The actress has currently ventured into real estate construction.
In a video shared by blogger, Ronnie, the singer who recently graduated from UPSA with a master’s degree introduces her new estate for the first time.
Becca revealed that the yet-to-be-completed shown in the video is located in East Legon, Accra.
The private estate consists of several sets of 5-bedroom houses with hotel-quality fixtures and fittings for occupants.
The estate also includes a penthouse with a luxurious walk-in closet, separate boy’s quarters, and individual security posts.
It will be recalled that the singer stepped down from active music after over a decade of thrilling music lovers with her craft after the release of her last album in 2020.
According to Becca, she has other things which will engage her after her last album. “My husband and I are doing so much, we into real estate as well. I have a logistics company as well,” she said.
The ‘No One’ singer says she is not going to entirely quit music but she is not going to be doing it actively “Music is always going to be there, don’t get it wrong. I am always going to be doing music, however, I am not going to be actively recording in the studio at 5 am and all that,” she told Arit during an episode of CNN’s African Voices
Becca, is a Ghanaian singer, songwriter, and actress. She first gained recognition as a contestant on the second season of TV3’s annual singing competition Mentor.
Her debut studio album Sugar was released in 2007; it earned her five nominations at the 2008 Ghana Music Awards.
Like the floods of Accra that have become a perennial occurrence, residents of Weija have once again had to wake up to the devastating effects of the spillage of the Weija Dam by the Ghana Water Company Limited.
The annual spillage of the dam is meant to release excess water from the dam.
The maximum level of water the dam is built to hold is about 46 feet, but the level came up to 48 feet, thereby threatening its safety, hence the decision to spill.
Residents have been forced to move around in canoes, as many houses have been completely submerged under the water.
GhanaWeb has been to the area and has captured videos of the extent of damage caused after the spillage of the dam on Monday, October 3, 2022.
Meanwhile, the management of the GWCL has assured the public that despite the challenges, it is in control and has put in measures to ameliorate the situation to minimize the impact on consumers.
The management explained further, “the Weija dam is currently at a level of 49.5ft as against the maximum operating level of 48ft. Spillage normally begins when the level gets to 46.5ft. As a result, four (4) spill gates have been opened to safeguard the integrity of the dam, save the dam from collapse, and save lives and properties.”
Watch the latest episode of The Lowdown below:
The Lowdown: Role of the diaspora in the development of Africa
CEO of the Aaron Manvel Foundation Millie Lorene Tucker and Gary Hope, the CEO of FLCC – Bring Back Hope Foundation underscore the need for the African diaspora to help develop the continent in this episode of The Lowdown on GhanaWeb TV. According to the women trying to make and create a change in Ghana, our forefathers were sold away and made to develop strange lands. Thus, coming back home and developing their home country is the best thing to do especially when resources are available.
The Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency (IAA), Dr Eric Oduro Osae, has tasked internal auditors to monitor the accounting systems used to prepare financial statements of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to ensure accuracy.
According to him, the government had been questioning the amount of money paid by most SOEs as dividends over the suspicion that some SOEs might not be paying the precise dividends.
“Internal Auditors, you are within these institutions, you are expected to ensure that accurate profits are declared and dividends declared are duly paid to the government,” he said.
Dr Osae was speaking in Accra yesterday when he opened a two day training for internal auditors on the preparation of the 2023 Risk-Based Internal Audit (RBIA).
RBIA is an audit methodology that links internal audit to an institution’s overall risk management framework with focus on the institution’s limited resources, high risk and high probability of weak controls.
The Public Finance Management Act, 2016(Act921) mandates Internal Audit Units of covered entities to, within 30 days after the beginning of the financial year, submit an annual audit work plan to the principals spending officer and the audit committee of the entities as well as the IAA.
The workshop, held three months ahead of the next due date( January 30, 2023) for the submission of the plan, is aimed at equipping participants with the requisite skills and tools to enable them prepare and submit their RBIA work plans and reports as well as appreciate contemporary practices.
Dr Osae said amongst other key mandatory areas internal auditors should focus on its 2023 risk assessments as a follow up of recommendations from the Auditor-General Report.
He said they should also mainstream and conduct performance audits of operations of their institutions to get value for money, while they audit borrowing, outstanding recoverables and debts.
That, he said, was important because the Auditor-General had made several comments on that issue and it was critical for the internal auditors to get the exact figures before the Auditor-General’s next report.
Dr Osae said the participants would be guided to prepare their RBIA plans on areas such as protection of public assets, titling of assets, and ownership because the asset ownership of many institutions were questionable.
“We need you, internal auditors, to plan and make sure that you guide and support these institutions to be able to report on a fair basis. Let us work together to provide the advisory and assurance services our institutions need,” he said.
