy and space should be given to providing information about the entire process from registration to accepting the results.
Mr Boadu-Ayeboafoh, who gave an overview of the Political Parties Code of Conduct, gave instances where media reports and utterances of politicians were inflammatory.
For instance, he said, some of the reports carried on the airwaves prompted supporters of the NDC to besiege the offices of the Electoral Commission (EC) during the 2008 election, on suspicion that it was rigging the election results.
He said the reports which said that dead bodies of NPP agents had been discovered in the Volta Region “did not meet the Code of Ethics of either the GJA or political parties” and stressed that “such aberrations do nobody good”.
On the political front, Mr Boadu-Ayeboafoh said some of the messages in the advertisements placed by political parties were “acrimonious, untrue, divisive and dastardly”.
Brigadier-General Agyemfra urged journalists and politicians to try to abide by the Political Parties Code of Conduct in their utterances, in order to maintain the prevailing peace and stability in the country.
Dr Kwabena Adjei said responsible utterances, which he described as political morality, must come from within, and challenged the media to be objective and non-partisan.
Nana Ohene Ntow asked both journalists and politicians to have good faith in and commitment to the terms of the Political Parties Code of Conduct, and urged the media to reflect the various shades of views in their reportage.
Alhaji Ramadan stressed the need for politicians to avoid ambiguity in their statements in order not to give room for misinterpretation by the media.
Mr Nylander urged the media to exercise restraint and not to go overboard in pursuit of selling their newspapers.
Mrs Afenyi-Dadzie, who chaired the function, charged journalists and politicians to be diligent in respecting the Political Parties Code of Conduct to ensure accountability to maintain their credibility.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
SPEAKERS at a political parties/media seminar in Accra have criticised journalists and politicians for using divisive, acrimonious, untrue and defamatory language, which threaten peace and stability in the country.
They, therefore, urged the media to shift their focus to serious development issues, such as the effects of climatic change on the country’s future, the health implications of poor waste management, the falling standard of education, the alarming poverty levels and omissions and commissions in governance.
They further asked politicians to be cautious in their utterances.
The President of the African University College of Communications, Mr Kojo Yankah; a former member of the Council of State, Mrs Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie; the General Manager, Newspapers, Graphic Communications Group Limited, Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh; and a senior fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Brigadier-General Francis Agyemfra, made the appeal in Accra yesterday at the seminar, organised by the IEA.
The Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Kwabena Adjei; the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Ohene Ntow; the Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan, and the Chairman of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Mr Ladi Nylander, in their separate contributions also admitted infringements of the code on the part of politicians and journalists.
The seminar was to assess whether or not journalists and politicians have complied with the terms of the Political Parties Code of Conduct of 2008, which they all assented to. At the end of the presentations and contributions, both the media practitioners and politicians concluded that they had gone contrary to the terms of the Political Parties Code of Conduct before, during and after the election.
Mr Yankah, who spoke on “An Accountable Media and Politician”, said some of the reports in the print and electronic media were ill-informed, unprofessional and without any background information, while some politicians were dictatorial, arrogant and intolerant of divergent opinions.
He cited poor communication skills on the part of both media practitioners and politicians as the main cause of the use of divisive and inflammatory language by journalists and politicians.
He, however, ruled out any form of strict regulation of the work of the media.
“The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Code of Ethics cannot be isolated from a general course of study and body of knowledge called journalism. It is not code of ethics that makes a professional. A doctor is not a doctor because he knows the Hippocratic Oath. A Christian is not a Christian because he knows the Apostolic Creed,” he stressed.
Mr Yankah said both politicians and journalists were leaders, and indicated that despite their differences in ideology and party identification, “the media person and the politician should share common concerns for the public”.
He said while some media personnel were contributing to the country’s democratisation, others were highlighting attitudes that portrayed them as irresponsible and unaccountable.
Mr Yankah urged the media to give more voice to the marginalised in society, play their watchdog role and serve as channels for the expression of varied views and opinions.
He said polarisation of society through foul and insulting communication on party lines should be considered a subversion of the country’s ethos and asked journalists to refrain from attributing personal statements of politicians to their parties.
Mr Yankah proposed the adoption of a timetable during which all political activities must start and end, and recommended that six weeks after elections, all political party symbols should be taken off the streets.
Besides, he said, the media should have a timetable during the six months to introduce political party campaigns, and suggested that more energy and space should be given to providing information about the entire process from registration to accepting the results.
Mr Boadu-Ayeboafoh, who gave an overview of the Political Parties Code of Conduct, gave instances where media reports and utterances of politicians were inflammatory.
For instance, he said, some of the reports carried on the airwaves prompted supporters of the NDC to besiege the offices of the Electoral Commission (EC) during the 2008 election, on suspicion that it was rigging the election results.
He said the reports which said that dead bodies of NPP agents had been discovered in the Volta Region “did not meet the Code of Ethics of either the GJA or political parties” and stressed that “such aberrations do nobody good”.
On the political front, Mr Boadu-Ayeboafoh said some of the messages in the advertisements placed by political parties were “acrimonious, untrue, divisive and dastardly”.
Brigadier-General Agyemfra urged journalists and politicians to try to abide by the Political Parties Code of Conduct in their utterances, in order to maintain the prevailing peace and stability in the country.
Dr Kwabena Adjei said responsible utterances, which he described as political morality, must come from within, and challenged the media to be objective and non-partisan.
Nana Ohene Ntow asked both journalists and politicians to have good faith in and commitment to the terms of the Political Parties Code of Conduct, and urged the media to reflect the various shades of views in their reportage.
Alhaji Ramadan stressed the need for politicians to avoid ambiguity in their statements in order not to give room for misinterpretation by the media.
Mr Nylander urged the media to exercise restraint and not to go overboard in pursuit of selling their newspapers.
Mrs Afenyi-Dadzie, who chaired the function, charged journalists and politicians to be diligent in respecting the Political Parties Code of Conduct to ensure accountability to maintain their credibility.
CEPA predicts 20.9 per cent end-year inflation
11/09/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA) says the government’s end-year inflation target of 14.5 per cent cannot be achieved considering the economic challenges facing the country. It rather predicted an end-year inflation target of 20.9 per cent.
CEPA blamed the excessive spending on the part of the government last year and the failure of the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) to draw the government’s attention to its overspending for the country's economic challenges.
The Executive Director of CEPA, Dr Joseph Abbey, who was presenting CEPA’s Assessment and Critique of the 2009 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, in Accra yesterday, therefore, called for more resources from the international donor community and a greater growth-enhancement and efficiency in public expenditures than in the stabilisation package.
The publication touched on public capital, foreign-financed and pro-poor expenditures, Public Sector Wage Bill, energy subsidies and consultation mechanism on inflation. It contended that the economic programme for 2009 presented to and approved by Parliament with its social democratic principles was consistent with a strategy of Growth with Macroeconomic Stability.
Dr Abbey said CEPA's review of performance record over the last four years and analysis of the monetary policy-making framework led to the conclusion that “the year-on-year inflation target of 12.5 per cent for December 2009 was over optimistic and that like its predecessors would be missed by a considerable margin”.
That view, he said, was affirmed in the International Monetary Funds’ (IMF) stabilisation programme which revised upward the end-December 2009 to 14.6 per cent - an increase of 2.1 per cent.
“In CEPA’s view the targets set in the stabilisation programme are ambitious and would prove difficult to achieve given what could be achieved,” he stressed.
Dr Abbey said the inability to achieve the inflation target would have socio-political cost in terms of output and job losses and the additional poverty burden that would be placed on those least able to bear it, namely the already poor.
He said available evidence pointed to a slowdown in the tempo of economic activity and the continued increase in poverty indicators.
He quoted the World Bank document which states that: “The impact of the current macro-economic difficulties in Ghana comes at a time when many of the poor have not yet recovered from the impact of a series of shocks starting with floods and drought in [northern Ghana] during 2007, and the food and fuel crisis during 2008” to support his claim.
Dr Abbey said given the tight planned budget deficit target of 9.4 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), total expenditure was projected to decline from 42 per cent in 2008 to 36.6 per cent this year, representing a reduction of 5.4 percentage points.
He mentioned Public Sector Wage Bill, energy subsidies, interest payments and the public debt, public capital and poverty-related expenditures as some of the critical expenditure items identified for the implementation of the budget.
Dr Abbey said the BWIs had introduced a consultation mechanism on inflation, which involves quarterly reviews for 2009 followed by semi-annual reviews starting in 2010.
Dr Abbey said whenever the realised year-on-year inflation rate fell outside the specified band, the government would have to complete consultation with the Executive Board of the IMF on the proposed policy response before requesting further disbursements under the stabilisation programme.
He said CEPA’s forecast for September 2009 is 20.5 per cent while the central target is 16.5 per cent with an inner band upper limit of 18.5 per cent and an outer band upper limit of 19.5 per cent.
“Thus, should the CEPA forecast for September prove as accurate as those in the earlier months, the Government of Ghana would be obliged to immediately enter into and complete consultation with the Executive Board of the IMF on an appropriate policy response — most likely an interest rate hike — failing which there would be no further disbursement under the stabilisation programme,” he said.
Dr Abbey said should the IMF cease further disbursements, the government would have to fall on the Bank of Ghana for funds.
That, he said, would result in a competition between the government and the private sector for loans, which would consequently raise the interest rate and the cost of doing business.
Dr Abbey, therefore, called for the inclusion of civil society organisations in the negotiation between the government and the IMF on the stabilisation programme.
He said the civil society organisations, such as CEPA, could offer policy options in order to prevent the situation where the IMF could stop further disbursements.
On government's overspending last year, Dr Abbey said "due to the lack of transparency and accountability on the part of the government the truth did not come out". Besides, he said, there were excessive use of money by politicians.
"Donors managed to cocoon the government from taking note. The World Bank cannot absolve itself from blame and leave Ghana to fend for itself," he said.
He said CEPA raised the red flag but lamented that "somewhere along the line our voices did not go far".
A member of the Council of CEPA, Mrs Matilda Obeng-Ansong, who launched the publication, asked the G-20 nations to make funds available for Ghana to achieve her target for the year.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA) says the government’s end-year inflation target of 14.5 per cent cannot be achieved considering the economic challenges facing the country. It rather predicted an end-year inflation target of 20.9 per cent.
CEPA blamed the excessive spending on the part of the government last year and the failure of the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) to draw the government’s attention to its overspending for the country's economic challenges.
The Executive Director of CEPA, Dr Joseph Abbey, who was presenting CEPA’s Assessment and Critique of the 2009 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, in Accra yesterday, therefore, called for more resources from the international donor community and a greater growth-enhancement and efficiency in public expenditures than in the stabilisation package.
The publication touched on public capital, foreign-financed and pro-poor expenditures, Public Sector Wage Bill, energy subsidies and consultation mechanism on inflation. It contended that the economic programme for 2009 presented to and approved by Parliament with its social democratic principles was consistent with a strategy of Growth with Macroeconomic Stability.
