The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) says it has detected a viral disease that affects mostly okra, cucumber, and tomato crops in the Lawra Municipality.
The disease is not peculiar to only Lawra, but also detected in other adjoining districts such as Lambussie.
“A report has been sent to our regional office for proper investigation to be conducted to come up with an effective solution,” Mr Yer Simon, the Lawra Municipal Director of Agriculture, has disclosed.
He said farmers in the affected districts had been advised to uproot and bury the affected plants to help stop their spread in the communities.
Mr Simon made this known when he gave an overview of the agricultural activities at a farmer’s forum held in Lawra to usher in the “Kobine” Festival of the Chiefs and people of the Lawra Traditional Area.
The forum was on the theme: “Crop cultivation in the era of climate change.”
Mr Simon, who spoke on “Sustaining our agricultural productivity in post COVID-19 challenges and opportunities”, said the department over the years worked effectively with women in the Agricultural Platform (WAP) to improve their agricultural activities in the municipality.
He announced that through the Modernisation of the Agriculture in Ghana (MAG) programme, one of the women groups had secured a rice milling destoner machine, to be used to improve the quality of locally milled rice.
He said 24 simple hand sewing machines were supplied on subsidised bases to some women and other farmer groups by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) to help improve agricultural mechanisation and reduce drudgery in agricultural activities.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the Ghana Rice Interoperability also gave 10 slashers to some groups for weeding and harvesting of rice in the municipality.
On the food crops situation, the Agricultural Director said farmers who planted early at the commencement of the rains had to re-sow due to poor germination of seeds in some parts of the municipality.
Mr Simon said input prices also recorded a marginal increase, and farmers who could not afford inorganic fertilizers for maize cultivation went into the growing of other crops such as soya beans, millet, sorghum, and groundnuts.
He said under the Planting for Food and Jobs, 400 bags of NPK fertilizer were brought to the municipality and farmers could not buy fertilizers from the open market due to higher prices of the product.
He said, the Fall Army Worm cases were recorded, and the situation was severe during the dry spell periods but that the department was able to secure some chemicals from the regional office and distributed to farmers free of charge to curtail the problem.
Outlining some of the challenges facing the department, Mr Simon mentioned that inadequate extension officers and coordination support were hindering the smooth extension delivery in the municipality.
Naa Dery Aatona , Chief of Zambo, who chaired the forum, urged farmers to diversify their farming activities especially in the areas of animal husbandry and livestock production in the wake of the climate change.
He appealed to the government to continue with the provision of small-scale dams in the communities to help farmers to undertake all-year-round farming activities.
The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has vowed to clamp down on entities that fail to comply with tax obligations.
This comes after six companies were shut down on Friday for tax evasion offences as part of efforts by the GRA to boost revenue mobilization.
Speaking to the media after the closure of the facilities, the Enforcement Manager of GRA, Joseph Annan urged firms evading taxes to desist from the act else they will face the consequences.
“We will always be on the field. We will knock on doors but if you run today, you may not run forever because we will surely knock on your door. Companies must do the right thing by paying all their taxes”, he advised.
The Domestic Tax Revenue Division of the GRA, shut down operations of the UnderBridge event Centre located in East Legon for failing to register for Value Added Tax (VAT).
This action was part of moves by the authority to check entities failing to honour their tax obligations, leading to loss of revenue to the state.
Five other firms including four cold stores at Tema and a beverage distribution company; Josh Nartey ventures were also closed.
The GRA says the offences of these companies include the non-registration of Value Added Tax (VAT) and the non-issuance of invoices.
”We got intel that they were not registered. We also did our own background checks and confirmed it.”
”We have locked up the place. They must do the needful by registering, and then we look at the sanctions for non-registration, after which we will open up the place”, Mr. Annan said.
He added that, the action by the firms contributes to revenue loss to the state.
The Northern Regional Campaign Coordinator of the ‘Alan for President’ team, Alhaji Ibrahim Karim, has drawn the attention of the National Executives Committee (NEC) of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to the activities of the Vice-President, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, in the north.
According to the ‘Alan for President’ Campaign Coordinator, Dr Bawumia, in the name of an official working visit, is campaigning to replace his boss, who is exiting after serving his two conservative terms.
He said Dr Bawumia, during his purported official tour up north, held a series of meetings with some delegates and sought their support to make his dream of becoming the first Muslim President in the Fourth Republic.
He said at the meeting, the delegates’ phones were taken and an amount of GHS100 was given as transport after the meeting.
“As a party, we cannot enact a law for the law to be hard on others and soft on some particular people,” he warned.
Alhaji Karim drew the attention of the NEC to the purported campaign of Dr Bawumia speaking when he spoke on Accra100.5FM’s morning show Ghana Yensom hosted by Emmanuel Quarshie (The Hitman) on Friday, October 7 2022.
He said the Vice President must be called to order for breaking the code of conduct spelt out by the party for governing the campaign for the flagbearership race.
He added that when the Vice President came to the north, he was accompanied by some Deputy Ministers and Chief Executive Officers of some state organisations.
“I have been suspended from the communications team of the party for just going on the radio to heap praise on the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, for doing a great job”.
“Yet, these people came to the north, mounted the radio stations and did all manner of things in the name of the Vice President and these people are still walking free,” he bemoaned.
He warned that if the party fails to deal with the Vice President and his supporters for flouting the code of conduct in the run-up to the presidential primaries, supporters of Mr Kyerematen will be compelled to defy the code of conduct and openly campaign.
The Asante Bekwai Circuit Court has convicted a mason on his own plea for stealing bags of cement.
Cephas Apoyagra, 24, admitted entering Mr Peter Osei, the complainant’s premise to steal 21 bags of cement and was convicted accordingly.
Meanwhile, the Court presided over by Mr Mark Tair-ima Diboro deferred the sentence to October 20, 2022.
Giving the account, Police Chief Inspector Christian Amartey said Mr Osei is constructing his building at Akwaduo New Site, where Apoyagra resided.
He said on October 02, 2022 after complainant and his co-workers had closed from work, they packed the rest of the 21 bags of cement for safe keeping in one of the rooms of the uncompleted building in which they were working.
Chief Inspector Amartey said after complainant and his co-workers left the place the convict, Apoyagra hired a tricycle to the place, where he loaded the 21 bags of cement into the tricycle and sent them to his uncle’s residence.
The next day, at about 0700 hours the complainant and his co-workers reported for work and detected that the bags of cement had been stolen.
Prosecution said the Complainant made enquires and was told by a witness in the case that he saw Apoyagra conveying the bags of cement from the uncompleted building.
Complainant then lodged formal complaint with the police, the Court heard.
Chief Inspector Amartey said on October 4, 2022 complainant arrested the suspect from his hide out and handed him over to the police.
He said the convict admitted the crime in his caution statement.
He then led police to retrieve the stolen items.
Chief Inspector Amartey said after investigation he was arraigned.
Burkina Faso as of October 3 had a new president despite last holding an election in November 2022.
Ibrahim Traore, rose to the high office of president and Supreme Leader of the Armed Forces after leading a coup that ousted his former boss Lt. Col. Sandaogo Damiba.
Traore, at the age of 34 became the world’s youngest president, two years behind the democratically-elected Chilean president, Gabriel Boric.
The new Burkinabe president would hardly have made it to the presidency if he tried getting there via the ballots.
A testament to this is the fact that whereas Africa boasts a young population, it has managed to produce some of the oldest leaders.
At 34 years, Traore is in some case younger that children of some African presidents.
This article looks at some African leaders whose age is double or more than twice that of their newest counterpart in the arid West African country suffering a Sahel security crisis.
List of African leaders who are twice as old as Ibrahim Traore
a. Joao Lourenco of Angola – 68 years
b. Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa – 69 years
c. Abdelmajid Tebboune of Algeria – 76 years
d. Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria – 77 years
e. Alassane Ouattara of Ivory Coast – 78 years
f. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of Ghana – 78 years
g. Denis Sassou Nguesso of Republic of Congo – 78 years
h. Yoweri Museveni of Uganda – 78 years
i. Theodore Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea – 80 years
Executive Secretary to Ghana’s president, Nana Asante Bediatuo, says Kwahu, in the Eastern Region of Ghana, is one of the blessed regions that the country should be proud of.
According to him, Kwahu is Ghana’s Switzerland because of its good weather, development, and the kind nature of its people.
“I always say Kwahu is Ghana’s Switzerland. Those who have not been to Kwahu are the ones who don’t know it. Here is Ghana’s Switzerland. The weather is very good, the people are also good and the people of Kwahu have united to develop the place. Kwahu is like travelling abroad,” he told Kwahu Ambassador in an interview sighted by GhanaWeb.
Nana Bediatuo, to reiterate his points, added that it is for this reason that the president of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has been spending his Easter holidays in Kwahu, for the past fifteen years.
He added that it is so because the president sleeps better when in Kwahu because of its peaceful environment.
“Even the president, Akufo-Addo, celebrates the Easter festival at Kwahu. He has been doing this for fifteen years. He feels at peace and he sleeps better when he is in Kwahu,” he told the presenter.
Background
The Kwahu or Okwawu are hardworking mountain-dwelling agriculturalist and the famous business-oriented Kwa-speaking people that forms a subset of the larger Akan ethnolinguistic group living in the south-central Ghana, on the west shore of Lake Volta in the Eastern Region. The Kwahu live specifically on part of the Kwahu sandstone plateau, with the Afram Plains to the north, Akim Abuakwa to the south, Ashanti Akim to the west, and the Volta River forming an approximate boundary to the east.
Kwahu people speak a Twi-dialect of Akan language, which is within the Kwa language group (Twi, Sefwi, Mfantse, Chokossi, Nzema, Ewe, et al), but also falls in the larger Niger-Congo phylum. The derivative of Kwahu-Twi spoken in indigenous Kwahu towns such as Abene, Abetifi, Pepease, Atibie, Nkwatia, Obo, Bepong, Tafo, Akwasiho, Obomeng, Twenedurase, Nteso, Nkwakwa, Mpraeso, Asakraka, Aduamoa, Pitiko, Sadan, Burukuwa, Nkwantanane, Ahinasie and Donkorkrom is slightly different from Asante-Twi, Akwapim-Twi and Akyem-Twi. According to Linguists Kwahus are fond of using the syllabi (La), (hunu) and the like. Thus they end their speech and pronunciation with words that end with “La” sound. In most cases, you will find that instead of “saa” the Kwahu ends it with “Saala” (that’s it), “yei ala” (just this). Therein dwells the distinction, and the Kwahus especially Obos are noted for such trend in speech delivery. The Kwahu slogan is Asase Aban, Yεnte Gyae (Protectors of the Land, We don`t quit) and also Oboכּ (Rock) or Oboכּba (Child of the Rock).
The beautiful Kwahu Scarps, their residential polity has received platitudes from historians and anthropologists alike. Historians Macmillan and Kwamena Poh (1965) describe the wonderful climate of their mountainous town, Abetifi as “… the Switzerland of West Africa, with nights as cool as May nights in Europe”.
The people are very wealthy and successful traders who were the first to utilize their interior middlemen role to emerge as strong local business gurus.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has described its second round of negotiation with Ghana for a loan support facility for the country’s homegrown economic programme as constructive.
The Fund, however, said, the team would advance its technical work including further progress on assessing Ghana’s debt sustainability in the weeks ahead, including discussions at its Annual Meetings in Washington D.C.
Mr Stéphane Roudet, the IMF Mission Chief to Ghana, at the end of the meeting on Friday, said: “We had constructive discussions on policies aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability and laying the foundation for stronger and more inclusive growth.”
“We reaffirm our commitment to support Ghana in these challenging times, consistent with the IMF’s policies”.
He expressed the IMF team’s gratitude to the Ghanaian authorities, private sector, civil society, development partners and other stakeholders for their constructive engagement and support during this mission.”
The second in a series of negotiations dealt with issues including ensuring public finance sustainability while protecting the vulnerable, bolstering the credibility of monetary and exchange rate policies to reduce inflation and rebuild external buffers.