Dr Abbey said CEPA's review of performance record over the last four years and analysis of the monetary policy-making framework led to the conclusion that “the year-on-year inflation target of 12.5 per cent for December 2009 was over optimistic and that like its predecessors would be missed by a considerable margin”.
That view, he said, was affirmed in the International Monetary Funds’ (IMF) stabilisation programme which revised upward the end-December 2009 to 14.6 per cent - an increase of 2.1 per cent.
“In CEPA’s view the targets set in the stabilisation programme are ambitious and would prove difficult to achieve given what could be achieved,” he stressed.
Dr Abbey said the inability to achieve the inflation target would have socio-political cost in terms of output and job losses and the additional poverty burden that would be placed on those least able to bear it, namely the already poor.
He said available evidence pointed to a slowdown in the tempo of economic activity and the continued increase in poverty indicators.
He quoted the World Bank document which states that: “The impact of the current macro-economic difficulties in Ghana comes at a time when many of the poor have not yet recovered from the impact of a series of shocks starting with floods and drought in [northern Ghana] during 2007, and the food and fuel crisis during 2008” to support his claim.
Dr Abbey said given the tight planned budget deficit target of 9.4 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), total expenditure was projected to decline from 42 per cent in 2008 to 36.6 per cent this year, representing a reduction of 5.4 percentage points.
He mentioned Public Sector Wage Bill, energy subsidies, interest payments and the public debt, public capital and poverty-related expenditures as some of the critical expenditure items identified for the implementation of the budget.
Dr Abbey said the BWIs had introduced a consultation mechanism on inflation, which involves quarterly reviews for 2009 followed by semi-annual reviews starting in 2010.
Dr Abbey said whenever the realised year-on-year inflation rate fell outside the specified band, the government would have to complete consultation with the Executive Board of the IMF on the proposed policy response before requesting further disbursements under the stabilisation programme.
He said CEPA’s forecast for September 2009 is 20.5 per cent while the central target is 16.5 per cent with an inner band upper limit of 18.5 per cent and an outer band upper limit of 19.5 per cent.
“Thus, should the CEPA forecast for September prove as accurate as those in the earlier months, the Government of Ghana would be obliged to immediately enter into and complete consultation with the Executive Board of the IMF on an appropriate policy response — most likely an interest rate hike — failing which there would be no further disbursement under the stabilisation programme,” he said.
Dr Abbey said should the IMF cease further disbursements, the government would have to fall on the Bank of Ghana for funds.
That, he said, would result in a competition between the government and the private sector for loans, which would consequently raise the interest rate and the cost of doing business.
Dr Abbey, therefore, called for the inclusion of civil society organisations in the negotiation between the government and the IMF on the stabilisation programme.
He said the civil society organisations, such as CEPA, could offer policy options in order to prevent the situation where the IMF could stop further disbursements.
On government's overspending last year, Dr Abbey said "due to the lack of transparency and accountability on the part of the government the truth did not come out". Besides, he said, there were excessive use of money by politicians.
"Donors managed to cocoon the government from taking note. The World Bank cannot absolve itself from blame and leave Ghana to fend for itself," he said.
He said CEPA raised the red flag but lamented that "somewhere along the line our voices did not go far".
A member of the Council of CEPA, Mrs Matilda Obeng-Ansong, who launched the publication, asked the G-20 nations to make funds available for Ghana to achieve her target for the year.
Govt to relocate Sodom and Gomorrah
11/09/09
Govt to relocate Sodom and Gomorrah
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE Government has decided to either relocate or compensate squatters of Sodom and Gomorrah in Accra, contrary to an earlier declaration by the Greater Accra Regional Minister that the squatters would be evicted without any form of compensation.
Consequently, the Government has directed the Greater Accra Regional Co-ordinating Council and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to engage the squatters to identify those eligible for relocation or compensation.
A Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who was answering questions on government’s position on the supposed eviction of the squatters of Sodom and Gomorrah at a press conference in Accra yesterday, said “the Government wants to maintain a human face to the exercise”.
The periodic press conference dubbed: “Matters Arising”, which is a platform for the Government to give Ghanaians a status report on the Better Ghana Agenda of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, focused on government’s commitment to the fight against drugs, the Youth in Agriculture Programme and support for educational sector.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashietey, in his visit to Sodom and Gomorrah last Thursday, said the slum was a risk to national security, and indicated the Government’s resolve to evict squatters without relocating them or giving them any form of compensation.
However, Mr Ablakwa said, “The Government takes exception to attempts to criminalise poverty and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah,” since “crime can be found in political parties, churches, mosques and society in general.”
“Some of us have not been happy with reports on Sodom and Gomorrah”, he intimated.
Mr Ablakwa said many of the squatters had fled conflicts in some areas in the northern parts of the country to settle at Sodom and Gomorrah, while others were born at the slum.
He said many of the squatters are engaged in productive ventures.
Therefore, he said, “The Government cannot get up and bulldoze the slum down just because they are lesser Ghanaians.”
“We cannot say that human beings should be thrown out as outcasts. They will come back to haunt us,” he stressed.
The squatters have asked the Government to try to relocate them, since they do not have the financial means to rent rooms or have any intention to return to the north.
Some people have cautioned the Government not to rush in evicting the squatters, since it could lead to the creation of smaller slums in parts of the city.
Human rights activists also feel that the Government must, of necessity, try to relocate the squatters, since they have a right to shelter. They have blamed the Government for allowing the people to live there for long and assumed some rights to their settlement there.
Govt to relocate Sodom and Gomorrah
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE Government has decided to either relocate or compensate squatters of Sodom and Gomorrah in Accra, contrary to an earlier declaration by the Greater Accra Regional Minister that the squatters would be evicted without any form of compensation.
Consequently, the Government has directed the Greater Accra Regional Co-ordinating Council and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to engage the squatters to identify those eligible for relocation or compensation.
A Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who was answering questions on government’s position on the supposed eviction of the squatters of Sodom and Gomorrah at a press conference in Accra yesterday, said “the Government wants to maintain a human face to the exercise”.
The periodic press conference dubbed: “Matters Arising”, which is a platform for the Government to give Ghanaians a status report on the Better Ghana Agenda of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, focused on government’s commitment to the fight against drugs, the Youth in Agriculture Programme and support for educational sector.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashietey, in his visit to Sodom and Gomorrah last Thursday, said the slum was a risk to national security, and indicated the Government’s resolve to evict squatters without relocating them or giving them any form of compensation.
However, Mr Ablakwa said, “The Government takes exception to attempts to criminalise poverty and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah,” since “crime can be found in political parties, churches, mosques and society in general.”
“Some of us have not been happy with reports on Sodom and Gomorrah”, he intimated.
Mr Ablakwa said many of the squatters had fled conflicts in some areas in the northern parts of the country to settle at Sodom and Gomorrah, while others were born at the slum.
He said many of the squatters are engaged in productive ventures.
Therefore, he said, “The Government cannot get up and bulldoze the slum down just because they are lesser Ghanaians.”
“We cannot say that human beings should be thrown out as outcasts. They will come back to haunt us,” he stressed.
The squatters have asked the Government to try to relocate them, since they do not have the financial means to rent rooms or have any intention to return to the north.
Some people have cautioned the Government not to rush in evicting the squatters, since it could lead to the creation of smaller slums in parts of the city.
Human rights activists also feel that the Government must, of necessity, try to relocate the squatters, since they have a right to shelter. They have blamed the Government for allowing the people to live there for long and assumed some rights to their settlement there.
Govt to create more jobs
11/09/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE maiden edition of “Matters Arising”, a platform conceived to bring governance issues close to the people, opened in Accra yesterday with strong signals that the government’s Better Ghana Agenda was on course.
With job creation as part of the agenda’s main pillars, a Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who addressed the forum, said the government was to create employment for 10,000 graduates, skilled and unskilled persons, through a public-private sector partnership in the oil industry.
Under the initiative, a core group would be trained in the management of oil spillage at sea, while the unskilled persons would be engaged to constantly clean the country’s beaches from Aflao to Elubo and plant coconut trees along the beaches, as a way of improving sanitation in fishing communities.
Mr Ablakwa said already the trainers of trainers had received training in Nigeria and would be training another set of supervisors and trainers in the management of the oil spillage.
The maiden edition of the periodic press conference to give Ghanaians a status report on the Better Ghana Agenda of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government also highlighted the government’s commitment to the fight against drugs, the Youth in Agriculture Programme and support for the educational sector.
Mr Ablakwa said the multi-ministerial and private sector partnership being co-ordinated by the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology would ensure the transfer of technology to Ghana for the development of the local capacity in the oil industry.
“The transfer of expertise and technical capacity to the local staff would ensure the building of the needed capacity to support the oil industry in line with the NDC government’s objective of developing the human resource capacity of the people,” he said.
Mr Ablakwa said the improvement of the sanitation situation at the beaches would promote tourism, and indicated that since all the persons who would be engaged in that effort were from the various communities, it would improve the financial situations of thousands of families.
He said the employment opportunities that would be created would go a long way to support NDC government’s short-term objective of promoting and creating productive employment opportunities in all sectors of the economy.
“Clearly, the John Atta Mills government is on course, despite the difficulties caused by the poor management of the economy by our predecessors, resulting in huge deficits and undisclosed arrears,” he said.
Touching on the government’s fight against drug, Mr Ablakwa said the President John Atta Mills administration was on course to redeeming his campaign pledge that he would not allow the country to be turned into a haven for the trade in narcotics.
He said the government had initiated effective and practical steps towards dealing with the drug menace. He mentioned skills training, exposure to modern techniques in fighting narcotics drugs and plans to transform the Narcotics Control Board into an autonomous Commission as some of the steps that were yielding results.
“Today, there is not that perception as it was in the past that some powerful people in government may be collaborating with drug barons,” he said, and noted that some arrests had been made, including the successful management of security information leading to the arrest of a ship and seizure of parcels of cocaine on board.
Besides, Mr Ablakwa said, many people had been arrested for having parcels of cocaine concealed in tubers of yam, or heroin swallowed for discharge at their final destinations.
He said structures had been put in place to ensure that seized exhibits “do not either vanish or metamorphose into some other substance overnight”.
Mr Ablakwa said the Youth in Agriculture Programme was growing steadily, and indicated that some youth had cultivated 1,440 hectares of land in Damango in the West Gonja District of the Northern Region under the programme and that more than 300 youth of the area were working on the Block Farm Concept at Damongo.
He said 100 hectares had been ploughed in Komenda and ready for planting, 30 hectares in Gomoa West, 72 hectares in Gomoa East and 40 hectares in Agona East.
“When fully operational across the country, a total of 14,000 hectares of land is expected to be on cultivation under the Youth in Agriculture Programme. And more than 20,000 job opportunities, some periodic, will be created. For this programme, the government has provided GH¢10.7 million ”, he said.
Mr Ablakwa said the required feasibility study and detailed designs for the first phase of 5,000 hectares under the Accra Plains Irrigation Project would be ready by the end of the year.
Up north, he said, the government was rehabilitating 70 breached dams in the three northern regions, which, when completed, would put 360 hectares of land under irrigation.
The Government has approved the construction of two fishing harbours and 12 landing sites at the cost of $200 million, saying that the government was sourcing funds for the project.
To reduce post-harvest losses, six cold stores would be built in selected fishing communities with a seven- million euro facility from the Spanish government.
Mr Ablakwa said two of the expected six patrol boats for the Ghana Navy were expected in December this year, and stressed that the boats would help the Ghana Navy to enforce fisheries laws and also protect fishermen from the activities of pair trawlers.
He said the government had offered 50 per cent subsidy of fertilisers as a result of which GH¢10 million had been released to support the subsidy payment.
In its bid to improve capacity to produce rice locally, Mr Ablakwa said the government would plant rice on the irrigated lands while it continued to support the Nercia Rice Production in the northern sector and cultivation of a further 700 hectares of rice farm.
“This will be adding to the Aveyime rice farm which should be releasing their rice onto the market soon, and the 200 hectares being cultivated under the Youth in Agriculture Programme,” he said.
Focusing on education, the deputy minister said the government was still committed to ensuring the right of every child and young person to quality education, hence the on-going efforts to expand physical infrastructure, motivate teachers and make logistics available.
For instance, he said, President Mills had ordered a 50-per cent increment in the Capitation Grant per pupil in addition to planned supply of free exercise books, two free pairs of school uniforms each to pupils in selected districts at the cost of GH¢11 million with another GH¢13 million for the Ghana School Feeding Programme.
Mr Ablakwa said the government had decided to pay the full tuition fees for all teachers who would be pursuing further studies through distance learning, beginning from the next academic year.
That, he said, was part of the government’s efforts at motivating teachers to stay in the classroom but at the same time improve themselves academically.
He said the government had confirmed its commitment to science and technology education with the introduction of 41,000 scholarships accessible to mathematics and science students.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE maiden edition of “Matters Arising”, a platform conceived to bring governance issues close to the people, opened in Accra yesterday with strong signals that the government’s Better Ghana Agenda was on course.
With job creation as part of the agenda’s main pillars, a Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who addressed the forum, said the government was to create employment for 10,000 graduates, skilled and unskilled persons, through a public-private sector partnership in the oil industry.
Under the initiative, a core group would be trained in the management of oil spillage at sea, while the unskilled persons would be engaged to constantly clean the country’s beaches from Aflao to Elubo and plant coconut trees along the beaches, as a way of improving sanitation in fishing communities.
Mr Ablakwa said already the trainers of trainers had received training in Nigeria and would be training another set of supervisors and trainers in the management of the oil spillage.
The maiden edition of the periodic press conference to give Ghanaians a status report on the Better Ghana Agenda of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government also highlighted the government’s commitment to the fight against drugs, the Youth in Agriculture Programme and support for the educational sector.
Mr Ablakwa said the multi-ministerial and private sector partnership being co-ordinated by the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology would ensure the transfer of technology to Ghana for the development of the local capacity in the oil industry.
“The transfer of expertise and technical capacity to the local staff would ensure the building of the needed capacity to support the oil industry in line with the NDC government’s objective of developing the human resource capacity of the people,” he said.
Mr Ablakwa said the improvement of the sanitation situation at the beaches would promote tourism, and indicated that since all the persons who would be engaged in that effort were from the various communities, it would improve the financial situations of thousands of families.
He said the employment opportunities that would be created would go a long way to support NDC government’s short-term objective of promoting and creating productive employment opportunities in all sectors of the economy.
“Clearly, the John Atta Mills government is on course, despite the difficulties caused by the poor management of the economy by our predecessors, resulting in huge deficits and undisclosed arrears,” he said.
Touching on the government’s fight against drug, Mr Ablakwa said the President John Atta Mills administration was on course to redeeming his campaign pledge that he would not allow the country to be turned into a haven for the trade in narcotics.
He said the government had initiated effective and practical steps towards dealing with the drug menace. He mentioned skills training, exposure to modern techniques in fighting narcotics drugs and plans to transform the Narcotics Control Board into an autonomous Commission as some of the steps that were yielding results.
“Today, there is not that perception as it was in the past that some powerful people in government may be collaborating with drug barons,” he said, and noted that some arrests had been made, including the successful management of security information leading to the arrest of a ship and seizure of parcels of cocaine on board.
Besides, Mr Ablakwa said, many people had been arrested for having parcels of cocaine concealed in tubers of yam, or heroin swallowed for discharge at their final destinations.
He said structures had been put in place to ensure that seized exhibits “do not either vanish or metamorphose into some other substance overnight”.
Mr Ablakwa said the Youth in Agriculture Programme was growing steadily, and indicated that some youth had cultivated 1,440 hectares of land in Damango in the West Gonja District of the Northern Region under the programme and that more than 300 youth of the area were working on the Block Farm Concept at Damongo.
He said 100 hectares had been ploughed in Komenda and ready for planting, 30 hectares in Gomoa West, 72 hectares in Gomoa East and 40 hectares in Agona East.
“When fully operational across the country, a total of 14,000 hectares of land is expected to be on cultivation under the Youth in Agriculture Programme. And more than 20,000 job opportunities, some periodic, will be created. For this programme, the government has provided GH¢10.7 million ”, he said.
Mr Ablakwa said the required feasibility study and detailed designs for the first phase of 5,000 hectares under the Accra Plains Irrigation Project would be ready by the end of the year.
Up north, he said, the government was rehabilitating 70 breached dams in the three northern regions, which, when completed, would put 360 hectares of land under irrigation.
The Government has approved the construction of two fishing harbours and 12 landing sites at the cost of $200 million, saying that the government was sourcing funds for the project.
To reduce post-harvest losses, six cold stores would be built in selected fishing communities with a seven- million euro facility from the Spanish government.
Mr Ablakwa said two of the expected six patrol boats for the Ghana Navy were expected in December this year, and stressed that the boats would help the Ghana Navy to enforce fisheries laws and also protect fishermen from the activities of pair trawlers.
He said the government had offered 50 per cent subsidy of fertilisers as a result of which GH¢10 million had been released to support the subsidy payment.
In its bid to improve capacity to produce rice locally, Mr Ablakwa said the government would plant rice on the irrigated lands while it continued to support the Nercia Rice Production in the northern sector and cultivation of a further 700 hectares of rice farm.
“This will be adding to the Aveyime rice farm which should be releasing their rice onto the market soon, and the 200 hectares being cultivated under the Youth in Agriculture Programme,” he said.
Focusing on education, the deputy minister said the government was still committed to ensuring the right of every child and young person to quality education, hence the on-going efforts to expand physical infrastructure, motivate teachers and make logistics available.
For instance, he said, President Mills had ordered a 50-per cent increment in the Capitation Grant per pupil in addition to planned supply of free exercise books, two free pairs of school uniforms each to pupils in selected districts at the cost of GH¢11 million with another GH¢13 million for the Ghana School Feeding Programme.
Mr Ablakwa said the government had decided to pay the full tuition fees for all teachers who would be pursuing further studies through distance learning, beginning from the next academic year.
That, he said, was part of the government’s efforts at motivating teachers to stay in the classroom but at the same time improve themselves academically.
He said the government had confirmed its commitment to science and technology education with the introduction of 41,000 scholarships accessible to mathematics and science students.
Govt to create more jobs
11/09/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE maiden edition of “Matters Arising”, a platform conceived to bring governance issues close to the people, opened in Accra yesterday with strong signals that the government’s Better Ghana Agenda was on course.
With job creation as part of the agenda’s main pillars, a Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who addressed the forum, said the government was to create employment for 10,000 graduates, skilled and unskilled persons, through a public-private sector partnership in the oil industry.
Under the initiative, a core group would be trained in the management of oil spillage at sea, while the unskilled persons would be engaged to constantly clean the country’s beaches from Aflao to Elubo and plant coconut trees along the beaches, as a way of improving sanitation in fishing communities.
Mr Ablakwa said already the trainers of trainers had received training in Nigeria and would be training another set of supervisors and trainers in the management of the oil spillage.
The maiden edition of the periodic press conference to give Ghanaians a status report on the Better Ghana Agenda of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government also highlighted the government’s commitment to the fight against drugs, the Youth in Agriculture Programme and support for the educational sector.
Mr Ablakwa said the multi-ministerial and private sector partnership being co-ordinated by the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology would ensure the transfer of technology to Ghana for the development of the local capacity in the oil industry.
“The transfer of expertise and technical capacity to the local staff would ensure the building of the needed capacity to support the oil industry in line with the NDC government’s objective of developing the human resource capacity of the people,” he said.
Mr Ablakwa said the improvement of the sanitation situation at the beaches would promote tourism, and indicated that since all the persons who would be engaged in that effort were from the various communities, it would improve the financial situations of thousands of families.
He said the employment opportunities that would be created would go a long way to support NDC government’s short-term objective of promoting and creating productive employment opportunities in all sectors of the economy.
“Clearly, the John Atta Mills government is on course, despite the difficulties caused by the poor management of the economy by our predecessors, resulting in huge deficits and undisclosed arrears,” he said.
Touching on the government’s fight against drug, Mr Ablakwa said the President John Atta Mills administration was on course to redeeming his campaign pledge that he would not allow the country to be turned into a haven for the trade in narcotics.
He said the government had initiated effective and practical steps towards dealing with the drug menace. He mentioned skills training, exposure to modern techniques in fighting narcotics drugs and plans to transform the Narcotics Control Board into an autonomous Commission as some of the steps that were yielding results.
“Today, there is not that perception as it was in the past that some powerful people in government may be collaborating with drug barons,” he said, and noted that some arrests had been made, including the successful management of security information leading to the arrest of a ship and seizure of parcels of cocaine on board.
Besides, Mr Ablakwa said, many people had been arrested for having parcels of cocaine concealed in tubers of yam, or heroin swallowed for discharge at their final destinations.
He said structures had been put in place to ensure that seized exhibits “do not either vanish or metamorphose into some other substance overnight”.
Mr Ablakwa said the Youth in Agriculture Programme was growing steadily, and indicated that some youth had cultivated 1,440 hectares of land in Damango in the West Gonja District of the Northern Region under the programme and that more than 300 youth of the area were working on the Block Farm Concept at Damongo.
He said 100 hectares had been ploughed in Komenda and ready for planting, 30 hectares in Gomoa West, 72 hectares in Gomoa East and 40 hectares in Agona East.