The discussions also touched on preserving Ghana’s financial sector stability, and steps to encourage private investment and growth, including by improving governance, transparency, and public sector efficiency.
The IMF team was in Ghana from September 26 to October 7 and discussed policies that could be supported by an IMF arrangement to help the country navigate through the current economic hardship and improve its fiscal balances sustainably.
They met with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and his Vice, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, as well as the Finance Minister Ofori-Atta, and Bank of Ghana Governor, Dr Ernest Addison and their respective teams.
The IMF team also met with the Parliament’s Finance Committee, and representatives from various government agencies, the Trades Union Congress, the private sector, civil society organizations, and development partners.
Member of Parliament for Dome Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo, joined the list of politicians who wished Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia a happy 59th birthday.
The Vice President on Friday, October 7 marked his birthday with a celebration at his residence with some cured lepers from the Weija Leprosarium and prominent personalities, particularly politicians.
In a Facebook post, Adwoa Safo shared a picture of the Vice President with the caption: “Stride into 59 Years of Allah’s Fulfilment and Greatness, Dr. Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia”.
About Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia
Dr. Bawumia was born on October 7, 1963, in Tamale to the late Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia, former Chairman of the Council of State (1992–2000), and Hajia Mariama Bawumia.
Born into a large family, Mahamudu Bawumia was the twelfth of his father’s 18 children and the second of his mother’s five. Mahamudu Bawumia attended the Sakasaka Primary school in Tamale and gained admission to Tamale Secondary School in 1975. He was President of the Ghana United Nations Students’ Association (GUNSA) in 1981.
After graduating from Tamale Secondary School, he went to the United Kingdom where he studied banking and obtained the Chartered Institute of Bankers Diploma (ACIB). He took a First Class Honours Degree in Economics at Buckingham University in 1987.
He then obtained a master’s degree in Economics at Lincoln College, Oxford, and obtained a Ph.D. in Economics at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1995.
His areas of specialization include Macroeconomics, International Economics, Development Economics, and Monetary Policy. He has numerous publications.
He became an economist and banker by training and went on to serve as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Ghana between 2006 and 2009.
Dr. Bawumia was running mate to Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2008 and 2012 elections which they lost. He became Vice President on his third attempt with Nana Akufo-Addo after winning the 2016 and 2020 elections.
The Builsa South Member of Parliament, Clement Apaak, has urged the Veteran Journalist, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr and the American Ambassador to Ghana to expose the “powerful forces” fueling and profiting from illegal mining.
According to him, failure of the duo to expose these persons makes them become accessories to the illegal activity.
“Who are these powerful forces we are told are fueling illegal mining (galamsey). So powerful the state or its institutions and agencies are incapable of dealing with them?
“Is it that the nation is powerless or those to take action have been compromised, rendering them powerless? Why are those who know the “powerful forces” fueling and profiting from illegal mining not telling us who these forces are? Mr. Apaak quizzed.
He continued: “Kweko Baako, and recently the American Ambassador to Ghana, have referenced these powerful forces. They ought to expose them, if not they are accessories.”
His comments come on the back of Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor directing the Forestry Commission to stop operations by Akonta Mining Limited in the Tano Nimiri Forest in the Western North region.
In a statement, the Ministry noted that Akonta Mining Limited which is believed to belong to the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, Bernard Antwi Boasiako a.k.a Chairman Wontumi has no mining right to operate in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve.
The bold action of the Minister for Lands has been widely commended by stakeholders.
However, the Builsa South lawmaker says the government must show commitment to the fight against the illegal mining menace and deal with offenders within the government circles.
Meanwhile, the opposition NDC has also served notice that they will investigate and prosecute Chairman Wontumi, Ekow Awusi, and Charles Bissue among others for their involvement in galamsey in the country.
According to the party, the President’s call to action on the illegal mining menace remains mere rhetoric if it is not backed by the appropriate action such as going after his offending appointees.
“We demand the immediate prosecution of all government functionaries and NPP officials who have engaged themselves in illegal mining (galamsey) activities such as Charles Bissue, Chairman Wontumi, Andy Owusu, Ekow Awusi, Prof. Frimpomg Boateng among others. This will be the first step to redemption and serve as a deterrent to other people within your government and party. You need to send a clear signal to Ghanaians that anyone caught in “galamsey” will be dealt with without fear or favour, regardless of party colours,” the party said at a press conference Thursday.
The National Communications officer of the Party Sammy Gyamfi who addressed the media also noted “We demand that all the so-called illegal mining companies like the Akonta Mining Limited which belongs to Chairman Wontumi and Heritage Imperial Mining Company which belongs to Mr. Donald Enstuah, a known financier of the NPP who have invaded forest reserves without any mining leases or permits, must be closed down and prosecuted. The assets of these companies must be confiscated and their owners surcharged with costs of the destruction of those forest reserves.
“We demand that all security personnel complicit in illegal mining activities should be made to face internal investigations and discharged from the various services to serve as a deterrent to others”.
Twenty Six (26) year old Sandra Donkor has recounted some heartbreaking and frightening experiences she has been through with dead bodies after she started working as an Undertaker.
According to Sandra Donkor, Undertakers have so many ways of communicating to dead bodies in order not to hurt the feelings of dead people.
Speaking in an interview with Esi Guyguy monitored by MyNewsGh.com, the courageous lady revealed “Sometimes before you can enter the room where dead body is, you have to knock the door three times before you can enter to show the dead some maximum respect”
“Before an Undertaker can dress a dead body, the person needs to seek permission from the dead body before he/she can work on the body,” Sandra disclosed.
“You should let the body know that you are not there to watch his/her nakedness but just to make him/her beautiful so you need permission to work on his/her body.”
Sandra Donkor added that “Sometimes you have to enter the room with either his/her son or daughter or any of the family members to make the body understand that you are not there for any bad intention but rather his/her family members want his/her body to look beautiful.”
“There are times when you see the corpse and the facial expression alone, it tells you they are not happy. So you have to talk to them. Sometimes, it takes the intervention of their kids or relatives to convince them before we take any action and without the family intervention, you can never work with the body.”
A woman who was branded as a witch and had to live in the infamous Gambaga Witch Camp in the Northern Region of Ghana for 15 years has made a first-time trip to Norway.
Suuk Laari was in Tromso, Norway, to attend the Coast Contemporary 2022 Conference as a guest of honour.
The conference aims to help raise awareness on modern-day witch-hunts.
Suuk’s story was made public in a Facebook post shared by a user, Larry Ibrahim Fataka Imf, a PhD Research Fellow at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
The conference’s theme was influenced by the master’s thesis of Larry Ibrahim Mohammed, who wrote on the Gambaga Witch Camp.
“Suuk Laari has lived for 15 years in the Gambaga witch camp until this month. Last week, she joined us at the Coast Contemporary 2022 conference in Tromso, Norway to help raise awareness on modern day witch-hunt.
“I am extremely proud yet humbled to have worked with Tanja Eli Sæter, Founder and Executive Director of Coast Contemporary, to make Suuks participation a possibility and also for co-curating the Ghana part of the Program with me,” he wrote.
According to additional information shared by Larry Ibrahim, he described Suuk as a witch-hunt survivor.
“Suuk Laari lived in the Gambaga Witchcamp for 15 years. Like everyone from the Camp, her story unites with other women there who run away for their dear lives after being accused of witchcraft.
“The month of September 2022 will stand out as one of the best in her life. Suuk and Samson Laar, coordinator of the Gambaga witchcamp and the Presbytery, go home project, were invited to attend the Coast Contemporary conference 2022 in Tromso, Norway. Suuk was among the Guest of Honor,” he wrote.
He also spoke about the address Suuk Laari delivered at the conference, which focused on her personal story.
“Suuk Laari delivered a keynote, narrating the detail of her story on how she ended up at the Gambaga Witch Camp and her experiences while living there. She asked for a global effort to fight and criminalized the accusation of witchcraft and for more education on eradicating bad cultural practices. When asked about her thoughts on closing the witch camps, she emphasized that it is akin to scratching the surface of the problem. According to her, without the witch camp, she would probably have been dead and forgotten.”
Samson Laar, on the other hand, called for more support to help feed the women in the Gambaga Witch Camp. As a coordinator of the Go Home Project, the main task has been re-uniting the women with their families and resolving any conflict that might have led to them relocating to Gambaga.
Larry’s thesis also won the Ase Hiorth Lervik prize for best Master thesis with a gender theoretical perspective in 2021 with a ceremony in Tromso, Norway.
About the Gambaga Witch Camp:
The Gambaga Witch Camp Ghana’s most popular camp for women regarded witches, mostly in the northern parts of the country.
The Camp is also a segregated community within the Gambaga township established in the 18th century to accommodate alleged witches and wizards who are banished from their communities.
The camp has about 25 round huts and holds about 100 women. No health services or indoor plumbing are available.
Ghanaian musician Charles Kwadwo ‘Daddy Lumba’ Fosu has revealed in an interview on his official YouTube channel that his songs are created and finished over long periods of time, sometimes beyond two years.
“You know, sometimes, it takes us about 6 months to finish one song,” he said.
“For another song, even after 2 years, you would still not be done working on it,” he disclosed.
The reason is “I often want to pick up proverbs and philosophical things that when I incorporate, would get the listeners thinking and pondering for the rich meaning therein,” the 58-year-old elaborated on his creative process.
Regarded by many as the GOAT (greatest of all time), he cited an illustration for how he wrote the lyrics for his acclaimed 2011 hit, ‘Yene Wo Sere Kwa’.
“You know my wife’s grandmother is still alive. I was speaking to her one time when she said to me: ‘Kwadwo, I’ve heard about you and I’ve been told when you are spotted in town, the women become joyful, which equally upsets the men’,” Daddy Lumba narrated and noted up until then he did not know an in-law could love one so dearly.
The Highlife legend further disclosed that his grandmother-in-law shared with him a Ghanaian proverb during this encounter: “People hate on the individual who wears a decorated hat,” she said.
“Note and remember that because of the famous name you’ve obtained, you will have many haters and no lovers,” Mr Lumba recalled his in-law’s words.
“The thing she said that I loved the most was, ‘Your reign is like that of the tiniest squirrel which is yet able to shake the mighty Odum tree’,” the singer nicknamed DL, excitedly revealed: “So these are the wise sayings I started putting together [to make the song ‘Ye Ne Wo Sere Kwa’].”
The businessman and singer proceeded to recite a stanza from the song, regarded as a classic by many music lovers.
During the interview, he mentioned the song was mainly inspired by a period of severe sickness during which he felt abandoned by his loved ones.
‘Yene Wo Sere Kwa’ translates as ‘They wish you evil despite their smile’.
Economist and Finance Lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School, Prof. Godfred Bokpin says the current economic woes of the country are partly due to government’s failure to address inflation challenges even before the Russia-Ukraine war started.
Prof. Bokpin believes that government cannot solely blame the increasing prices of food and products on the Russia-Ukraine war as there were early indicators of inflation in the country.
Speaking on Top Story, Friday, he said the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) ought to have instituted emergency measures such as increasing the policy rate as a reactive measure to deal with the situation.
“Inflation started picking up in Ghana ahead of the world and that is why we have held the view that the price development in Ghana started even before Russia started firing bullets to Ukraine and therefore we have local triggers of inflation that we failed to deal with rather than outsourcing everything to Russia-Ukraine.
“The response then was for the MPC to arrange an emergency meeting and then increase the rate, that is more reactionary rather than being proactive,” he said.
According to the finance lecturer, the weak fiscal management and increasing public debt are other contributors to the poor economy, hence, the Bank of Ghana cannot be fully blamed.
He contended that politicians and other managers of the fiscal system should be held responsible for their failure to be fiscally disciplined in terms of their expenditures.
“We may be missing the point if we blame the Bank of Ghana so much and leave out the big elephant in the room, which is the fiscal side where the political economy is dominant, where politicians and managers of the fiscal side are to be blamed for the current mess that we are in.
“If you look at Bank of Ghana’s statement for the past one year, you will see a certain posture of Bank of Ghana that suggests that they are unhappy with the way the fiscal side is being managed,” he explained.
Prof. Bokpin noted that the current fiscal system is in a mess and the Central Bank is just “deploying monetary policy as a broom to sweep the mess that is created by the fiscal side”.
He was responding to the Central Bank’s rebuttal that it is not responsible for the increasing rate of inflation in the country as the World Bank has suggested.
The BoG on Thursday said it cannot be blamed for the increasing rate of inflation in the country.
Announcing a monetary policy increment on Thursday, thus a 200 basis points increase to 24.5 percent, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison, explained that the rising inflation rate is not a result of delay in tightening the monetary policy rate.
“They’re of the other view that the monetary policy tightening is the way to go. Except that we’re late by their assessment, which I also disagree with because we started this policy tightening as far back as November 2021. It wasn’t in January that we got locked out of the market”, he added.
The comments by the BoG Governor, follow a recent World Bank report which indicated that failure of the Central Bank to tighten its monetary policy on time, is the cause of the country’s rising inflation which has consequently affected the economy.
Per the report, the country’s debt to GDP is expected to hit 104% by the end of the year.
This means if Ghana’s total productivity, if measured over a one year period, it cannot cater for its external debts; as a deficit of some 4% would be required.
The Member of Parliament for Effutu, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has made donations of tools and equipment to graduating students of Winneba National Vocational Training Institute, NVTI.
The tools and equipment which were handed over to the Principal of the institute, Martin Young include ovens, sets of tool boxes for plumbing and electricals, laptops for I.T and industrial sewing machines for students in fashion.
Receiving the tools and equipment, the Principal recounted all the assistance received from the Honourable Member of Parliament for Effutu.
“This institute is very grateful to Honourable Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin for his immense contributions to the growth and development of this Winneba NVTI. At no point in time have we called on him that he hasn’t assisted us” he said.
“Quite a number of students received scholarships from him every year. We have also received drilling machines today from him. He has built and furnished for us a new library complex stocked with 50 computers. There is also a 60-capacity classroom which has helped in our intake” he said.
Mr. Martin Young also pointed out that the Deputy Majority Leader has also built a summer hut for the institute.
“Without these tools and equipment, we have been finding it extremely difficult to function. This is a great relief to us and we are grateful to our MP” he further stated.
“We’ll never forget the MP for Effutu, Honourable Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin. It is not everybody, it is not every MP that’ll do this. He has done so much for the school and he is now doing it for individuals. He knows you are finishing school and that you need these things to start life. So you tell your parents to appreciate this” he said in his concluding remarks.
The donations were made on behalf of Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin at the Winneba National Vocational Training Institute.
Six people have died on the spot in an accident that happened at Apirede mountain in the Okere District- Eastern Region on Friday, 7 October 2022 around 1:30 Pm.
The accident involved a Benz sprinter bus with registration number GY 1570-13 carrying some passengers from Koforidua attending a funeral at Aflao.
According to an eye witness who is also a driver named TT, he signaled the driver who was overspeeding to reduce the speed due to the nature of the road but he ignored it.
“The driver should be blamed, he was over speeding and I told him to reduce it but he did not even look at me so I was not surprised it happened. The car somersaulted severally” he stated.
About a month ago, students from the University of Education Winneba who were on an educational trip had an accident on the Apirede mountain which claimed four lives.
President Akufo-Addo has directed the Director-General of State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) to work with the Auditor-General to look into the causes of the infractions cited in the latest Auditor-General’s report, identify persons responsible and make the necessary recommendations as prescribed by law.
According to President Akufo-Addo, the 2021 Auditor-General’s report has reported an increase in the number of infractions committed by specified entities, and this demands answers from chairpersons of these entities.
He made this known on Monday, October 3, 2022, when he held a meeting with the Director General of SIGA, and Chairpersons of specified entities at Jubilee House, the seat of the nation’s presidency.
President Akufo-Addo explained that specified entities have been set up to provide efficient public services, promote public economic activities, contribute to our GDP, reduce imports, increase exports, and strengthen our economy whilst creating jobs for our people.
In addition, he indicated that specified entities have a duty to create the economic superhighway.
“However, the current trend of affairs neither portrays that picture, nor reflects positively on the managers of our specified entities, oversight institutions, and the government itself. It is a clear indication of poor supervision and management, as well as poor enforcement of implementation and sanctions of the needed measures,” President Akufo-Addo said.
He continued, “I appointed you as leaders of these specified entities with the strong belief that you would ensure a positive change in the narrative of loss-making entities and build value for the people of Ghana. That has not happened, so I expect more from you.”
The President thus urged heads of specified entities to drill down and agree on the causes and find solutions to address the infractions pointed out by the Auditor-General and the 2020 State Ownership Reports.
“I want to see a marked improvement in these reports next year. Things must change. Your hard-earned reputation and honour are at stake if things crumble under your watch, and there are also serious sanctions in the SIGA Act and other laws for mismanagement, negligence and outright malfeasance,” he added.
Whilst urging Chairpersons to help change the narrative of specified entities, the President charged that “the Director-General of SIGA to work with the Auditor-General, who is here with us, to drill down to the causes of the infractions, identify persons responsible and make the necessary recommendations as prescribed by law. I am giving them four (4) weeks from now to submit a report to the Chief of Staff.”
He, thus, advocated for good corporate governance practices in specified entities, stressing that boards must desist from interfering in day-to-day management of their respective Specified Entities, and making unwarranted demands on their management.
“You must remember that, in each of your entities, you have, apart from SIGA, an overall supervisor or monitor, which is the relevant sector Minister, and, ultimately, the Minister for Public Enterprises. If the hierarchy is rigorously maintained, we are guaranteed an enhanced performance and output of your various entities,” he stated.
President Akufo-Addo encouraged heads of the specified entities to trade amongst themselves, increase production and patronage of domestic products and services, adding that “I pledge my full support to SIGA and other oversight institutions to exercise their authority, without any fear or favour.”
Authorities of the school had given an October 7, 2022 ultimatum to settle the outstanding issues but still not be able to do so.
Students on the Southern campus of the university on Friday protested express their outburst.
They have therefore threatened to stage another demonstration on Monday, October 10, 2022 to have their concerns addressed.
In addition, the agitated students say they will not partake in an exams scheduled for them next week.
“What they are doing is just to frustrate us. They are telling us to write a re-sit on Monday. We are not going to write the exams. If things are not done in order, we will retaliate,” one of the affected spoke to Citi News on condition of anonymity.
Students have been complaining that the school had not been updating their GPA records
The agitation came with the students expected to graduate in the next few weeks.
The school is also setting up a help centre to receive complaints.
Ghana’s public debt stands at GH¢402.4 billion as of July 2022, 68% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
The debt stock which stood at GH¢392.1 billion in March 2022 dropped to GH¢388.1 billion in April 2022, and later went up marginally to GH¢389.2 billion in May 2022 and to GH¢393.4 billion in June 2022.
But according to the Central Bank, the country’s debt dropped marginally in dollar terms from $54.4 billion in June 2022 to $53.2 billion in July 2022.
This was contained in the October 2022 Bank of Ghana Summary of Economic and Financial Data.
The data showed that Ghana did not borrow fresh funds from the global market in recent times.
The external debt remained unchanged at $28 billion, equivalent to 35.8% of GDP.
However, the domestic debt increased from GH¢190.1 billion in June 2022 to GH¢190.3 billion in July 2022.
The domestic debt stood at GH¢181.9 billion in January 2022, went up to GH¢185.4 billion in February 2022, and GH¢190.1 billion in March 2022. It subsequently shot up to GH¢189.2 in April 2022 and GH¢188.5 billion in May 2022.
The increase in domestic debt can be attributed to the government’s excessive borrowing from the domestic market.
Ghana’s debt will, however, see some increases due to the receipt of the $750 million Afrieximbank loan that came in August 2022.
Ghana will host GEO Week 2022, the 18th Annual Meeting of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), from Monday, October 31, to Friday, November 4, 2022, at the Accra International Conference Centre.
Amid mounting environmental challenges and rapid technological advances, the meeting will show how global partnerships are accelerating the use of Earth observations to inform better local decisions on issues such as climate adaptation and food and water security.
Earth observations are data and information collected about our planet. This includes satellite data, as well as in situ data collected on the ground. GEO is a global partnership that works to make these observations openly available around the world.
It also convenes partnerships which produce earth observation-based tools and services to enable better decisions, policies and investments.
Ghana, represented by the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), has been a member of the GEO since 2010 and is honoured to host GEO Week 2022.
The week will feature several high-level speakers, including H.E. Vice President of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who will deliver the keynote address during the Opening Session of the Plenary on Wednesday, November 2, 2022, at 9:00 am.
Remarking on the significance of Ghana hosting GEO Week 2022, the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Kwaku Afriyie stated: “As the GEO Principal for Ghana, I see this as an important opportunity, as we also kick start our implementation of the National Space Science Policy.”
GEO Week is designed as an opportunity for knowledge exchange, learning and international collaboration. It comprises the Plenary—decision-making sessions that are only open to GEO delegations— as well as a series of side events and an exhibition.
Topics on the agenda include Operational services for Africa—including the Digital Earth Africa Initiative—nature-based solutions, National Adaptation Plans and GEO’s Post2025 Strategy.
The side events include an industry track which will focus on public-private partnerships, and a youth track, which provides young people (including students and early career professionals) from around the world with opportunities to share their experiences and connect with private sector companies.
These side events are open to participants working on earth observations and relevant policy areas from youth, academia, civil society, the private sector and other groups, following registration for the event.
Commenting on the upcoming meeting, Yana Gevorgyan, Director of the GEO Secretariat said: “With extreme weather events becoming more frequent, and environmental and societal challenges multiplying, accurate and trusted environmental intelligence is more important than ever. The GEO community has made great strides responding to this demand—opening up access to data and convening partnerships that provide evidence for better decisions. But despite these advances, many countries still do not have access to the right information, at the right time and in the right format. As we meet in Ghana, we must consider new ways of thinking, and partnering, to accelerate global action for local impact.”
GEO Week 2022 is organized by the GEO Secretariat in partnership with a Local Organizing Committee (LOC), comprising the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation (MESTI); Ghana Statistical Service (GSS); the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UNER), as well as the Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI).
The Medical Laboratory Professional Workers Union (MELPWU) has urged the government to halt plans to go into a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement with a private laboratory.
The private laboratory, under the arrangement, will be responsible for providing laboratory services that are not available in public facilities.
But speaking at an Annual General Meeting in Kumasi, the General Secretary of the Union, Cephas Kofi Akortor, said the union is against the partnership.
According to him, the Medical Laboratory Professionals “has not been not involved in any deliberations in the partnership.”
“It will be very appropriate for the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Health to engage in a broader stakeholder consultation to ensure that that this PPP arrangement is in the supreme interest of the nation before it is ever implemented,” added.
The Ghana Cedi has recently been experiencing rapid depreciation against major trading currencies, especially against the United States dollar.
The woes of the national currency have taken another hit with a World Bank report classifying the Ghana Cedi as the worst-performing currency in Africa against the US dollar.
The Africa Pulse Report noted that the cedi had experienced a 60% depreciation against the dollar as of September 19.
The report which tracked growth prospects and threats to African economies in 2022, also classified Ghana as a debt-distressed country with a debt-to-GDP ratio expected to surpass 100% by the end of the year.
Explaining why their depreciation rate is higher than the widely reported 40% figure, Accra-based Joy News report that the bank confirmed to them in an email correspondence that, “it used a different methodology to track the FX rate of depreciation from the beginning of this year to September 19 2022.”
That is why the World Bank arrived at the 60 percent rate of depreciation, compared to 40 percent if you are working with a 6.17 rate on December 31 and 10.09 in September 2022, the Joy News report added.