“When fully operational across the country, a total of 14,000 hectares of land is expected to be on cultivation under the Youth in Agriculture Programme. And more than 20,000 job opportunities, some periodic, will be created. For this programme, the government has provided GH¢10.7 million ”, he said.
Mr Ablakwa said the required feasibility study and detailed designs for the first phase of 5,000 hectares under the Accra Plains Irrigation Project would be ready by the end of the year.
Up north, he said, the government was rehabilitating 70 breached dams in the three northern regions, which, when completed, would put 360 hectares of land under irrigation.
The Government has approved the construction of two fishing harbours and 12 landing sites at the cost of $200 million, saying that the government was sourcing funds for the project.
To reduce post-harvest losses, six cold stores would be built in selected fishing communities with a seven- million euro facility from the Spanish government.
Mr Ablakwa said two of the expected six patrol boats for the Ghana Navy were expected in December this year, and stressed that the boats would help the Ghana Navy to enforce fisheries laws and also protect fishermen from the activities of pair trawlers.
He said the government had offered 50 per cent subsidy of fertilisers as a result of which GH¢10 million had been released to support the subsidy payment.
In its bid to improve capacity to produce rice locally, Mr Ablakwa said the government would plant rice on the irrigated lands while it continued to support the Nercia Rice Production in the northern sector and cultivation of a further 700 hectares of rice farm.
“This will be adding to the Aveyime rice farm which should be releasing their rice onto the market soon, and the 200 hectares being cultivated under the Youth in Agriculture Programme,” he said.
Focusing on education, the deputy minister said the government was still committed to ensuring the right of every child and young person to quality education, hence the on-going efforts to expand physical infrastructure, motivate teachers and make logistics available.
For instance, he said, President Mills had ordered a 50-per cent increment in the Capitation Grant per pupil in addition to planned supply of free exercise books, two free pairs of school uniforms each to pupils in selected districts at the cost of GH¢11 million with another GH¢13 million for the Ghana School Feeding Programme.
Mr Ablakwa said the government had decided to pay the full tuition fees for all teachers who would be pursuing further studies through distance learning, beginning from the next academic year.
That, he said, was part of the government’s efforts at motivating teachers to stay in the classroom but at the same time improve themselves academically.
He said the government had confirmed its commitment to science and technology education with the introduction of 41,000 scholarships accessible to mathematics and science students.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE maiden edition of “Matters Arising”, a platform conceived to bring governance issues close to the people, opened in Accra yesterday with strong signals that the government’s Better Ghana Agenda was on course.
With job creation as part of the agenda’s main pillars, a Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who addressed the forum, said the government was to create employment for 10,000 graduates, skilled and unskilled persons, through a public-private sector partnership in the oil industry.
Under the initiative, a core group would be trained in the management of oil spillage at sea, while the unskilled persons would be engaged to constantly clean the country’s beaches from Aflao to Elubo and plant coconut trees along the beaches, as a way of improving sanitation in fishing communities.
Mr Ablakwa said already the trainers of trainers had received training in Nigeria and would be training another set of supervisors and trainers in the management of the oil spillage.
The maiden edition of the periodic press conference to give Ghanaians a status report on the Better Ghana Agenda of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government also highlighted the government’s commitment to the fight against drugs, the Youth in Agriculture Programme and support for the educational sector.
Mr Ablakwa said the multi-ministerial and private sector partnership being co-ordinated by the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology would ensure the transfer of technology to Ghana for the development of the local capacity in the oil industry.
“The transfer of expertise and technical capacity to the local staff would ensure the building of the needed capacity to support the oil industry in line with the NDC government’s objective of developing the human resource capacity of the people,” he said.
Mr Ablakwa said the improvement of the sanitation situation at the beaches would promote tourism, and indicated that since all the persons who would be engaged in that effort were from the various communities, it would improve the financial situations of thousands of families.
He said the employment opportunities that would be created would go a long way to support NDC government’s short-term objective of promoting and creating productive employment opportunities in all sectors of the economy.
“Clearly, the John Atta Mills government is on course, despite the difficulties caused by the poor management of the economy by our predecessors, resulting in huge deficits and undisclosed arrears,” he said.
Touching on the government’s fight against drug, Mr Ablakwa said the President John Atta Mills administration was on course to redeeming his campaign pledge that he would not allow the country to be turned into a haven for the trade in narcotics.
He said the government had initiated effective and practical steps towards dealing with the drug menace. He mentioned skills training, exposure to modern techniques in fighting narcotics drugs and plans to transform the Narcotics Control Board into an autonomous Commission as some of the steps that were yielding results.
“Today, there is not that perception as it was in the past that some powerful people in government may be collaborating with drug barons,” he said, and noted that some arrests had been made, including the successful management of security information leading to the arrest of a ship and seizure of parcels of cocaine on board.
Besides, Mr Ablakwa said, many people had been arrested for having parcels of cocaine concealed in tubers of yam, or heroin swallowed for discharge at their final destinations.
He said structures had been put in place to ensure that seized exhibits “do not either vanish or metamorphose into some other substance overnight”.
Mr Ablakwa said the Youth in Agriculture Programme was growing steadily, and indicated that some youth had cultivated 1,440 hectares of land in Damango in the West Gonja District of the Northern Region under the programme and that more than 300 youth of the area were working on the Block Farm Concept at Damongo.
He said 100 hectares had been ploughed in Komenda and ready for planting, 30 hectares in Gomoa West, 72 hectares in Gomoa East and 40 hectares in Agona East.
“When fully operational across the country, a total of 14,000 hectares of land is expected to be on cultivation under the Youth in Agriculture Programme. And more than 20,000 job opportunities, some periodic, will be created. For this programme, the government has provided GH¢10.7 million ”, he said.
Mr Ablakwa said the required feasibility study and detailed designs for the first phase of 5,000 hectares under the Accra Plains Irrigation Project would be ready by the end of the year.
Up north, he said, the government was rehabilitating 70 breached dams in the three northern regions, which, when completed, would put 360 hectares of land under irrigation.
The Government has approved the construction of two fishing harbours and 12 landing sites at the cost of $200 million, saying that the government was sourcing funds for the project.
To reduce post-harvest losses, six cold stores would be built in selected fishing communities with a seven- million euro facility from the Spanish government.
Mr Ablakwa said two of the expected six patrol boats for the Ghana Navy were expected in December this year, and stressed that the boats would help the Ghana Navy to enforce fisheries laws and also protect fishermen from the activities of pair trawlers.
He said the government had offered 50 per cent subsidy of fertilisers as a result of which GH¢10 million had been released to support the subsidy payment.
In its bid to improve capacity to produce rice locally, Mr Ablakwa said the government would plant rice on the irrigated lands while it continued to support the Nercia Rice Production in the northern sector and cultivation of a further 700 hectares of rice farm.
“This will be adding to the Aveyime rice farm which should be releasing their rice onto the market soon, and the 200 hectares being cultivated under the Youth in Agriculture Programme,” he said.
Focusing on education, the deputy minister said the government was still committed to ensuring the right of every child and young person to quality education, hence the on-going efforts to expand physical infrastructure, motivate teachers and make logistics available.
For instance, he said, President Mills had ordered a 50-per cent increment in the Capitation Grant per pupil in addition to planned supply of free exercise books, two free pairs of school uniforms each to pupils in selected districts at the cost of GH¢11 million with another GH¢13 million for the Ghana School Feeding Programme.
Mr Ablakwa said the government had decided to pay the full tuition fees for all teachers who would be pursuing further studies through distance learning, beginning from the next academic year.
That, he said, was part of the government’s efforts at motivating teachers to stay in the classroom but at the same time improve themselves academically.
He said the government had confirmed its commitment to science and technology education with the introduction of 41,000 scholarships accessible to mathematics and science students.
Unclaimed dead bodies choke Police Hospital
14/09/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
TWO HUNDRED out of the 400 unclaimed bodies which crowded the Police Hospital mortuary for more than four months were finally buried in mass graves at the Awudome Cemetery last Saturday.
The action became necessary after hospital authorities were prevented by the people of Bortianor from burying the unclaimed bodies at the Mile 11 cemetery in August.
The bodies comprised mainly accident victims, street dwellers and insane persons whose identities were difficult to establish.
The Medical Director of the hospital, DCOP Dr Godfried Asiamah, who supervised the burial, said the mortuary was overstreched by the number of unclaimed bodies.
He said the hospital was relieved that the unclaimed bodies had been buried, saying, “I am happy that we were able to bury them, because the continuous stay of the bodies was too stressful.”
The action was facilitated by the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Alfred Vanderpuije, who released the space at the Awudome Cemetery for the mass burial.
The space was released following a request by the hospital authorities to the assembly.
DCOP Dr Asiamah said the hospital had held on to the burial of the remaining 200 unclaimed bodies, with the hope of establishing their identities and getting their relatives to claim them.
DCOP Dr Godfried said the hospital had discontinued discussions with the people of Bortianor, since they had refused to allow the mass burial to take place at the Mile 11 Cemetery.
The lack of a site for the mass burial forced the authorities of the hospital to consider the option of cremating the 400 unclaimed bodies.
The authorities at the hospital, therefore, appealed to organisations and philanthropists to support the hospital authorities with some funds to enable them to carry out the cremation.
In an earlier interview, DCOP Dr Asiamah stressed that if the AMA failed to secure the land, the hospital authorities would not have any option but to cremate the bodies, since the continuous storage of the bodies could break down the fridges of the mortuary.
According to him, some of the bodies were being kept on the floor of the cold room instead of the fridges.
This paper earlier reported that the Police Hospital mortuary in Accra faced an imminent crisis, if steps were not taken to bury about 400 bodies that had not been claimed or identified.
To avoid that situation, he said, the hospital took steps to bury all the unidentified bodies in mass graves but the effort fell through when the people of Bortianor refused the bodies.
He said a similar exercise to decongest the mortuary was undertaken last April with the burial of 125 unclaimed bodies at the Mile ‘11’ Cemetery at Bortianor.
Statistics at the hospital indicate a steady rise in the number of unidentified bodies sent to the hospital’s mortuary. In 2007 for instance, 278 unclaimed bodies were buried and 373 were buried in 2008.
DCOP Dr Asiamah attributed the trend to road accidents in which those who died were brought to the hospital by the police or volunteers on the scene.
Additionally, he said, whenever people died in the streets and their relatives did not come forward to claim the bodies, the police collected such bodies and brought them to the hospital’s mortuary.
“Numerous people die in the streets. They are picked up by the police and they end up in our mortuary,” he stressed, pointing out that the difficulty was always with people who died in such circumstances without any identification tags on them.
DCOP Dr Asiamah said the medical officers conducted post-mortem, while the investigative team conducted investigations into the circumstances leading to the death.
Thereafter, he said, his outfit made announcements in the media about the dead bodies for their relatives to come out to identify and claim them.