Countries and respective rate of depreciation against the US dollar
It is described by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as one of the most dangerous occupations with an estimated number of 35 million workers worldwide; including full-time, part-time and occasional workers – Fishing.
The importance of fishing and the fishing industry cannot be underestimated particularly because all over the world, fish is widely consumed as a major source of protein.
The profession undoubtedly contributes millions to the economic growth of countries globally; developed, developing and underdeveloped countries alike.
It is however one of the professions whose workers have some of the most irregularities as far as wages and salary payments are concerned.
How much do fishers earn? How decent is this wage? Is the work they do equal to the amount they receive? And ultimately, are fishers engaging in decent work?
We take a look at some of the dangers associated with fishing side by side payment conditions of fishers:
Why the ILO considers fishing dangerous:
Fishing is considered a potentially hazardous occupation by the ILO because it is physically demanding work often carried out for long working hours in dangerous conditions.
Fishers are exposed to harsh weather, extreme temperatures and conditions, and mostly spend long periods of time far away from home.
Sometimes, there are cramped conditions, with low levels of hygiene and facilities for these fishers.
There are also unpredictable events including wreckages which may result in drowning, fires and explosions, tripping among other things.
In a number of countries, the fatality rates for persons in the fishing sector are many times greater than the national average, for example higher than those for fire-fighters or police. These rates may exceed 150 to 180 per 100,000 workers, rivalled only by such other hazardous occupations as forestry and coal mining.
Payment mode or salary:
As a result of the recruitment system, most fishers are recruited very informally, some of them without workmen agreements.
As such, there are no laid down modes of payment for such people. For most commercial fishers in Ghana, it is a situation of work and pay while some others who work for canoe owners may have to split the proceeds of their catch when they return among other things.
This is despite the decline in fish stock in the country’s waters lately, resulting in lesser fish.
Ultimately, the average fisherman in Ghana does not earn much.
Also, benefits including pensions, SSNIT, and insurance among others are not secured. In some cases, because the fishers don’t earn much from their catch, they usually prefer cash to future benefits.
The UN’s role and the ILO Conventions:
The United Nations defines decent work as employment that is productive and delivers a fair income. It also should ensure workplace security, social protection, better prospects for personal development and social integration.
Under its Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8; Decent Work and Economic Growth, the UN intends to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all; this should include fishers.
This is why the United Nations (UN) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) are joining efforts to promote decent work in the fisheries and marine sector in Ghana as an entry point to dealing with forced labour in Ghana.
The ILO’s Convention; C. I88 which focuses on Work in Fishing provides standards for decent work among fishers.
The convention makes provision for standards that cover health, hours of work, repatriation, wages among others.
Payment of fishers:
Article 23
Each member, after consultation, shall adopt laws, regulations or other measures providing that fishers who are paid a wage are ensured a monthly or other regular payment.
Article 24
Each member shall require that all fishers working on board fishing vessels shall be given a means to transmit all or part of their payments received, including advances, to their families at no cost.
Ratification:
Ghana is yet to ratify the ILO Conventions including C188 – Work in Fishing Convention (2007) and the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181).
This follows the launch of the ILO Report on Forced Labour and Forced marriage on September 12, 2022.
Convention C. 188 is currently before parliament according to the Ghana Maritime Authority.
The next stage is for the worldwide support that the Convention has been received to be translated by governments into national laws, regulations or other measures. The Convention will enter into force twelve months after the first ten countries (eight with coastlines) ratify it.
Forced labour, as set out in the ILO Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No.29),1 refers to “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.”
The Vice President of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, is marking his 59th birthday.
As part of the activities marking the day, the politician has been captured in a video making merry with some close friends and families.
The video, shared on Facebook by KB Mahama, a staff at the Office of the Vice President, shows Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, dressed in all white and surrounded by people in equally white attire, showing off his dancing skills as he boogies to the popular Buga tune.
As he boogied, the people around him cheered him on.
One of the people seen in the video is the Member of Parliament for Ayawaso Central and Minister of the Greater Accra Region, Henry Quartey.
Watch the video of the vice president, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, below:
Veteran journalist Kweku Baako Jnr has bemoaned the failure of the state’s security apparatus to trace people who purchase lands meant for cultivating cocoa and use them for illegal mining, popularly known as ‘galamsey’.
According to him, the sale of cocoa lands to ‘galamseyers’ is a crime because, even though the lands belong to the cocoa farmers, the minerals beneath them belong to the state.
Kweku Baako, who made these remarks in a Peace FM interview monitored by GhanaWeb, said that the failure of the security to find the people who are buying cocoa lands and turning them into ‘galamsey’ sites is very worrying.
“People are selling lands meant for cocoa lands to galamseyers, other farmers are being driven out by these activities. Both the buyer and the seller I have a problem with but the buyer is where my emphasis is. So if the sellers can be encouraged to tell us who the buyers are, why not.
“Are the people buying galamsey lands ghost? No, they are not. With a little intelligence gathering, even collaborating with the sellers, these galamseyers can be caught.
“The point is that even though the land belongs to the farmers the minerals under them belong to the state. So, there is clearly some element of criminality if the farmers are selling the lands to people who are going to dig for the minerals beneath them,” he said.
The veteran journalist added that even if the cocoa farmers are not willing to cooperate, the security apparatus must be able to gather the needed intelligence to arrest these illegal miners.
Kwesi Baako made these remarks while reacting to reports that indicated that illegal mining is gradually reducing Ghana’s cocoa production levels.
Social commentator, Bernard Allotey Jacobs, has urged Ghanaians to give President Akufo-Addo another chance to stop small-scale illegal mining (galamsey).
Speaking in a Peace FM interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Allotey Jacobs intimated that even though the fight against ‘galamsey’ is not going so well currently, the president cannot be solely blamed for the inability of the state to curb the menace.
He added that the government is finding it difficult to stop ‘galamsey’ because Ghanaians are not helping enough.
“Let us give the president the last chance with this work he is doing on galamsey. Because he said he is putting his presidency on the line and he is doing so well but we are not helping him. We as Ghanaians.
“Because we kept spreading unnecessary lies about the fight against galamsey. If the president decides to take drastic actions now, we, the same Ghanaians will be criticising him.
“We will threaten not to vote for his party. We always use the power of our thumb to threaten politicians. But the truth is that our country is being destroyed. In a matter of about five years we might not have clean and portable water in our country,” he said in Twi.
Allotey Jacobs also said that the government must start putting in place alternative opportunities for persons, directly or indirectly, involved in ‘galamsey’ as it also puts in measures to stop the menace.
About 30 more factories are at various stages of completion under the One District One Factory (1D1F) initiative in the Ashanti Region, Mr. Simon Osei-Mensah, the Regional Minister, has disclosed.
The Minister, who was speaking at the 23rd Regional Annual General Meeting of the Ashanti, Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regional Branch of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) in Kumasi, said the region was a beneficiary of 21 out of the 125 factories, already in operation under the initiative.
The meeting, which was on the theme: “Investing in Ghanaian Industries to Leverage Opportunities in the Single African Market,” was held to take stock of the activities of the Association and to chart the way forward by addressing pertinent issues affecting the growth of industries.
It was attended by representatives of AGI from the four regions and other relevant industry players.
Mr Osei-Mensah said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government in its quest to change the nature of the economy from taxation to production, launched the 1D 1F initiate in 2017 to promote the manufacturing and service sectors through several policy initiatives.
He said through the GhanaCARES ‘Obatanpa’ Programme, the Government supported many manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries to survive the COVID-19 impact.
“One of the objectives of the GhanaCARES ‘Obatanpa’ Programme is to support the private sector particularly agribusiness, manufacturing, ICT and digitalisation,” he stated.
The Minister urged the Association to strengthen and deepen collaboration with the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) and take advantage of the Authority’s work to diversify its export base.
The location of the Secretariat of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in Ghana, according to the Minister, offered a perfect opportunity for the AGI to make deliberate attempt to create export-oriented companies to enhance the country’s industrialisation agenda.
He said the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council had always collaborated with the private sector and that together with the AGI, his outfit was implementing projects that would grow the economy to promote businesses in the Ashanti region.
Mr Akwasi Nyamekye, Regional AGI Chairperson for Ashanti, Ahafo, Bono and Bono East, called on the Government to take a second look at the current ECOWAS protocols on trade, saying in-spite of the protocols there was no free movement of goods within the sub-region.
He said the association and its members had the capacity to support all government programmes that fell within their domain.
The High Court in Accra has ordered Gregory Afoko and Asabke Alangde, the two persons standing trial for the death of New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Upper East Regional Chairman, Adams Mahama, to open their Defence and respond to charges.
Afoko and Alangde are being accused of the acid incident which led to the death of the NPP Regional Chairman on May 20, 2015 They have pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiracy and murder.
On June 14, State Prosecutors closed their case after parading 16 witnesses but lawyers of the accused persons, per the law, filed their respective submissions of no case to answer on grounds that, the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses have not established a prima facie evidence against them, that warrant that, they respond to the charges.
Ruling on the submission of no case on Friday, October 7, the court presided over by Her Ladyship Justice Efua Merley Wood, said the elements of prima facie evidence have been established by the prosecution.
The court also ruled that, for the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses to be believed, it would be fair to hear from the accused persons.
Justice Merley Wood, a Justice of the Court of Appeal sitting with an additional responsibility as a High Court Judge ruled that, the court is satisfied that, the prosecution has made sufficient evidence that requires the accused persons to open their defence.
Consequently, the submission of no case was overruled and the accused persons, each, called upon to mount the witness box.
The case has been adjourned to November 2, 2022 for Afoko, the first accused to open his defence.
The governing New Patriotic Party(NPP) Constituency Chairman for Ellembele, Samson Ndoli has accused the District Chief Executive for the area, Kwasi Bonzoh of collecting GHC70,000 bribe to facilitate illegal mining in the area.
In an interview, he accused the DCE of taking the said amount from some illegal miners who had been arrested and allowed them back to the mining site to continue with their further destruction of the land.
“The party held a meeting in our office which was attended by the DCE where we agreed that illegal miners in our area are destroying our water bodies and so we need to arrest them. We undertook the operation to arrest them led by the DCE during which 7 excavators were seized and five persons arrested. Three days after their arrested, we were informed that they’ve been released after the DCE held a meeting with them where he collected GHC70,000 allowing their machines to go back to the site. We were not happy with that news and so we went to the site the following day where we took videos. We realized that the illegal miners had gone further in the destruction of the land.”
He continued: “We then went to inform the District Police Commander that those who were arrested have gone back to the site. We moved to the scene with the Police and the media where we saw them working. Many of them escaped but three were arrested, we seized their equipment and fuel and took them to the police station. In the evening, the DCE’s aide came and bailed out the suspects. One of the DCE’s boys told us that if we arrest the miners ten times, they will be released ten times because the DCE is the Chairman of the DISEC. After the media publication, the DCE decided to cover up, he teamed with the galamseyers to do a press conference. What we find unfortunate is that even if you the DCE will release them to go back to the site, he needed to inform us (Executives) because we took the decision together. The DCE should have even commended us for arresting the suspects but he rather called the Secretary and asked him what locus he had to lead police officers to go to a mining site.”
He added: The party birthed the government. So if the government introduces a policy, the party must stand firmly and back that policy.”
In September 2022, Police arrested the DCE, Kwasi Bonzo days after his personal assistant, and one other person were placed under police investigation for the disappearance of two mining excavators in the district.
The arrest ensued when the DCE caught wind that the police had recovered an excavator similar to what had been reported missing. He moved in to supposedly identify the earthmoving equipment in the early hours of the day.
Reports indicate that the DCE was ignored when he came in to try and verify the machines’ ownership. He then followed up to Ayisakrom in the district where he was said to have confronted the security officials resulting in a scuffle.
He was arrested and transported to the headquarters in Sekondi.
NPP Constituency Chairman of Elembele Constituency exposes the DCE for the area, Kwasi Bonzo for collecting bribes to facilitate illegal mining in the area. pic.twitter.com/MIGOjZ61D0
The vehicle of the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Ga Central, Bashiru Mohammed, has been impounded for driving against traffic and using strobe lights.
He was driving along the airport bypass on Tuesday when he was intercepted by Citi TV’s War Against Indiscipline team.
He was expected in court on Friday, October 7, 2022, together with other road traffic offenders, but has since failed to show up.
The War Against Indiscipline team has impounded six more vehicles at the Community 18 Junction on the Accra-Tema motorway for wrong U-turns and posing danger to other motorists and their own lives.
An Economist, Lord Mensah, has backed assertions of Ghana’s economy by the World Bank.
According to him, the World Bank being an external body gives an accurate measure of the country’s debts and growth prospects.
He noted that the stakeholders in Ghana do not capture the true state of Ghana’s situation in its accounting of the country’s debts.
“Being an external stakeholder of this economy, it is anticipated that once in a while, they’ll come and give us their perspective of the Ghanaian economy. And truly, what they said is a reflection of what is happening on the grounds,” he is quoted by myjoyonline.com.
He added that: “Looking at our debt, I think we’ve been calculating our debt without the contingent liabilities over the years, and if I say contingent liabilities, what I mean is the liabilities that have some inflows to them so we think it is not debt.”
“And we should know that all those inflows that are tied to this debt operate under a certain umbrella which is the economy. So, if the economy is not doing well, obviously those inflows will also be impaired and it can affect your debt payment,” Lord Mensah explained.
The World Bank in the latest report stated that Ghana is currently a high-debt-distressed country with a debt-to-GPD ratio of 104%.
Meanwhile, data released by the Bank of Ghana suggested that Ghana’s public debt stands at GH¢402 billion representing 68% of GDP.
As part of efforts to bridge the access gap within Africa for digital literacy, a team of individuals have developed a unique mobile application to serve this purpose.
The aim of the app which is known as ‘Nimde3’ seeks to provide basic to intermediate IT skills which can be accessed through respective local and foreign languages.
Executive Director of Slamm Foundation, Francisca Boateng, taking her turn on GhanaWeb TV’s BizTech emphasised the importance of infusing digital technologies to bridge Africa’s literacy gap and access to education.
She explained that although some 50 percent of the world’s population have access to the internet, there still remains a fraction of about 20 percent without access to digital education.
“The rationale behind developing this mobile application is to bridge the literacy app and offer access to education. We are targeting to reach some 1 million people who can gain access by using the mobile application which offers wide-ranging IT education,” Francisca Boateng said.
A UK-based Ghanaian sewerage system expert Enerst Kwaku Kobea, has urged the government to build underground storage tanks to store volumes of flood water that wreaks havoc whenever it rains.
His call comes after scores of residents in the Ga South Municipality of the Greater Accra Region have been displaced with several others trapped in their homes as Ashalaja, Weija, Oblogo and Tetegu areas flood.
The residents have described it as a crisis situation as many homes have nearly been submerged. Some have had to use canoes to avoid drowning. They describe the situation as a crisis.
According to them, the flood is a result of an overflow of the Weija dam.
Speaking on Ghana Kasa on Kasapa 102.5FM/Agoo TV, Enerst Kwaku Kobea, said the construction of underground tanks is the way to go in ending the perennial flooding, especially in the country’s capital.
He added that the government must find the funds to construct the underground tanks and sewerage system to conserve water for reuse when it rains heavily.
“This same system can also supply potable water to the citizenry. Underground tanks will have to be built because our land in Ghana is solid, we can dig 20 feet down, and 20 feet up so that the water that is spilled which wreaks will all go into that huge tanks. We can also build an underground sewerage system so that rain that falls in Takoradi, Cape Coast etcetera can be diverted to the Weija Dam so that the dam will be the main water supply for Ghana.
“This should be simple for the government to do to avert the loss of lives and property when it rains. Government should not give excuses but find the funds to construct these underground tanks which are very important.”
An aspiring Constituency Chairman for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Abura Asebu Kwamankese Constituency in the Central Region has become paralyzed a day before appearing before a vetting Committee in the Constituency.
Information gathered revealed that the aspirant, Vicent Koomsom, 24 hours prior to the vetting exercise suddenly lost the strength in his legs as soon as he got down from his vehicle.
The incident has thrown family and friends into a state of shock as they believe there’s been some spiritual orchestration because he’d been very strong and active all this while.
He’s said to have driven his own vehicle to where he became paralyzed.
Vicent Koomsom was eventually disqualified from the Chairmanship race for unknown reasons. He later filed an appeal to the Regional Vetting Committee but his disqualification was still upheld.
According to his supporters, the man has helped the party in the Abura Asebu Kwamankese Constituency and it’s time he should be allowed to lead the party to wrestle power in the 2024 general election.
They warned that the NDC will lose in the constituency if Vicent Koomsom is denied the opportunity to contest the position.
He appeared at the NDC Central Regional Office in a wheelchair to defend his disqualification but the earlier decision was not overturned and consequently filed another petition yet to be studied.
Vicent Koomsom’s supporters have accused former Deputy Minister of Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu who was the 2020 Parliamentary candidate for the area of having a hand in his disqualification.
However, Felix Kwakye Ofosu has vehemently denied that accusation saying the vetting Committee used the party’s rules and regulations in the discharge of their duty and was fair to all aspirants that appeared before them.
It is the last constituency in the Greater Accra Region before entering the Central Region at Kasoa.
With a voter population of 111,000 going by the 2020 general election, Bortianor-Ngleshie-Amanfro Constituency in the Ga South Municipality has been grappling with multiple developmental issues since its creation in 2012.
Bordered by the Weija-Gbawe Constituency to the east, Awutu Senya East Constituency to the western north, the Gomoa East Constituency to the western south area and Domeabra-Obom Constituency to the north, this coastal constituency covers Aplaku, Bortianor, Oshiyie, Kokrobite, Tuba and parts of Weija.
Swing constituency
Although relatively young, the constituency, one of the 34 constituencies in the region, has politically become a swing seat. It has since its creation voted both the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament (MPs).
Its current MP is Sylvester Tetteh, who clinched the seat on the ticket of the NPP in 2020. He is the third MP of the constituency.
Saad Habib was his predecessor, who also stood on the ticket of the NPP to assume that office in 2016, while the NDC MP for the area, Bright Kodzo Demordzi, was the pacesetter in running the affairs of the constituency in 2012.
The 2024 Elections, therefore, remain the litmus test case for the ruling NPP and the opposition NDC as to who will clinch that seat and represent the constituency in the Ninth Parliament from January 7, 2025.
Demographics
The constituency has a mix of both formal and informal workers made up of politicians, civil and public servants, teachers, traders, commercial drivers, fishermen and farmers, among others.
1DIF
In spite of challenges, the constituency is a beneficiary of two factories currently operating under the government’s One-District, one-factory policy. One of them, Everpure Ghana Limited, is sited at Tomefa in Ngleshie Amanfro. The factory produces sachet and bottled water. The other factory established to produce diapers, known as Sunda International, is located at Dunkona.
Major Challenges
Bad roads, inadequate drains, bridges, perennial flooding and faulty or inadequate streetlights are among the major challenges facing the constituency.
Other challenges are youth unemployment with some involved in land guardism, lack of potable water and security.
Roads
Just about two per cent of the 1,700 kilometres of the roads in the area have been tarred.
Four taxi drivers at the Galilea Market taxi rank, Nyavlo Mawuli, Emmanuel Mensah, Richard Agyakwa and Christopher Yaw Ahiable, who spoke to the Daily Graphic, called for the roads, bridges, drains and streetlights to be properly examined and fixed.
They said a good stretch of road at Aplaku, and that leading from Ajasco Junction to Red Top the West Hills Mall were in deplorable state. Kuwait, Holy Market and Emmanuel Estates roads need to be put in good shape.
They also mentioned the non-functional streetlights in some areas including around the Ga South Municipal Assembly that must be urgently fixed.
The taxi drivers were of the view that most of the gutters and drains in the constituency had not been either desilted or were defective thereby causing flooding and damage to the roads.
Two teachers, Florence Baidoo and Justus Abban, also reiterated the need to provide more drains and fix the bad roads around the Ngleshi Amanfro Kingstown Black Gate area.
Flooding in the area, they explained, could be minimised if the drains were provided. It would also help to reduce the negative impact on the deplorable roads.
Opinion leaders
Two opinion leaders, Francis Tetteh and Nii Armah Bannerman, both expressed worry about the floods in the area, which they noted was usually caused by unauthorised structures built on watercourses.
A trader, Rosemary Addai, described the Kingstown area of Ngleshi Amanfro as “an SOS situation” because the lack of drainage systems and properly laid out roads and lanes result in intense flooding.
She pointed out that areas such as the Black Gate stretch through to Fear God and the Darius International School vicinities were among the most affected areas of flooding during the rainy season.
The residents, therefore, called on the Ga South Municipal Assembly and the MP to push harder to save the situation as well as the residents.
Opposition
The Constituency Secretary of the NDC, Sam Ampiah said from Red Top to New Bortianor to Broadcasting area there were many houses that did not have pipe-borne water and so they have drilled boreholes to provide water for the households.
“You need to have a borehole, if you don’t drill it, you will be compelled to buy at least GH¢700 worth of water from water tanker operators per week,” he stated.
The secretary, therefore, called on the government to fast track the pace of development in the constituency because its level of infrastructure, particularly the roads, was not the best.
Some residents, including commercial drivers, teachers, opinion leaders and traders, also expressed concerns about the challenges and called on duty bearers to urgently address them.
Projects
When contacted, the Municipal Chief Executive for the Ga South Municipal Assembly, Joseph Nyarni Stephen, outlined some projects which were ready for inauguration.
They include a Divisional Police Headquarters at Tuba and a community centre at Ngleshie Amanfro.
Other projects are at various stages of completion include the male ward at Ngleshie Amanfro Polyclinic, the Mother and Child Unit at Obom Health Centre and a two-storey six unit classroom block at Ashalaja.
Work is also ongoing to complete a two-unit Kindergarten block at the Bortianor Municipal Assembly (M/A) Basic School.
Acknowledgement
The MP for the area, Slyvester Tetteh told the Daily Graphic that at the time he assumed office, less than two per cent of the 1,700 kilometres of the roads in the area had been tarred, saying that “it tells you the enormity of the challenge we have in the road sector”.
He admitted being aware of the displeasure of residents about the poor state of roads in the communities.
Mr Tetteh, however, revealed that funding had been a challenge for successive governments to be able to put roads in the area in good shape.
“I am very much aware of the challenges but I never promised that I was going to fix all roads; rather I pledged to play an advocacy role and lobby for the road sector to get a facelift,” Mr Tetteh indicated.
Minister visits
The MP stated that apart from bringing the sector minister to assess the poor roads himself to understand the nature of the problem in the constituency, he had initiated steps to get some of them to be awarded on contract.
They include the Broadcasting and American roads, which had been tarred but yet to be asphalted to give it a longer lifespan.
The Finney Hospital road and Bortianor-Chokome road were awarded but the contractors abandoned sites and the projects had been rewarded on contract, Mr Tetteh explained.
The MP further stated that Amanfro and New Bortianor roads now had asphalt overlays.
He said about 30km of key roads had been approved for construction. They include the Ajasco to Red Top area popularly called Odakona to the West Hills Mall area.
A contract has also been signed for the rehabilitation of the 6.4km Chinese-Red Top-Ajasco junction road.
Other areas earmarked for rehabilitation are the Fulani area in New Bortianor, Babadogo, Odasiman, Lighthouse areas, and Akpasa enclave to Ayalolo in Bortianor.
The biggest of all the contracts awarded described as the coastal roads is the 24km old barrier to Tuba junction road which is in a deplorable state. When completed the MP explained, it would be asphalted to give it a longer lifespan.
“This road is a very strategic road because it serves as a link road to all the tourism potentials in the entire area,” Mr Tetteh observed.