However, he said, on many occasions people did not come forward to identify and claim the bodies.
The Medical Director said the police were compelled under the circumstances to organise mass burials for the unclaimed bodies to decongest the mortuary fridges.
He explained that the fridges would break down if the bodies were not disposed of to make way for new bodies.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
TWO HUNDRED out of the 400 unclaimed bodies which crowded the Police Hospital mortuary for more than four months were finally buried in mass graves at the Awudome Cemetery last Saturday.
The action became necessary after hospital authorities were prevented by the people of Bortianor from burying the unclaimed bodies at the Mile 11 cemetery in August.
The bodies comprised mainly accident victims, street dwellers and insane persons whose identities were difficult to establish.
The Medical Director of the hospital, DCOP Dr Godfried Asiamah, who supervised the burial, said the mortuary was overstreched by the number of unclaimed bodies.
He said the hospital was relieved that the unclaimed bodies had been buried, saying, “I am happy that we were able to bury them, because the continuous stay of the bodies was too stressful.”
The action was facilitated by the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Alfred Vanderpuije, who released the space at the Awudome Cemetery for the mass burial.
The space was released following a request by the hospital authorities to the assembly.
DCOP Dr Asiamah said the hospital had held on to the burial of the remaining 200 unclaimed bodies, with the hope of establishing their identities and getting their relatives to claim them.
DCOP Dr Godfried said the hospital had discontinued discussions with the people of Bortianor, since they had refused to allow the mass burial to take place at the Mile 11 Cemetery.
The lack of a site for the mass burial forced the authorities of the hospital to consider the option of cremating the 400 unclaimed bodies.
The authorities at the hospital, therefore, appealed to organisations and philanthropists to support the hospital authorities with some funds to enable them to carry out the cremation.
In an earlier interview, DCOP Dr Asiamah stressed that if the AMA failed to secure the land, the hospital authorities would not have any option but to cremate the bodies, since the continuous storage of the bodies could break down the fridges of the mortuary.
According to him, some of the bodies were being kept on the floor of the cold room instead of the fridges.
This paper earlier reported that the Police Hospital mortuary in Accra faced an imminent crisis, if steps were not taken to bury about 400 bodies that had not been claimed or identified.
To avoid that situation, he said, the hospital took steps to bury all the unidentified bodies in mass graves but the effort fell through when the people of Bortianor refused the bodies.
He said a similar exercise to decongest the mortuary was undertaken last April with the burial of 125 unclaimed bodies at the Mile ‘11’ Cemetery at Bortianor.
Statistics at the hospital indicate a steady rise in the number of unidentified bodies sent to the hospital’s mortuary. In 2007 for instance, 278 unclaimed bodies were buried and 373 were buried in 2008.
DCOP Dr Asiamah attributed the trend to road accidents in which those who died were brought to the hospital by the police or volunteers on the scene.
Additionally, he said, whenever people died in the streets and their relatives did not come forward to claim the bodies, the police collected such bodies and brought them to the hospital’s mortuary.
“Numerous people die in the streets. They are picked up by the police and they end up in our mortuary,” he stressed, pointing out that the difficulty was always with people who died in such circumstances without any identification tags on them.
DCOP Dr Asiamah said the medical officers conducted post-mortem, while the investigative team conducted investigations into the circumstances leading to the death.
Thereafter, he said, his outfit made announcements in the media about the dead bodies for their relatives to come out to identify and claim them.
However, he said, on many occasions people did not come forward to identify and claim the bodies.
The Medical Director said the police were compelled under the circumstances to organise mass burials for the unclaimed bodies to decongest the mortuary fridges.
He explained that the fridges would break down if the bodies were not disposed of to make way for new bodies.
Revenue Authority to be operational in January
15/09/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru & Fauziatu Adam
THE proposed Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), which seeks to bring all revenue agencies under one umbrella, is to become operational in January, next year.
The Executive Secretary of the Revenue Agencies Governing Council, Mr Sam Sallas-Mensah, who made this known, said the legislation governing the operations of the GRA would be passed into law by mid-December, this year.
He was speaking at the launch of the Chartered Institute of Taxation Ghana (CITG) 2009 annual tax week celebration in Accra yesterday.
Activities lined up for the celebration include students’ forum, tax forum, seminars, annual general meeting, dinner and awards night.
Mr Sallas-Mensah mentioned the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and the Value Added Tax (VAT) as some of the revenue agencies that would be replaced by the GRA.
He said the GRA would be a one-stop-shop, where customers would pay all their taxes.
That, Mr Sallas-Mensah said, would ensure efficiency in the collection of taxes.
Besides, he said, it would encourage people to pay their taxes, since the process would be less tedious and would save time.
The Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, who launched the week celebration, urged the CITG to establish high ethical standards and create the right image for the institute.
He advised the institute to put in place policies which would ensure that members were abreast of modern trends in the taxation profession and as well understand the demands of new tax laws that emerged on the market.
Mr Tettey-Enyo urged them to grow the institute in terms of numbers and influence in society since that would put them in a better position to advise the government on taxation issues and consequently increase revenue generation.
He called on Ghanaians to get involved in the seminars organised by the institute to be well informed about the taxation system.
The President of the CITG, Mr Yaw Asante-Boadi, said the institute was exploring avenues for increased co-operation, exchange of tax competencies and tax ideas aimed at increased tax revenue generation and management within the West African sub-region.
He asked tax agencies to base their employment selection choice on graduates of the CITG as that would “increase the professionalism and technical competencies of the revenue agencies”.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru & Fauziatu Adam
THE proposed Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), which seeks to bring all revenue agencies under one umbrella, is to become operational in January, next year.
The Executive Secretary of the Revenue Agencies Governing Council, Mr Sam Sallas-Mensah, who made this known, said the legislation governing the operations of the GRA would be passed into law by mid-December, this year.
He was speaking at the launch of the Chartered Institute of Taxation Ghana (CITG) 2009 annual tax week celebration in Accra yesterday.
Activities lined up for the celebration include students’ forum, tax forum, seminars, annual general meeting, dinner and awards night.
Mr Sallas-Mensah mentioned the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and the Value Added Tax (VAT) as some of the revenue agencies that would be replaced by the GRA.
He said the GRA would be a one-stop-shop, where customers would pay all their taxes.
That, Mr Sallas-Mensah said, would ensure efficiency in the collection of taxes.
Besides, he said, it would encourage people to pay their taxes, since the process would be less tedious and would save time.
The Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, who launched the week celebration, urged the CITG to establish high ethical standards and create the right image for the institute.
He advised the institute to put in place policies which would ensure that members were abreast of modern trends in the taxation profession and as well understand the demands of new tax laws that emerged on the market.
Mr Tettey-Enyo urged them to grow the institute in terms of numbers and influence in society since that would put them in a better position to advise the government on taxation issues and consequently increase revenue generation.
He called on Ghanaians to get involved in the seminars organised by the institute to be well informed about the taxation system.
The President of the CITG, Mr Yaw Asante-Boadi, said the institute was exploring avenues for increased co-operation, exchange of tax competencies and tax ideas aimed at increased tax revenue generation and management within the West African sub-region.
He asked tax agencies to base their employment selection choice on graduates of the CITG as that would “increase the professionalism and technical competencies of the revenue agencies”.
China to partner Ghana in pro-poor policy
23/09/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE Chinese government has offered to collaborate with its Ghanaian counterpart to promote education, health care and infrastructural development in the country.
The Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Yu Wenzhe, who made the commitment, said China would deepen trade relations with Ghana, provide more aid and also bid in the oil exploration and refinery for mutual benefit.
He was speaking at a press conference yesterday at his residence in Accra to launch the 60th anniversary celebration of the People’s Republic of China, which falls on October 1.
Mr Wenzhe said both the Chinese and Ghanaian governments had several people-centred programmes in common in the areas of education, medical care and infrastructural development.
“Therefore, we are ready to step up our co-operation in the people-centred programmes and agree on how to proceed,” he said,
Mr Wenzhe congratulated the government on finding oil in commercial quantities, and indicated that China was interested in bidding for oil exploration and refinery.
Besides, he said, the Chinese government would encourage credible Chinese companies to work with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and other business entities on oil exploration, refinery and other related areas.
Mr Wenzhe gave the assurance that despite the global economic downturn, “China will continue to provide financial assistance to Ghana to the best of its ability.”
For instance, he said, China would continue to support the Bui Dam Project to ensure its completion on schedule.
The Chinese Ambassador said China and Ghana had enjoyed good relations on the political and economic fronts over the last six decades, and reiterated China’s commitment to deepening the relations.
He said China’s total financial support to Ghana stood at $1.8 billion, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) was $275 million, with private investors investing $380 million.
Mr Wenzhe mentioned the National Theatre, the office of the Ministry of Defence and the Bui Dam Project as some of the landmark achievements of China in Ghana.
Besides, he said, China had built 40 government schools, three model schools, a number of youth centres and offered 200 short training courses and scholarships yearly.
Mr Wenzhe urged Chinese enterprises and citizens in Ghana (numbering about 10,000) to abide by the laws of Ghana “and live in peace and harmony with the local people”.
He said any incident involving Chinese nationals should be dealt with according to the law and the evidence available.
Touching on China-Africa relations, the Chinese Ambassador said China had enjoyed excellent relations with Africa over the decades, which centred on mutual respect and benefit.
He said economic trade relations between China and Africa stood at $1 billion in 2001 and rose to $100 billion in 2008.
On China’s development, Mr Wenzhe described China as a strong and weak economy because of its large population of 1.3 billion.
He said although China was ranked third in terms of military might and third in trade, its per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was “very small”.
Mr Wenzhe explained that China had made great strides in terms of development with cities like Beijing and other coastal areas seeing massive development. However, he said, the western parts of China were not well developed.
He said the government of China was trying to provide adequate food, education, health care and infrastructure to the poor people of China.
Mr Wenzhe described 2009 as a year of a “double happenings” between Ghana and China as it marked the centenary celebration of Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, and 60th anniversary of China. He said the people of China held Nkrumah in high regard for his support to Africa.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE Chinese government has offered to collaborate with its Ghanaian counterpart to promote education, health care and infrastructural development in the country.
The Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Yu Wenzhe, who made the commitment, said China would deepen trade relations with Ghana, provide more aid and also bid in the oil exploration and refinery for mutual benefit.
He was speaking at a press conference yesterday at his residence in Accra to launch the 60th anniversary celebration of the People’s Republic of China, which falls on October 1.
Mr Wenzhe said both the Chinese and Ghanaian governments had several people-centred programmes in common in the areas of education, medical care and infrastructural development.
“Therefore, we are ready to step up our co-operation in the people-centred programmes and agree on how to proceed,” he said,
Mr Wenzhe congratulated the government on finding oil in commercial quantities, and indicated that China was interested in bidding for oil exploration and refinery.