Drains, challenges
On drains, he said about 40km of drains in the constituency have been earmarked for construction.
“All that we are talking about, approvals have been given but it all boils down to the capacity of contractors and funding; this is because the government does not give mobilisation for road construction,” he further explained.
Other sectors
The MP indicated that sectors such as education, health, sports, youth employment, security, women empowerment had all received attention during his tenure.
The projects include roofing and completion of a five-bed maternity ward for Kokrobite health centre, and the employment of over 40 youth under an initiative dubbed “C.V. Clinic for Youth”.
Other projects include training of 50 women in entrepreneurship development with Seed capital provided to the beneficiaries, completion of 1,000-seater Astro Turf at Tuba, with two more earmarked for construction in communities yet to be identified.
Two new Judges were on Thursday, 6th October2022 sworn-in for the ECOWAS Court of Justice by the Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Community, President UmaroSissoco Embalo of Guinea Bissau at a ceremony in Bissau.
Justices Sengu Mohammed Koroma from Sierra Leone and Claudio Monteiro Goncalves from Cape Verde will replace Justices Keikura Bangura and Januaria Tavares Silva Moreira Costa from Sierra Leone and Cape Verde respectively who justcompleted their tenure at the Court.
The new judges will join the President of the Court, Justice Edward Amoako Asante from Ghana, the Vice President, Justice Gberi-be Ouattara from Cote d’Ivoire and Justice Dupe Atoki from Nigeria, whoseterms were renewed by the Heads of State and Government of the Community.
Following their swearing in, the President of the Court, Justice Asante welcomed them to the team and expressed the hope that they will contribute to strenghtening the Court’s rich jurisprudence duringtheir four year tenure.
The President, who was among dignataries at the ceremony added : ‘ We are excited at theirappointment by the leaders of ECOWAS and look forward to their resumption of duty so that they cancontribute their quota to reducing the Court’s bulging cases docket.’
The bodyguard of Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Suleiman Salifu has presented 60 bags of cement and Ghc12,000 cash to victims of recent flood disaster at Koforidua Asokore Zongo community.
A taxi driver died after building collapsed on him having rescued occupants of the house trapped by the flood.
Dozens of residents were displaced by the flood caused by overflow of Nsukwao river.
A week after the disaster the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) is yet to provide relief items for the victims.
Suleiman Salifu bodyguard to the Vice President who is about to be outdoor as Chief of Koforidua Asokore Zongo, on Thursday October 6,2022 dashed to the community to make the presentation to the community.
He told Starr News Dr. Bawumia was disturbed by the situation hence supported him to mobilize resources to come to the aid of the victims.
Sulaiman Salifu said the Asokore Zongo community needs some basic social amenities hence about 200 streetlights will be provided to illuminate the community to improve security.
Additionally,he is engaging Zongo Development Fund for construction of boreholes and drainage facilities to curb the perennial flooding in the community.
“At this moment we trying to speak to Zongo Development Fund for Boreholes ,and then two toilets for the community .I have already written the letter so we will push it .We are looking for about 200 streetlights so that we can give it to the community because now we’ve realized that there are somethings going on in the community that is really disturbing .People are selling drugs here and it is giving us problem that is what we even have to put lights everywhere to take that thing out of Zongo” Sulaiman Salifu said.
Some of the victims were grateful to Vice President’s bodyguard for the kind gesture.
Assembly member for Asokore Zongo Electoral area Mumuni Laminu said the donation is timely given that most of the victims are struggling due to lack of support after the disaster.
Almost a week after the flood disaster occured in New Juaben North, victims are yet to receive relief items despite lossing everything to the floods.
203 households were both collapsed completely and partially damaged.
One person died whilst 2686 made up of 977 children and 1708 adults displaced by the floods.
Five basic schools in the municipality which include Akwadum M/A Junior High School and Islamic Basic JHS all in Akwadum and other communities have been shut down due to the floods.
The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has commenced investigations into over 400 public officials who have failed to declare their assets.
CHRAJ explains that 284 of the cases being investigated were brought to its attention in August this year.
The Constitution demands that any person who holds public office must submit a declaration of assets to the Auditor General, within three months of coming into office.
Speaking at a forum in Accra, the Director of Anti-Corruption at CHRAJ, Stephen Azantilow, decried the failure of public officers to comply with the requirement.
”There are some public officials who have made up their minds never to declare their assets.”
“We at CHRAJ also feel helpless because when we have a law that doesn’t compel these people to declare their assets it becomes a challenge,” he added.
With family members of some injured persons in the Ejura shooting incidents agitating for compensation, it has emerged that the Attorney-General (AG) gave a piece of legal advice in July this year for compensation to be paid.
In a letter cited by the Daily Graphic, the A-G, Godfred Yeboah Dame, advised the government to compensate three injured victims of the incident with about GH¢1.28 million.
The three injured persons captured in the A-G’s advice for compensation are Louis Ayipka, 30; Nazif Nuhu, 20, and Awal Mesbawu, 16.
Per the letter, the A-G advised that Ayikpa should be compensated with GH¢347,953, Nuhu should get GH¢192,425, and Mesbawu should be given GH¢678,519.
Apart from the compensation, the A-G also advised the government to implement a recommendation by a Medical Board for the victims to be given medical and psychosocial care.
The letter, dated July 12, this year was addressed to the Minister of Interior, Ambrose Dery.
Family agitates
Last Wednesday, the family of the three injured persons called on the government to pay them compensation as recommended by the Justice Koomson’s Committee.
At a press conference in Accra, the family further urged the A-G to expedite action on the prosecution of those suspected to have killed Yussif and Suraj.
According to the family, after submitting all the required medical documents needed to effect the payment, they had so far not received any acknowledgement indicating receipt of the documents.
Report
On June 29, last year, Abdul Nasir Yussif and Murtala Suraj Mohammed died from gunshots from joint police and military team during activities related to the burial of a social activist in the area, Ibrahim Muhammed, popularly known as Kaaka.
Three other persons — Ayikpa, Nuhu and Mesbawu — got injured in the incident.
A committee set up by the Minister for the Interior to investigate the matter submitted its report in September last year.
The committee, chaired by a Justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice Kingsley Koomson, in its report, recommended that the families of the two young men who lost their lives in the shooting incident must be compensated.
It further recommended that the three injured persons must also be compensated.
While the government had since compensated the families of the two young men who lost their lives in the shooting incident, the injured persons are yet to be compensated.
On what went into arriving at the compensation for each of the three persons, the A-G relied on certain factors used to award compensation in some case law.
These were permanent physical disability or impairment, disruption of education, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, ongoing medical care needs, loss of future earnings, reimbursement of the cost of medical treatments, increase in living expenses among others. The A-G also factored in the national minimum wage and transportation cost, among other factors.
Regarding the medical and psychosocial care, the A-G advised that all three should be given psychosocial support as recommended by the medical board.
“In the case of Awal Mesbawu, the appropriate functional prosthesis should be provided to him to assist in mobilisation as recommended by the medical board,” the A-G said.
Boxing legend Azumah Nelson says he feels fulfilled in life after an illustrious career in the ring and all the good things in life but maintains his greatest need currently are prayers by Ghanaians for divine protection, good health and guidance.
At 63 years, Azumah says seeking the face of God is his biggest priority today after being blessed with a boxing career many can only dream of as a three time world champion in two divisions and a member of the exclusive International Boxing Hall of Fame.
“For now, the only thing I need from Ghanaians is regular prayers for God to guide, protect and bless me with good health so I can continue to be a blessing to the nation in various ways,” he told the Graphic Sports in an exclusive interview.
Azumah defeated the feared Wilfredo Gomez in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to win the WBC featherweight title in 1984. He defended the title six times over the next three years and in 1988 he defeated the tough Mexican boxer Mario ‘Azabache’ Martinez in Los Angeles to win the vacant WBC super featherweight title.
Life after boxing
The legend retired in 1998 and is engaged in boxing promotion by organising the ‘Azumah Nelson Fight Nights, speaking at corporate events and also playing the role as brand ambassador for DE-LUXY Paints and for oil marketing giants GOIL.
Today, Azumah looks back at his career and life with a sense of fulfilment, particularly for the love he’s enjoyed from Ghanaians in and out of the ring.
“I am okay, and thank God for my life. I give glory to God for all that He has done for me. I also want to thank all Ghanaians sincerely for their continuous support for me during my active days.
“They always kept vigil to pray and watch me displaying my skills in the ring and that support brought me this far. This explains why I want to use this opportunity to appreciate them,” he said.
Regarded as the greatest African boxer of all time, Azumah is among a few champions to have held a WBC world title for a decade undefeated. He wants younger boxers to realise that there is intense competition out there, so it is even more difficult to hold on to a title than to work one’s way up to the top as a world champion.
Advice for youth
“They [present generation] should not merely dream to be world champions without knowing how to keep their titles. This is because if you joke with your title, a hungrier opponent will humiliate you before snatching your title belt from you,” he advised.
More than two decades since hanging his gloves [Azumah retired in 1988 but came back a decade later to face old foe Jeff Fenech in a charity contest in Melbourne], the elder statesman of boxing says he is enjoying life outside the ring but still makes time to watch some local fights and on TV.
“There is time for everything, so I am happy and enjoying my retirement. Ironically, when I watch boxing on television and see some of them committing elementary mistakes, I wish I were in the ring dishing it out to entertain my fans.
“However, since I can’t be in the ring anymore, my advice to the young ones is that they should learn the art of boxing well to know the right thing to do in the ring and excel,” he stated.
This year’s International Day of Older Persons was on Saturday held in Accra.
The event organised by the Centre for Ageing Studies of the University of Ghana was on the theme “Resilience of Older Persons in a Changing World.”
The over 1000 older persons from all walks of life were offered free medical screening, free food and sensitised on lifestyles that would keep them fit and strong.
They were screened for Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) infections, Memory stability, cataract, diets and nutrition as well as physical structure and stability.
Dr Frank Dzifa Kpesenu of the Healthy Ageing Programme of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) told the Ghanaian Times that the time had come for the country to have an Ageing Bill to consolidate activities of the aged in the country.
According to him, ageing was not the doing of the individual, but a passage of time that formed part of life, hence the need for a document to serve as a guide for their handling by the state, family, and society.
“The rights of the aged must be consolidated, everything including their social welfare, health, rights and responsibilities, the role of government and the citizenry for the care of the aged must be documented to serve as a guide for future generations,” he added.
The bill, Dr Kpesenu said had been hanging since 2018 and further delays could hamper planned activities of the GHS to address most health care needs of the aged to prolong their lives, through comprehensive health care policies.
The bill, he stated would also serve as a guide for stakeholders and advocates of the aged in order to regulate and streamline their activities to avoid abuses and excesses that could affect the people they were helping, adding that“the bill would make the government take responsibility for certain aspects of care for the aged.”
Rev Prof Akye Essuman of the University of Health and Allied Sciences, urged the aged not to travel long distances to seek medical care in Accra as almost all regional and district hospitals were offering the same services at places closer to them.
He urged them to constantly renew their National Health Insurance Cards in order to benefit from the free medical care offered by the service.
The Executive Director of Samuel AmoTobbin Foundation, Mrs. Harriet Nortinson Asante, said Tobinco Group partnered with the event by offering free medical care for the aged while referrals were also directed to special hospitals free of charge.
She urged the aged to have quality time for themselves, live healthy lifestyles, undertake regular exercises and have enough rest as well as attend checkups every month.
Mrs. Ansah charged the youth to push the country’s law makers to hasten the passage of the Ageing Bill because they would one day become the sole beneficiaries.
Director, Centre of Ageing, Prof Mavis Dako-Gyeke, commended all whose efforts ensured a successful event and urged the aged to take good care of themselves as their health and wellbeing were paramount to the centre and the society.
Over 6.9 million children under five years are expected to be vaccinated in the second round of the National Polio Vaccination Campaign (PVC) from yesterday, October 6 to October 9, 2022.