Besides, he said, the Chinese government would encourage credible Chinese companies to work with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and other business entities on oil exploration, refinery and other related areas.
Mr Wenzhe gave the assurance that despite the global economic downturn, “China will continue to provide financial assistance to Ghana to the best of its ability.”
For instance, he said, China would continue to support the Bui Dam Project to ensure its completion on schedule.
The Chinese Ambassador said China and Ghana had enjoyed good relations on the political and economic fronts over the last six decades, and reiterated China’s commitment to deepening the relations.
He said China’s total financial support to Ghana stood at $1.8 billion, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) was $275 million, with private investors investing $380 million.
Mr Wenzhe mentioned the National Theatre, the office of the Ministry of Defence and the Bui Dam Project as some of the landmark achievements of China in Ghana.
Besides, he said, China had built 40 government schools, three model schools, a number of youth centres and offered 200 short training courses and scholarships yearly.
Mr Wenzhe urged Chinese enterprises and citizens in Ghana (numbering about 10,000) to abide by the laws of Ghana “and live in peace and harmony with the local people”.
He said any incident involving Chinese nationals should be dealt with according to the law and the evidence available.
Touching on China-Africa relations, the Chinese Ambassador said China had enjoyed excellent relations with Africa over the decades, which centred on mutual respect and benefit.
He said economic trade relations between China and Africa stood at $1 billion in 2001 and rose to $100 billion in 2008.
On China’s development, Mr Wenzhe described China as a strong and weak economy because of its large population of 1.3 billion.
He said although China was ranked third in terms of military might and third in trade, its per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was “very small”.
Mr Wenzhe explained that China had made great strides in terms of development with cities like Beijing and other coastal areas seeing massive development. However, he said, the western parts of China were not well developed.
He said the government of China was trying to provide adequate food, education, health care and infrastructure to the poor people of China.
Mr Wenzhe described 2009 as a year of a “double happenings” between Ghana and China as it marked the centenary celebration of Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, and 60th anniversary of China. He said the people of China held Nkrumah in high regard for his support to Africa.
Govt to review the decentralisation process
26/09/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE government is to review the decentralisation process, after the 20 years of its implementation, as a way of deepening local level democracy and accelerating grass-roots development and empowerment.
Consequently, a broad national stakeholders consultation on decentralisation would be undertaken to examine the conceptual issues, review the 20 years of implementation of the assembly system and make proposals for the way forward.
The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, who made this known at a press briefing in Accra98, said the national stakeholders conference would be preceded by a series of events which would provide the relevant impetus and opportunities for a wider range of Ghanaians to contribute to the review process.
That, he said, was in line with the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC’s) manifesto for a ‘Better Ghana’ which sought to deepen and facilitate local level democracy and empowerment and accelerate decentralisation.
“This would be in keeping with the original philosophy of participation underlying the decentralisation effort itself and be in line with the inclusiveness that the Mills Administration wishes to achieve,” he stressed.
Mr Yieleh Chireh said the review was to strengthen the capacity of personnel at the local level, provide more resources and give the elected officials a greater leverage to be able to carry out their development programmes.
He said some legislation such as the Local Government Service Act and the Procurement Act, needed to be reviewed to serve the purpose of strengthening the decentralisation process.
The aim, he said, was to improve sanitation, accelerate development and promote education at the local level.
Mr Yieleh Chireh noted that there had been several studies, reflections and consultations on Ghana’s decentralisation effort over the years, including the activities linked to the preparation of a draft decentralisation policy framework over the past two years.
Besides, there are proposals for reforming local government sub-structures and the conduct of unit committee elections by the Electoral Commission (EC).
Therefore, he said, the government wanted to take advantage of those resources, build on the past, consolidate the gains, enhance efficiency and not re-invent the wheel.
Mr Yieleh Chireh said the review process would provide opportunities for various sections of the population, irrespective of education, gender, geographical location, political affiliation, age or religion to make suggestions on how to improve the decentralisation process.
Besides, he said, the review was an attempt to “rekindle popular interest in local governance and local level democracy”.
The minister said the review process, which consists of four main categories, would be undertaken over a three-month period, from September to December, 2009.
There would be 10 regional level consultations organised by regional co-ordinating councils in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development at which identifiable interest groups would make submissions while the public would be invited to make inputs.
A technical team has already started reviewing relevant reports, including documents on products generated over the last two decades.
There would also be consultations with particular interest groups, namely traditional authorities in collaboration with the National House of Chiefs, women’s groups, Members of Parliament (MPs), to be conducted by the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS).
There is an ongoing process of inviting and receiving written submissions to dedicated electronic and physical addresses, while people will also be invited to submit written comments during the regional and interest group consultations.
Mr Yieleh Chireh said the intended outputs from the stakeholder review exercises included a consolidated stakeholder review process report, a revised decentralisation policy framework, a second National Decentralisation Action Plan and a memorandum on emerging priorities for the envisaged legislative and constitutional review processes.
He said a technical team was also being convened to ensure rapid collation and analysis of the outputs in order to expedite processes within the envisaged time-frame.
The ministry’s main partner in the review process is the Support for Decentralisation Reform of the German Development Co-operation (GTZ), with GIMPA and ILLS as technical partners.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE government is to review the decentralisation process, after the 20 years of its implementation, as a way of deepening local level democracy and accelerating grass-roots development and empowerment.
Consequently, a broad national stakeholders consultation on decentralisation would be undertaken to examine the conceptual issues, review the 20 years of implementation of the assembly system and make proposals for the way forward.
The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, who made this known at a press briefing in Accra98, said the national stakeholders conference would be preceded by a series of events which would provide the relevant impetus and opportunities for a wider range of Ghanaians to contribute to the review process.
That, he said, was in line with the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC’s) manifesto for a ‘Better Ghana’ which sought to deepen and facilitate local level democracy and empowerment and accelerate decentralisation.
“This would be in keeping with the original philosophy of participation underlying the decentralisation effort itself and be in line with the inclusiveness that the Mills Administration wishes to achieve,” he stressed.
Mr Yieleh Chireh said the review was to strengthen the capacity of personnel at the local level, provide more resources and give the elected officials a greater leverage to be able to carry out their development programmes.
He said some legislation such as the Local Government Service Act and the Procurement Act, needed to be reviewed to serve the purpose of strengthening the decentralisation process.
The aim, he said, was to improve sanitation, accelerate development and promote education at the local level.
Mr Yieleh Chireh noted that there had been several studies, reflections and consultations on Ghana’s decentralisation effort over the years, including the activities linked to the preparation of a draft decentralisation policy framework over the past two years.
Besides, there are proposals for reforming local government sub-structures and the conduct of unit committee elections by the Electoral Commission (EC).
Therefore, he said, the government wanted to take advantage of those resources, build on the past, consolidate the gains, enhance efficiency and not re-invent the wheel.
Mr Yieleh Chireh said the review process would provide opportunities for various sections of the population, irrespective of education, gender, geographical location, political affiliation, age or religion to make suggestions on how to improve the decentralisation process.
Besides, he said, the review was an attempt to “rekindle popular interest in local governance and local level democracy”.
The minister said the review process, which consists of four main categories, would be undertaken over a three-month period, from September to December, 2009.
There would be 10 regional level consultations organised by regional co-ordinating councils in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development at which identifiable interest groups would make submissions while the public would be invited to make inputs.
A technical team has already started reviewing relevant reports, including documents on products generated over the last two decades.
There would also be consultations with particular interest groups, namely traditional authorities in collaboration with the National House of Chiefs, women’s groups, Members of Parliament (MPs), to be conducted by the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS).
There is an ongoing process of inviting and receiving written submissions to dedicated electronic and physical addresses, while people will also be invited to submit written comments during the regional and interest group consultations.
Mr Yieleh Chireh said the intended outputs from the stakeholder review exercises included a consolidated stakeholder review process report, a revised decentralisation policy framework, a second National Decentralisation Action Plan and a memorandum on emerging priorities for the envisaged legislative and constitutional review processes.
He said a technical team was also being convened to ensure rapid collation and analysis of the outputs in order to expedite processes within the envisaged time-frame.
The ministry’s main partner in the review process is the Support for Decentralisation Reform of the German Development Co-operation (GTZ), with GIMPA and ILLS as technical partners.
Globacom fibre optic cables reaches Accra
30/9/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
A fibre optic cable that will deliver high speed, reliable and cheaper Internet and telecommunication services in Ghana reached the Osu Beach in Accra yesterday.
The 9,800 kilometre cable, which will link Ghana to the rest of Africa, Europe and America, has been laid under the sea from Lagos to Accra.
Globacom contracted Alcatel-Lucent of France to fix the fibre optic cables which will carry data and Internet traffic among Ghana, West Africa and the rest of the world. Ghana thus beccomes the third country, after Nigeria and Benin, to have the under-sea fibre optic cable.
Globacom has already fixed the cable in the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
The optic cables were fixed by a technical crew on board a vessel.
The Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Globacom, Mr Paddy Adenuga, the Director-General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Mr Bernard Forson, the General Manager of Alcatel-Lucent, Mr Marco Rebbechi, and the Project Director of Alcatel-Lucent, Mr Mitesh Chauhan, were at the Osu Beach to witness the arrival of the cable.
Alcatel-Lucent used the occasion to formally hand over the cable to Globacom.
Mr Adenuga said the submarine cable would provide cost-effective voice, data, video and e-commerce services across Africa, Europe and the rest of the world.
He said the submarine cable, the first to be established by a single company, would provide crystal clear voice calls and high speed data and Internet transmission services.
He said the unique feature of the submarine cable was its ability to connect Ghana directly to the United Kingdom and further to the United States, the two major data hubs of the world.
Mr Adenuga said it was cheaper to operate the submarine cable and that would automatically bring down the rates on telecommunications services, besides its reliability.
According to the Glo 1 Project Manager, Mr Kayode Adebiyi, the cable offered 99.9 per cent up time reliability, world-class, long distance voice, video and data communication services to the African customer.
He mentioned on-line diagnosis of ailments, video conferencing, distance learning, reliable data, voice and video connectivity and e-banking as some of the facilities that could be provided by the cable.
Mr Iddrisu said the laying of the cable in Accra marked a milestone in the telecommunications landscape of Ghana "in our quest to improve upon the delivery of improved communications infrastructure and services to enhance efficient and affordable data services and management".
He said in line with the government's commitment to increase broadband uptake and penetration in the country, his ministry gave policy directives to the NCA to promote investment in telecommunication facilities, including fibre optic-based network transmission and submarine cable landing services.
“The landing of Glo 1 submarine cable in Ghana along the west coast of Africa is a positive manifestation of an environment that is open, competitive and conducive for fruitful investment as made by Glo Mobile Ghana Limited," he said.
Mr Iddrisu commended Globacom for taking advantage of the healthy investment climate in Ghana to invest in ICT infrastructure which would facilitate the expansion of market opportunities for broadband service providers and thereby help reduce transaction cost for broadband services.