The round is a follow-up to an earlier exercise that administered the novel oral poliovirus type 2 (nOPV2) vaccine to the targeted children, nationwide.
The Director-General of Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye at a news conference in Accra on Tuesday said the entire campaign was to halt the local transmission of the circulating vaccine-derived polio virus type 2, (cVDPV2), recorded in parts of the country.
“The vaccination would also maintain high population immunity, strengthen surveillance on polio disease, and prevent further polio outbreaks in the country,” he said.
Dr Kuma-Aboagye explained that, although the first round of the polio vaccination in September yielded impressive results, health authorities were not resting on their oars until all targeted children were vaccinated.
“The initial target for the first round was 6.3 million children but after the vaccination, we realised we had vaccinated nearly 6.6 million children meaning, we had more children than targeted and we must build on this achievement to do more during the upcoming second round of the PVC so that no child is left behind,” he added.
Further, the Director-General advised parents and caregivers to ensure their children complete all vaccinations by age two as well as patronise child welfare clinics dotted across the country in order to fully vaccinate and protect their children against vaccine-preventable diseases.
In a speech read on his behalf, the World Health Organisation (WHO) representative to Ghana, Dr Francis Kasolo underscored the need for enhanced polio surveillance to close the gap of the polio outbreak.
“WHO, the UN System in Ghana and other partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) will continue to support the Government of Ghana to respond to public health emergencies and accompany Ghana on the road to achieving universal health coverage,” he said.
The Expanded Programme on Immunisation(EPI) Programme Manager, Dr Kwame Amponsa-Achiano recalled some challenges faced during the first round of the PVC and advised parents and caregivers to make their children available for the vaccines to kick out polio from the country.
“Some children were sent to the farms and couldn’t partake. Other parents also denied their wards because of some religious beliefs and did not see it as necessary while some house markings were washed away by heavy downpours,” he highlighted.
Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a disabling and life-threatening disease caused by the poliovirus and spreads from person to person through faecal routes and may multiply in the intestines from where it subsequently invades the nervous system causing paralysis, most often in the limbs.
The disease affects both children and adults, but children under five years are most at risk.
Some signs and symptoms of polio may include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, and stiffness in the neck, pain and weakness in the limbs.
Treatment is mainly supportive and can be prevented through vaccination, improved sanitation and personal hygiene.
The founder and leader of the United Progressive Party (UPP) has said that the meeting President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had with chiefs and Metropolitan Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) on the fight against galamsey will amount to nothing.
In an Onua TV interview monitored by GhanaWeb on Thursday (October 6), Akwasi Addai Odike alleged that most of the participants at the meeting, including the president, are beneficiaries of “galamsey.”
He added that the president’s meeting can be akin to a meeting of shareholders of a company who are meeting to discuss how they will share their profit.
“The meeting the president had in Kumasi had no benefit. The president went to meet MMDCEs, is he not the same person who appoints them? Does he not have a Chief of Staff who is supposed to sack MMDCEs who are misbehaving? Do you have to call all of them together?
“The meeting the president held in Kumasi was a galamsey shareholders’ meeting. The chiefs are blaming the government for the menace, the government is also blaming the chiefs. These are the two groups who went to meet. They are the shareholders in galamsey.
“The president just went to make a speech. He did not state any strategy to stop the menace, and he is not going to because he is a direct beneficiary of the galamsey proceeds. Everything shows that Nana Addo is a direct beneficiary of galamsey proceeds. The chiefs are also beneficiaries of galamsey,” he said in Twi.
He added that Akufo-Addo, after all the resources at his disposal, including the army and putting his presidency on the line, is now asking chiefs to help in the fight against galamsey.
President Akufo-Addo, during his meeting with chiefs and MMDCEs in Kumasi on Wednesday (October 5), urged chiefs across the country to get themselves involved in the fight against illegal small-scale mining since they are the custodians of lands in the country.
“80 percent of the lands in this country continue to be under your custody, much of it having been acquired through the blood and sacrifices of your ancestors. The remainder of 20 percent, which I hold in trust of the people of Ghana, derived from state acquisition from you.
“What this means is that ultimately, the welfare of the state of the lands is our joint responsibility, although by statute the minerals in the soil belong to the president in trust for the people,” he noted.
About eight cold stores within the Tema cold store enclave at a place known as Takyi Yard in Community 1, have absconded upon receiving hints that the Ghana Revenue Authority’s VAT invigilation taskforce was in the area to check if their businesses are tax compliant.
The eight have not erected any signpost of their business names, and some buyers who were around at the time of the visit confirmed not being issued VAT receipts.
The Area Enforcement Manager of GRA in charge of Accra Central, Mr Joseph Annan who led the taskforce during the operations, told the B&FT that the shops would remain closed until the right thing is done.
“We will come back again to effect arrest since they have all run away” Mr Annan said.
He said it was important for these cold stores to register and honour their tax obligations to government, a phenomenon that would enable them to be regarded as legal and responsible businesses.
Meanwhile, the Underbridge Event Centre at East Legon, have also been closed by the GRA for non-registration for VAT.
Others, including, Perez Frozen Foods, Isaac Glavi Trading Enterprise, Wanmafe Company Ltd, Josh Nartey Enterprise were also closed down and arrested for various infractions including non-registration, non-issuance among others.
The various infractions contravene the VAT Act 2013, Act 870.
The government has donated GH¢470,000.00 to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) for onward disbursement to Division One League clubs in Ghana.
According to the GFA, the cheque was handed over to them by the Ministry of Youth and Sports with an accompanying letter from the Chief Director on Friday, April 30, 2021.
The FA said the donation was part of the government’s support mechanism to the beneficiary clubs to offset some of their expenses in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The General Secretary of the GFA, Prosper Harrison Addo, who received the cheque on behalf of the FA, expressed their gratitude to the government and the Ministry of Youth and Sports for their continued support for football development in Ghana.
“On behalf of the Executive Council and the entire football fraternity, we wish to express our sincere gratitude to the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, for this amazing gesture. This will indeed go a long way in supporting our Division One League clubs, especially during this challenging period of COVID-19,” he said.
“We are grateful for what we have been given, and we look forward to receiving some relief for our Women’s Premier League clubs soon. We are very positive about the future of our sport,” he said.
Mr Addo also expressed his sincerest appreciation to the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif for his invaluable support to the development of football since he assumed office, and gave an assurance that the accounting process had been initiated for the beneficiary clubs to receive their share of the money promptly to be used for the purpose for which it was granted by the government.
According to the FA scribe, each Division One Club in the league was expected to receive an amount of Ten Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢10,000.00) with the exception of Amidaus Professionals FC.
The CEO of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, has said politicians and top guns seek medical attention at the facility all the time, contrary to popular claims that they preferred flying out of the country for medical attention to using local facilities.
There have been claims that Ghanaian politicians are not investing in the health sector because they travel abroad for medical checkups, hence, do not care about the needs of public hospitals like Korle-Bu and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospitals as well as other public health facilities where most Ghanaians visit for treatment.
However, Dr Ampomah said this assertion is untrue.
Speaking on the Class Morning Show on Class91.3FM on Thursday, October 6, 2022, Dr Ampomah said: “They come in as private citizens and we are not allowed to disclose their identities but then a lot of the political leadership, the judiciary, parliamentarians, industry leaders all over, many of them come to Korle Bu.”
“What we should also remember is that no matter how much wealth or insurance you’ve acquired for yourself, there are certain conditions that if they happen, you need immediate treatment in the local environment in which you are…it is not a very good plan to think that when something happens to me, I’ll just fly out…” he added.
For this reason, he noted that “that’s why we all need to come together to make sure that our hospitals, especially Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, which is the apex hospital, is working and is working well and it’s on a solid footing to be able to provide the kind of service that we all need because we believe that Korle-Bu has the name, and no that about that, so if we are given the necessary wherewithal and resources, we will be able to cater to all health care needs”.
Currently, the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital is the third biggest referral centre in Africa.
The facility can boast 2,000 beds, 21 clinical and diagnostic departments and three Centres of Excellence. It also has an average outpatient attendance of 1,500 with about 250 inpatient admissions.
The clinical and diagnostic departments include Internal Medicine and Therapeutics, Child Health, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Anaesthesia, Family Medicine/Polyclinic, Accident & Emergency, Psychiatry, Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre and Accident & Orthopaedics. Others are Pharmacy, Pathology, Laboratory and Radiology.
The Hospital also provides sophisticated scientific treatment procedures in various subspecialties such as Neurosurgery, Paediatric surgery, Dental/Oral maxillofacial, Ophthalmology, Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT), Renal, Orthopaedics, Oncology, Dermatology, Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery and Radiotherapy & Nuclear Medicine.
The largest opposition party in Ghana, the National Democratic Congress, has described the current efforts by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government against illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) as mere ‘window dressing’.
According to the party, the Akufo-Addo government only engages in rhetoric rather than cracking the whip on its own officials and officials of the New Patriotic (NPP) who have been caught engaging in ‘galamsey’.
It has, therefore, demanded that President Akufo-Addo, as the first sign of his seriousness in the fight ‘galamsey’, orders the prosecution of five persons including his past appointees and leading members of the NPP.
Here are the five people NDC wants Akufo-Addo to prosecute
Former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng
The first person the NDC is demanding that the government prosecutes is the first Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation under Akufo-Addo’s presidency, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, for allegedly fuelling and profiting from illegal mining.
The former minister, in 2006 contested in the NPP flagbearership race for the December 2008 National Presidential Elections but lost to the current president, Akufo-Addo.
Kwabena Frimpong Boateng is a Ghanaian physician and cardiothoracic surgeon who established the National Cardiothoracic Centre and the Ghana Red Cross Society. He is also the President of the Ghana Heart Foundation and was the Chief Executive Officer of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.
Prof Boateng has been accused by some Ghanaians including veteran journalist Kweku Boateng of owning a ‘galamsey’ site.
Claims that the renowned medical practitioner was involved in ‘galamsey’ heightened in 2020 when 500 excavators seized from illegal miners went missing under his watch.
Former secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, Charles Bissue
The second person the NDC wants prosecuted is the former secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, under President Akufo-Addo, Charles Bissue.
Mr. Bissue, in addition to his rule as the secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, was a presidential staffer. He was also a two-term Western Regional Secretary of the NPP and a member of the National Council of the party.
He recently indicated that he was going to contest in the race for the NPP’s General Secretary position but withdrew at the last minute.
Charles Bissue was implicated in an investigative documentary by Anas Aremeyaw Anas in 2019 as an alleged enabler for galamsey.
Bissue allegedly facilitated for ORR Resource Enterprise, a company seeking to circumvent laid down processes to be given clearance for its mining operations.
The matter was referred to Special Prosecutor, then Martin Amidu, but Bissue was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service before Amidu could finish with his investigations.
Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, Bernard Antwi Boasiako
The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, a.k.a. Chairman Wontumi, is one of the names on the list of the NDC.
He has since 2018 been often accused without evidence of being the El Chapo of galamsey in Ghana.
The involvement of Wontumi in galamsey was highlighted by then Minority lawmaker Adam Mutawakilu in a July 2018 press conference in parliament.
“…The chief of Jakobu came out clearly [to tell me] that the CEO of the forestry commission and Wontumi, chairman of NPP in the Ashanti Region, are engaged in galamsey,” the former MP said.
Wontumi’s name came up again recently, when the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, directed the Forestry Commission to suspend the operations of Akonta Mining Company in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve of the Amenfi West Municipal Assembly.
According to a statement issued by the Public Affairs office of the Ministry on Friday, September 30, 2022, the company owned by Wontumi, has been engaging in mining activities in the forest without a permit.
Former First Vice-Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Central, Horace Ekow Ewusi:
The former First Vice-Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Central, Horace Ekow Ewusi, is another name on the list of the NDC.
Ekow Ewusi was supposedly arrested by the police over the 500 missing excavators used for illegal mining in 2020.
His arrest was after Prof Frimpong Boateng issued a letter directing the Criminal Investigation Department to arrest and interrogate him after learning that former Ekow Ewusi had sold some of the confiscated equipment from illegal miners.
Horace Ekow Ewusi also was caught on tape discussing galamsey plans with a former Minister of Environment, Science, and Technology.
In the said tape, Ekow Ewusi was heard detailing to Professor Frimpong Boateng how they can use galamsey to finance party activities.
He stated: “The last time you met my MP [Elvis Donkor] in Parliament, he told you that he will also need a machine to work with and you even asked him to come and see me because I have a lot of these excavators.”
Professor Frimpong Boateng however denied the content of the leaked audio in a GhanaWeb interview.
Former aide to the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, Andy Owusu
The last name on the list of five names is the former aide to the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, Andy Owusu.
Andy Owusu was captured on tape with other persons who were purported to have received bribes in the exposé by Anas Aremeyaw Anas on galamsey in 2019.
Investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas claimed that Andy Owusu charged GH¢50,000 for his services during undercover investigations and was paid a total of fifteen thousand cedis (GH¢15,000.00).
“Mr. Andy Owusu, a link man for Mr. Bissue charged us fifty thousand cedis (GH¢ 50,000.00) to get us through to him. We negotiated for forty thousand Cedis (GH¢40,000.00) and he accepted it. Out of this amount he accepted part payment of fifteen thousand cedis (15,000.00). Mr. Andy Owusu was also the one who told us how much Mr. Bissue was ready to accept to fast track the process for us. Mr. Andy Owusu also linked us to “school boy” a national security operative for our safety at the illegal mining site”, he posted on his Facebook page.
A 25-year-old mason, Michael Atuah, almost lost three fingers in an alleged machete attack by suspected land guards at Mankessim in the Mfantseman Municipality of the Central Region.
The victim was said to be doing some work at a construction site with some colleagues when the suspects stormed the place armed with a metal pole, machete, and a kitchen knife among others.
The suspects then attacked the victim, swinging the knife at his back and almost severing three left fingers as he tried to protect his head.
The suspects are alleged to have discarded the weapons before leaving the scene with GHC500.00 belonging to the victim.
According to an eyewitness, the victim’s fingers were only attached by soft tissue when they arrived on the scene.
He was rushed to the Mercy Women’s Hospital in Mankessim where he was treated.
Two of the suspects have been apprehended by the police while investigations have been launched into the case.
The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has admitted that the government is currently failing in the fight against illegal small-scale mining, popularly known as ‘galamsey’.
He, however, said that the government remains unwavering in its resolve to stop ‘galamsey’ and it is confident that it will end the menace soon.
“… yes, you say that we have failed in galamsey but it is an ongoing battle. And we think that, as a government, we are going to win at the end of the day.
“Because there is a lot of goodwill amongst the stakeholders. The traditional authorities and other stakeholders know the harmful effect of galamsey on all aspects of life. So, ultimately, we will get together to control it,” Dr. Afriyie Akoto told journalists at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, October 10, 2022.
The minister also refuted the assertions that ‘galamsey’ is crippling Ghana‘s food production and has particularly destroyed many cocoa farms, leaving just a little.
“… if you are talking about little of cocoa, it is not a little. Galamsey is nibbling at the edges because COCOBOD has done a survey which shows that 2 percent of areas under cocoa are being affected by galamsey. 98 percent is not little left,” he noted.
Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has refuted suggestions that his government is not committed to the fight against illegal small-scale mining (‘galamsey’).
According to Akufo-Addo, his government has been committed to the fight against the menace since his first day in office and its determination to curb it even cost his party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), some votes in the 2020 General Elections.
The president, who made these remarks at a meeting with the National House of Chiefs and some Municipal Metropolitan and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) in Kumasi, intimated that the votes he and his party lost showed that he really put his presidency on the line to fight ‘galamsey’.
“Since I took office on January 7th, 2017, nearly six years ago, I have made it a central feature of my presidency to lead in the fight to rid our country of this menace, which we all now call galamsey. Indeed, it was an important aspect of my inaugural address that day. It has not been easy; it has not been popular and we have not gotten the immediate results that I was looking for.
“Indeed, in the last election of 2020, my stance on the issue cost my party and I significant losses in the mining communities. It turned out that my statement that I was putting my presidency on the line in the fight against galamsey was neither bumbazed nor reckless. It was the simple truth,” he said.
Akufo-Addo also urged chiefs across the country to get themselves into the fight against illegal small-scale mining since they are the custodians of land in the country.
Ghana has issued its first certificate of full commercial trading to a ceramic tiles production company to export its products under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Guided Trade initiative.
In the same vein, the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has received the first consignment of goods under the initiative from Rwanda, with delivery already done.
The Assistant Commissioner of Customs in charge of the AfCFTA Secretariat, F.Y. Akoto, who made this known in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, said on September 30, this year, the Customs Division issued the certificate of trading to a tiles manufacturing company, Keda Ghana Ceramics Company Limited, located at Shama in the Western Region, to export a consignment of its products to Cameroun.
“It is expected that when the products reach Cameroun, their customs officials will give the necessary preferential treatment to Keda Ceramics for it to enjoy reduced tariffs and quota-free facility,” he said.
On the imports from Rwanda, he said they were made up of coffee products which were received at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).
“Ghana Customs processed the Bill of Entry on the consignment, granting the importer the necessary tariff cuts after he had satisfied all the documentary requirements,” he said.
Mr Akoto added that a second consignment of tea products from Rwanda arrived at the KIA yesterday and documents on the goods were being processed for possible delivery, possibly before the close of work yesterday.
Second company
He further indicated that a second Ghana-based company, the Benso Oil Palm Plantation (BOPP) at Adum Banso, also in the Western Region, was expected to export palm kernel oil to Kenya in due course.
On the other hand, consignments of tea products were expected from Kenya, while meat products were also expected to arrive from Egypt, he said.
“This means that the AfCFTA agreement has come into full force and our manufacturers can take advantage of it to export to other countries,” he added.
F.Y. Akoto — Assistant Commissioner of Customs in charge of the AfCFTA Secretariat
Guided Trade
The Guided Trade initiative, which will be officially launched in Accra today, symbolises the commencement of commercially meaningful trade, starting with seven countries — Ghana, Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Tanzania and Malawi.
Mr Akoto explained that those countries volunteered to represent the eight economic groupings in Africa, namely: the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD), the East African Community (EAC), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
Under the initiative, the AfCFTA Secretariat will assist the countries to test AfCFTA trading documents and procedures on pre-selected shipments of goods among the countries.
It will guide shipments through customs clearance, including reduced tariff treatment under the AfCFTA in the receiving countries.
Foreign-owned companies
Explaining why Keda Ceramics, a Chinese-owned company, benefited from the agreement, the Customs officer said Keda, per its production process, qualified under the rules.
“Under the rules, a foreign company operating in an African country that has signed on to the AfCFTA agreement qualifies to participate in the trading if the raw materials for its production are sourced locally.
“In the case of Keda Ceramics, we visited the factory for inspection and realised that 99.97 per cent of its raw materials are internally acquired, so it qualifies to trade under the agreement,” he said.
Mr Akoto pointed out that AfCFTA was not set up solely for Africans, saying: “Once you set up in Africa and qualify under the rules, you are free to trade.”
He, therefore, encouraged foreign companies operating in the country to work towards benefitting from the agreement.
Allowing foreign-operated companies to participate in the trading activities if they fulfilled the requirements set out under the AfCFTA agreement would also improve foreign direct investments (FDIs) into Africa, he said.
FDIs into African countries hit a record $83 billion in 2021, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD’s) World Investment Report 2022.
Ghana ready
Emphasising Ghana’s readiness for the take-off of the AfCFTA, the Customs officer said: “We have the structures in place for an effective take-off.”
“The Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ghana Chamber of Commerce, the National AfCFTA Coordinating Office, the Customs Division of the GRA, together with the AfCFTA Secretariat, are helping the companies to meet the requirements.
“The experiences gathered out of this will help streamline our processes for the smooth implementation of the policy,” he explained.
Addressing challenges
Mr Akoto said some challenges that had been identified were being addressed.
“We have been helping local companies to go through the systems. Some of them have been saying although they hear about free trade in Africa, they don’t believe it, so we need to educate them on what it takes to benefit from the free trade agreement,” he said.
Flood waters at Weija and its environs have begun to recede, revealing the extent of devastation caused following the opening of the spill gates of the Weija Dam last week.
The recession of the flood waters is as a result of the opening of the Weija estuary and a reduction in the volume of water from the Eastern Region into the Weija Dam.
Consequently, residents who abandoned their homes for fear of their lives have gone back to clean up and salvage remaining personal effects and other items.
The first casualty of the flooding has also been found at Tetegu — a 55-year-old man known as Addi Kwashie, aka Chocholotso.
His body was discovered by the Weija Police around 12:30 p.m.
Kwashie had reportedly run to take cover in a nearby house but ended up getting drowned.
Visit
This came to light when the Daily Graphic visited areas affected by the floods when the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) opened four spill gates of the Weija Dam to allow for the flow of excess water from the facility to save it from collapse.
At New Weija, Tatop, Tetegu, White Cross, Oblogo, among others, there were traces of the levels the flood waters had reached in homes, shops, schools and other facilities.
Some of the traces were at the ground, window and door levels.
There were also traces of refuse and debris in the homes of people at the various places.
On standby were the Marine Police, with their boat; personnel from the Weija Divisional Command of the Ghana Police Service, members of the Ghana Ambulance Service and the Ghana National Fire Service.
At Tetegu, for instance, for the first time in three days, the asphalted road leading to the town could be seen as residents cleaned their shops and homes.
Due to the power outage in the affected flooded areas, people who had generators switched them on to operate their businesses.
Recovering
A victim of the flooding at New Weija, Emmanuel Afari, told the Daily Graphic that with the water receding, he and his family were now trying to test whether or not their electrical gadgets would work.
He said their clothes would all be washed, since Kente and other materials were all submerged in the flood.
Another resident, Alhaji Seidu, said he had lived in the area for 25 years but had never seen anything like the recent flood.
“I have not been home for the past three days and I am now going to see what is left in my house. We had to temporarily relocate when the flood came to our home,” he said.
Zenabu Azumah, another victim, said apart from losing her personal belongings, her business too had been badly affected, as bags of beans for ‘waakye’, cartons of fish and a new fridge were destroyed by the flood.
“I lost all my clothing and all I have left is what I wore on that day. I am still wearing it,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Weija-Gbawe Municipal Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Emmanuel Adu-Boahen, told the Daily Graphic that the organisation was assessing the extent of damage and the number of people displaced.
For his part, the Public Relations Officer of the Weija-Gbawe Municipal Assembly, Julius Sarpei, said the assembly members had been tasked to identify people who had been affected and displaced by the flooding, since they were with them on the ground.
He said as of 11 a.m. yesterday, the assembly was yet to take delivery of relief items from NADMO.
Businesses
While on the rounds, the Daily Graphic team observed that vulcanisers around Tetegu, Tatop and Weija were not working due to the power outage.
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) had indicated that until it was safe to restore power, it would not do so.
Yaw Opoku of Tatop Company Limited, manufacturers of concrete products, said the company could not work as a result of the flooding of its yard.
Sumaila, a vulcaniser, who was seen sitting idle, said he could not work because there was no light to power the machine.
He said he could only hope that the flood waters would recede further for the light to be switched on, since he had not worked for the past four days.
At the Talented Royal School where some staff members were seen clearing the debris left by the flood, the Headmaster, Anthony Torgorme, said nothing was destroyed, except for the debris that was left on the compound.
The school, he said, had to be closed, since they could not access it because of the flood.
Support
At Tetegu, members of the National Council of Zamarama Chiefs had gathered to visit some of their members who were hit by the flood.
The President of the council, Chief Musah Yahaya Yandu, said between 80 and 90 per cent of its members lived at Tetegu and so they were at the place to assess the impact of the flood in the homes of those members.
Once that was done, he said, “then we will see how best to assist them”.