He said currently the fibre optic capacity in Ghana was 120 gigabytes per second and indicated that with the emergence of the submarine cable the capacity would increase to 640 gigabytes per second and an ultimate capacity of 2.5 terabytes per second, "thus increasing up time reliability to 99.9 per cent".
Mr Forson described the arrival of the cable to Ghana as a positive development in the country's telecommunication industry.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
A fibre optic cable that will deliver high speed, reliable and cheaper Internet and telecommunication services in Ghana reached the Osu Beach in Accra yesterday.
The 9,800 kilometre cable, which will link Ghana to the rest of Africa, Europe and America, has been laid under the sea from Lagos to Accra.
Globacom contracted Alcatel-Lucent of France to fix the fibre optic cables which will carry data and Internet traffic among Ghana, West Africa and the rest of the world. Ghana thus beccomes the third country, after Nigeria and Benin, to have the under-sea fibre optic cable.
Globacom has already fixed the cable in the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
The optic cables were fixed by a technical crew on board a vessel.
The Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Globacom, Mr Paddy Adenuga, the Director-General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Mr Bernard Forson, the General Manager of Alcatel-Lucent, Mr Marco Rebbechi, and the Project Director of Alcatel-Lucent, Mr Mitesh Chauhan, were at the Osu Beach to witness the arrival of the cable.
Alcatel-Lucent used the occasion to formally hand over the cable to Globacom.
Mr Adenuga said the submarine cable would provide cost-effective voice, data, video and e-commerce services across Africa, Europe and the rest of the world.
He said the submarine cable, the first to be established by a single company, would provide crystal clear voice calls and high speed data and Internet transmission services.
He said the unique feature of the submarine cable was its ability to connect Ghana directly to the United Kingdom and further to the United States, the two major data hubs of the world.
Mr Adenuga said it was cheaper to operate the submarine cable and that would automatically bring down the rates on telecommunications services, besides its reliability.
According to the Glo 1 Project Manager, Mr Kayode Adebiyi, the cable offered 99.9 per cent up time reliability, world-class, long distance voice, video and data communication services to the African customer.
He mentioned on-line diagnosis of ailments, video conferencing, distance learning, reliable data, voice and video connectivity and e-banking as some of the facilities that could be provided by the cable.
Mr Iddrisu said the laying of the cable in Accra marked a milestone in the telecommunications landscape of Ghana "in our quest to improve upon the delivery of improved communications infrastructure and services to enhance efficient and affordable data services and management".
He said in line with the government's commitment to increase broadband uptake and penetration in the country, his ministry gave policy directives to the NCA to promote investment in telecommunication facilities, including fibre optic-based network transmission and submarine cable landing services.
“The landing of Glo 1 submarine cable in Ghana along the west coast of Africa is a positive manifestation of an environment that is open, competitive and conducive for fruitful investment as made by Glo Mobile Ghana Limited," he said.
Mr Iddrisu commended Globacom for taking advantage of the healthy investment climate in Ghana to invest in ICT infrastructure which would facilitate the expansion of market opportunities for broadband service providers and thereby help reduce transaction cost for broadband services.
He said currently the fibre optic capacity in Ghana was 120 gigabytes per second and indicated that with the emergence of the submarine cable the capacity would increase to 640 gigabytes per second and an ultimate capacity of 2.5 terabytes per second, "thus increasing up time reliability to 99.9 per cent".
Mr Forson described the arrival of the cable to Ghana as a positive development in the country's telecommunication industry.
Ghana hosts 4-nation business summit
3/10/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
FIVE hundred business executives and entrepreneurs from Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria are to attend a three-day business summit in Accra aimed at bridging trade barriers among the four neighbouring countries.
The Ghana-Togo-Benin-Nigeria Business Summit takes place from October 5 to 7, 2009 on the theme, "Breaking Barriers and Partnering to Optimise Trade Potentials”.
The summit is a continuation of annual gatherings of public and private sector stakeholders in Ghana and Nigeria in the last two years and the inclusion of Togo and Benin is to bring on board all the four countries in the Co-Prosperity Alliance Zone.
It is being organised by Vintage Visions Limited, in partnership with the Ghanaian Embassy in Nigeria, the Togolese Embassy in Ghana, the Beninois Embassy in Ghana and the Nigerian Embassy in Ghana.
Briefing newsmen on the forthcoming summit, the Chief Executive Officer of Vintage Visions Limited, Mr Michael Ajayi, said although the four countries were along the coastal areas and shared borders, they did not have any bilateral trade agreements.
Besides, he said, all the four countries had common trade obstacles hindering trade relations among them and mentioned restrictions at the borders as an example.
Therefore, he said, the business summit was an attempt to forge trade alliances among public and private sector stakeholders in the four neighbouring countries.
Mr Ajayi said the countries would be discussing business opportunities in sectors, including oil and gas, manufacturing, agriculture, tourism, construction and transportation.
He said the business summit was an attempt to open market avenues among the four West African countries and encourage local production, adding that it was expected to create a conducive business environment for medium, small and large enterprises to thrive in their businesses.
That, he said, would “reverse the over-dependence of West African countries on foreign markets”.
Mr Ajayi said the summit would come up with an action plan and a communiqué to influence policy development geared towards improving bilateral relations.
It would also form a pressure group to impress on respective governments to ease restrictions at the borders to facilitate business transactions, he said.
The Togolese Ambassador to Ghana and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Ghana, Mr Tete Jean-Pierre Gbikpi-Benissan, said the summit was significant, since it would improve trade relations among the four neighbouring countries.
He stressed that it would break the trade barriers among the countries and grow their respective economies.
The Deputy Head of Mission of the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana, Mr A.M. Salisu, said the summit had recorded successes since it began in 2006 and expressed the hope that this year’s summit, which sees the inclusion of Togo and Benin, would yield more results.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
FIVE hundred business executives and entrepreneurs from Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria are to attend a three-day business summit in Accra aimed at bridging trade barriers among the four neighbouring countries.
The Ghana-Togo-Benin-Nigeria Business Summit takes place from October 5 to 7, 2009 on the theme, "Breaking Barriers and Partnering to Optimise Trade Potentials”.
The summit is a continuation of annual gatherings of public and private sector stakeholders in Ghana and Nigeria in the last two years and the inclusion of Togo and Benin is to bring on board all the four countries in the Co-Prosperity Alliance Zone.
It is being organised by Vintage Visions Limited, in partnership with the Ghanaian Embassy in Nigeria, the Togolese Embassy in Ghana, the Beninois Embassy in Ghana and the Nigerian Embassy in Ghana.
Briefing newsmen on the forthcoming summit, the Chief Executive Officer of Vintage Visions Limited, Mr Michael Ajayi, said although the four countries were along the coastal areas and shared borders, they did not have any bilateral trade agreements.
Besides, he said, all the four countries had common trade obstacles hindering trade relations among them and mentioned restrictions at the borders as an example.
Therefore, he said, the business summit was an attempt to forge trade alliances among public and private sector stakeholders in the four neighbouring countries.
Mr Ajayi said the countries would be discussing business opportunities in sectors, including oil and gas, manufacturing, agriculture, tourism, construction and transportation.
He said the business summit was an attempt to open market avenues among the four West African countries and encourage local production, adding that it was expected to create a conducive business environment for medium, small and large enterprises to thrive in their businesses.
That, he said, would “reverse the over-dependence of West African countries on foreign markets”.
Mr Ajayi said the summit would come up with an action plan and a communiqué to influence policy development geared towards improving bilateral relations.
It would also form a pressure group to impress on respective governments to ease restrictions at the borders to facilitate business transactions, he said.
The Togolese Ambassador to Ghana and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Ghana, Mr Tete Jean-Pierre Gbikpi-Benissan, said the summit was significant, since it would improve trade relations among the four neighbouring countries.
He stressed that it would break the trade barriers among the countries and grow their respective economies.
The Deputy Head of Mission of the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana, Mr A.M. Salisu, said the summit had recorded successes since it began in 2006 and expressed the hope that this year’s summit, which sees the inclusion of Togo and Benin, would yield more results.
GBC duped - National Security to the rescue
8/10/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE National Security Council and INTERPOL have mounted a search for the directors of Sound Broadcast Services (SBS), a UK-based company alleged to have defrauded the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) to the tune of £24,516.65 under the pretext of supplying GBC with three Frequency Modulation (FM) transmitters.
The Director-General of GBC, Mr William Ampem Darko, is said to have paid the amount to SBS for the supply of the three FM transmitters to beef up the operations of GBC FM stations at Amedzofe and Tamale.
But the directors of SBS, upon receipt of the money, declared the company bankrupt and suggested that the £24,516.65 it received from GBC be considered a dash.
They also disappeared soon after receiving the amount.
A Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, confirmed to the Daily Graphic that the government had received a letter from the management of GBC informing it of the failure of SBS to either supply the three FM transmitters or refund the £24,516.65.
“The management of GBC has written to us requesting the government to help it to retrieve the money,” he said.
According to the deputy minister, before declaring their company bankrupt, the directors of SBS bounced back and requested GBC to pay an additional £72,205.51 to a sister company, Eddystone Broadcast Limited, for the supply of the three transmitters.
He, however, declined to give the names of the directors for security reasons.
Consequently, the management of GBC wrote a letter, signed by Mr Ampem Darko, to the government, requesting it to help trace the directors of SBS and retrieve the £24,516.65.
Mr Ablakwa said the government had forwarded the letter to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice for advice.
He said since it was an international crime, the government had asked National Security to team up with INTERPOL to trace the directors of SBS.
He said the government would ensure that the money was retrieved and expressed the hope that National Security and INTERPOL would help to achieve that.
Mr Ablakwa declined to comment further on the issue, saying that “the government wants to wait for the investigations to conclude”.
Meanwhile, another company, Thompson Grass Valley, which was also contacted by the GBC to supply it with three television transmitters, fulfilled its part of the bargain.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE National Security Council and INTERPOL have mounted a search for the directors of Sound Broadcast Services (SBS), a UK-based company alleged to have defrauded the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) to the tune of £24,516.65 under the pretext of supplying GBC with three Frequency Modulation (FM) transmitters.
The Director-General of GBC, Mr William Ampem Darko, is said to have paid the amount to SBS for the supply of the three FM transmitters to beef up the operations of GBC FM stations at Amedzofe and Tamale.
But the directors of SBS, upon receipt of the money, declared the company bankrupt and suggested that the £24,516.65 it received from GBC be considered a dash.
They also disappeared soon after receiving the amount.
A Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, confirmed to the Daily Graphic that the government had received a letter from the management of GBC informing it of the failure of SBS to either supply the three FM transmitters or refund the £24,516.65.
“The management of GBC has written to us requesting the government to help it to retrieve the money,” he said.
According to the deputy minister, before declaring their company bankrupt, the directors of SBS bounced back and requested GBC to pay an additional £72,205.51 to a sister company, Eddystone Broadcast Limited, for the supply of the three transmitters.
He, however, declined to give the names of the directors for security reasons.
Consequently, the management of GBC wrote a letter, signed by Mr Ampem Darko, to the government, requesting it to help trace the directors of SBS and retrieve the £24,516.65.
Mr Ablakwa said the government had forwarded the letter to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice for advice.
He said since it was an international crime, the government had asked National Security to team up with INTERPOL to trace the directors of SBS.
He said the government would ensure that the money was retrieved and expressed the hope that National Security and INTERPOL would help to achieve that.
Mr Ablakwa declined to comment further on the issue, saying that “the government wants to wait for the investigations to conclude”.
Meanwhile, another company, Thompson Grass Valley, which was also contacted by the GBC to supply it with three television transmitters, fulfilled its part of the bargain.
Muslim pilgrims have a fair deal
9/10/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
AIR-CONDITIONED tents have been mounted by the National Hajj Committee (NHC) near the El-Wak Stadium in Accra to accommodate prospective Muslim pilgrims performing this year’s Hajj. This is the first time such tents have been mounted in advance for the holy pilgrimage.
The tents, suitable for habitation, were partly sponsored by the government and have giant television screens and woollen carpets fitted in them. The female tent takes 300 people at a time while the male takes 200.
Prospective pilgrims are expected to stay in the tent within 48 hours before their departure to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The tents are some of the facilities provided at the Hajj Village by Creater Digital Ghana Limited, a subsidiary of Zoomlion, for the NHC.
Other facilities at the Hajj Village are: a clinic, separate washrooms, toilet facilities and spaces for ablution for males and females, a canteen and an office for the NHC.
Workers of Creater Digital were seen putting finishing touches to the facilities when members of the NHC conducted some journalists round the facilities yesterday.
The Chairman of the NHC, Alhaji Alhassan Bene, said the erection of the air-conditioned tents and the other facilities was to prevent the situation where pilgrims slept in the open at Aviance for days under dehumanising conditions before their departure for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj.
He said the Minister of Defence, Lt Gen Joseph Henry Smith, had offered to deploy personnel of the military police to maintain security at the Village.
Mr Bene said for the first time the NHC would fly would-be pilgrims from the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions direct to the Hajj Village and stay there within two days before their departure.
He said the prospective pilgrims would leave in batches and indicated that the NHC would publish the names of prospective pilgrims and their dates of departure in the media.
That, he said, was to avoid overcrowding at the Hajj Village.
Alhaji Bene said the pilgrims would depart on a daily basis with the first batch leaving on November 10, 2009 with Egypt Air from Accra to Madina, where they would visit Prophet Mohammed’s Mosque before they journey to Mecca to start the Hajj rites, which start around December 24, 2006. The last batch of pilgrims leaves on November 18, 2009.
The return journey starts on December 12,2009 and ends on December 20, 2009.
Alhaji Bene said the prospective pilgrims would receive medical attention before they leave for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and indicated that only people declared to be fit would be allowed to embark on the pilgrimage.
He thanked the government for supporting the NHC in providing facilities at the Hajj Village.
The Chairman of the Welfare Committee of the NHC, Alhaji Mahama Moro, said only would-be pilgrims would be allowed entry into the Hajj Village. That, he said, was to ensure utmost security and avoid congestion.
He reminded prospective pilgrims that the deadline for the payment of the Hajj fare was October 15, 2009, and that the NHC would not extend the date.
The Project Director of Creater Digital, Mr Fennec Okyere, said the technical personnel would be on a stand-by to correct any defects during the period of the stay of the pilgrims till their return to Ghana.
Hajj organisation in Ghana has been characterised by poor pre-departure camping of pilgrims, late departure and delay in the arrival of luggage.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
AIR-CONDITIONED tents have been mounted by the National Hajj Committee (NHC) near the El-Wak Stadium in Accra to accommodate prospective Muslim pilgrims performing this year’s Hajj. This is the first time such tents have been mounted in advance for the holy pilgrimage.
The tents, suitable for habitation, were partly sponsored by the government and have giant television screens and woollen carpets fitted in them. The female tent takes 300 people at a time while the male takes 200.
Prospective pilgrims are expected to stay in the tent within 48 hours before their departure to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The tents are some of the facilities provided at the Hajj Village by Creater Digital Ghana Limited, a subsidiary of Zoomlion, for the NHC.
Other facilities at the Hajj Village are: a clinic, separate washrooms, toilet facilities and spaces for ablution for males and females, a canteen and an office for the NHC.
Workers of Creater Digital were seen putting finishing touches to the facilities when members of the NHC conducted some journalists round the facilities yesterday.
The Chairman of the NHC, Alhaji Alhassan Bene, said the erection of the air-conditioned tents and the other facilities was to prevent the situation where pilgrims slept in the open at Aviance for days under dehumanising conditions before their departure for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj.
He said the Minister of Defence, Lt Gen Joseph Henry Smith, had offered to deploy personnel of the military police to maintain security at the Village.
Mr Bene said for the first time the NHC would fly would-be pilgrims from the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions direct to the Hajj Village and stay there within two days before their departure.
He said the prospective pilgrims would leave in batches and indicated that the NHC would publish the names of prospective pilgrims and their dates of departure in the media.
That, he said, was to avoid overcrowding at the Hajj Village.
Alhaji Bene said the pilgrims would depart on a daily basis with the first batch leaving on November 10, 2009 with Egypt Air from Accra to Madina, where they would visit Prophet Mohammed’s Mosque before they journey to Mecca to start the Hajj rites, which start around December 24, 2006. The last batch of pilgrims leaves on November 18, 2009.
The return journey starts on December 12,2009 and ends on December 20, 2009.
Alhaji Bene said the prospective pilgrims would receive medical attention before they leave for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and indicated that only people declared to be fit would be allowed to embark on the pilgrimage.
He thanked the government for supporting the NHC in providing facilities at the Hajj Village.
The Chairman of the Welfare Committee of the NHC, Alhaji Mahama Moro, said only would-be pilgrims would be allowed entry into the Hajj Village. That, he said, was to ensure utmost security and avoid congestion.
He reminded prospective pilgrims that the deadline for the payment of the Hajj fare was October 15, 2009, and that the NHC would not extend the date.
The Project Director of Creater Digital, Mr Fennec Okyere, said the technical personnel would be on a stand-by to correct any defects during the period of the stay of the pilgrims till their return to Ghana.
Hajj organisation in Ghana has been characterised by poor pre-departure camping of pilgrims, late departure and delay in the arrival of luggage.
Govt donates food items to Muslims
30/9/09
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE government has donated assorted food items worth hundreds of Ghana cedis to Muslim organisations, as its contribution towards the Eid-Ul-Fitr celebration.
The items are 510 bags of rice, 63 cartons of cooking oil and eight rams.
The beneficiary organisations are the Office of the National Chief Imam, the Ahlussunna Wal Jama’a (ASWAJ), the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission, the Shia Group, the Council of Muslim and Zongo Chiefs, the Federation of Ghanaian Muslims, the Coalition of Muslim Organisations, Ghana (COMOG) and the Federation of Muslim Associations, Ghana (FOMWAG).
The Presidential Spokesperson, Mr Mahama Ayariga, who presented the food items on behalf of President John Evans Atta Mills and Vice President John Dramani Mahama, called on the Muslims to continue to support government’s development agenda.
He said the President knew that Eid-Ul Fitr was an occasion to celebrate, share and generally promote unity and integration of families.
Therefore, he said, the President wanted to join Muslims in the celebration of the Eid-Ul-Fitr.
He said the gesture was the President’s widow’s mite to Muslims during their celebrations, noting that “the President wants to join Muslims in the celebration and show that he is with you as you prepare for the celebration.”
Mr Ayariga said President Mills believed that prayers for peace, unity and prosperity which Muslims said during the 30-day period of fasting would be answered by God.
That, he said, would make Ghana “a more peaceful, united and prosperous country.”
The Public Relations Officer of the Council of Muslim and Zongo Chiefs, Chief Alhaji Imoro Baba Issa, thanked President Mills and the government officials in general for donating food items to all active Muslim organisations.
He prayed that President Mills would continue to live in peace and enjoy the co-operation of all Ghanaians to be able to achieve his target of improving the living conditions of Ghanaians.
In a related development, Vice President John Dramani Mahama donated 20 bags of rice and five cartons of cooking oil to the Chief of Zongo, Mallam Hamisu Bako, as his contribution towards the Eid-Ul Fitr celebration.
Alhaji Baba Sharif, who represented the Vice President, stressed the need for Muslims to continue to live in peace with all the religious faiths in the country.
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE government has donated assorted food items worth hundreds of Ghana cedis to Muslim organisations, as its contribution towards the Eid-Ul-Fitr celebration.
The items are 510 bags of rice, 63 cartons of cooking oil and eight rams.
The beneficiary organisations are the Office of the National Chief Imam, the Ahlussunna Wal Jama’a (ASWAJ), the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission, the Shia Group, the Council of Muslim and Zongo Chiefs, the Federation of Ghanaian Muslims, the Coalition of Muslim Organisations, Ghana (COMOG) and the Federation of Muslim Associations, Ghana (FOMWAG).
The Presidential Spokesperson, Mr Mahama Ayariga, who presented the food items on behalf of President John Evans Atta Mills and Vice President John Dramani Mahama, called on the Muslims to continue to support government’s development agenda.
He said the President knew that Eid-Ul Fitr was an occasion to celebrate, share and generally promote unity and integration of families.
Therefore, he said, the President wanted to join Muslims in the celebration of the Eid-Ul-Fitr.
He said the gesture was the President’s widow’s mite to Muslims during their celebrations, noting that “the President wants to join Muslims in the celebration and show that he is with you as you prepare for the celebration.”
Mr Ayariga said President Mills believed that prayers for peace, unity and prosperity which Muslims said during the 30-day period of fasting would be answered by God.
That, he said, would make Ghana “a more peaceful, united and prosperous country.”
The Public Relations Officer of the Council of Muslim and Zongo Chiefs, Chief Alhaji Imoro Baba Issa, thanked President Mills and the government officials in general for donating food items to all active Muslim organisations.
He prayed that President Mills would continue to live in peace and enjoy the co-operation of all Ghanaians to be able to achieve his target of improving the living conditions of Ghanaians.
In a related development, Vice President John Dramani Mahama donated 20 bags of rice and five cartons of cooking oil to the Chief of Zongo, Mallam Hamisu Bako, as his contribution towards the Eid-Ul Fitr celebration.
Alhaji Baba Sharif, who represented the Vice President, stressed the need for Muslims to continue to live in peace with all the religious faiths in the country.
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