Weekends are the best times to tour and explore and also release the stress from a long working week and thankfully Accra is a world of its own when it comes to capital cities in Africa exotic, bustling, hot, and very much alive.
The coastal capital can boast of spectacular attractions that range from the national history museums and Makola Marketto the endless Atlantic beaches, including the famous Labadi Beach, one of the most romantic places in Ghana.
From browsing local markets to top attractions, these are the best things to do in Accra on weekends.
Enjoy a stroll in the nature
Morning and evening walk, anyone? Stroll around Accra’s local neighborhoods, wander around its recreational parks for a picnic or simply relax and admire the first blooms in one of the many beautiful gardens found in the city.
Nature lovers should indulge in canopy walkways at any of the Botanical Gardens in the city. Take a treetop walk and immerse yourself in Accra’s most beautiful sceneries.
The Accra office of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) has mentioned difficulty in reading and understanding test items as some of the challenges faced by hearing-impaired candidates in WAEC examinations.
It said such candidates were also affected by the lack of or inadequate sign language interpreters during examinations, and mixing them with hearing candidates in the examination hall.
These, it said, had left them with unencouraging performances at WAEC examinations.
It said while such candidates performed better in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), they did not do well in West African Senior Schools Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), especially in English and Mathematics.
An assessment test accommodations conducted by the Accra Section of WAEC from 2016 to 2021 revealed that with the exception of 2019 and 2020 that hearing-impaired candidates did well in their examinations, their performance over the years, especially in English Language, Mathematics and Integrated Science in WASSCE had not been encouraging.
Seminar
The acting Head of the Accra Section of the Research Department of WAEC, Kwaku Dankwa, who made the disclosure at a virtual seminar to deliver the findings of the assessment, said from the test assessment, the reasons identified for the poor performance of the candidates in their examinations included unsuitable questions, language barrier, limited vocabulary, absence of learning outside the classroom, poor language and poor spelling.
He said the hearing-impaired saw English Language as a barrier because they were taught in sign language although they were examined in English Language.
Furthermore, he said, the hearing-impaired had limited vocabulary because in the sign language, they did not sign every word for which reason they were not familiar with some of the words they met during examination, hence they did not understand them to enable them to answer the questions properly.
“The kind of incidental learning that the hearing child have an advantage of, they don’t have that. At any point in time, somebody has to be with them trying to explain things to them using sign language because that is the mode of learning they are used to,” he added.
Stats
Mr Dankwa said WAEC, as the examining body, would engage stakeholders such as the Ministry of Education to reduce the challenges hearing-impaired candidates faced in their examinations in order that they were not left behind.
In 2016 for instance when 158 hearing-impaired candidates sat for the WASSCE, male hearing-impaired candidates who had between grades A1 to C6 in English Language were 11.4 per cent, while the females were 8.1 per cent.
That of Mathematics for the same grades were 9.4 per cent for males and 4.8 per cent for females, while for Integrated Science in the same year, 4.8 per cent females scored grades A1 to C6 and the males had 9.4 per cent.
Mr Dankwa said the respondents suggested that WAEC should make available sign language interpreters during examinations; recruit special education practitioners and sign language experts to mark scripts of hearing-impaired candidates; modify questions for hearing-impaired candidates as alternative papers, and examine sign language as a core subject as an alternative to English Language.
On the way forward, the assessment called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to train and post more special education experts and teachers who understand sign language to the special and inclusive schools to help hearing-impaired students to build the needed vocabulary.
It further called for WAEC to explore the use of alternative assessment test formats which focused on standard sign language and objective responses such as fill-ins.
Discussion
During the open discussion segment, some hearing-impaired students said when announcements were made during examinations, there were usually no sign language interpreters to interprete to them, causing them to make mistakes.
The Chairman for the programme, Prof. Samuel Kweku Hayford, of the Department of Special Education, University of Education, Winneba, remarked that sign language was being seriously taken care of in the education review policy.
He called for efforts to develop sign language so that right from kindergarten, children would be introduced to it.
The assessment
The study population included all hearing-impaired students and their teachers in the 15 public schools for the deaf in Ghana; heads of schools for the deaf; special education coordinators from GES, WAEC officers, special education lecturers, hearing-impaired university undergraduates in Ghana and officials of the Ghana National Association for the Deaf.
Filming and voicing out his frustration in the dark, a livid Derrick Kobina Bonney (DKB) was concerned about the technical challenge that has affected prepaid metering systems making it impossible for customers to top up.
The situation has led to some customers sleeping in darkness as the purchase of electricity credit for prepaid metres has sadly been interrupted.
“Prepaid network down, can’t buy lights, darkness everywhere! But I have to wait on NDC before I’ll know if I’m in darkness! Pure rubbish and nonsense!” the comedian fumed in a tweet, Thursday.
In the video clip that had the aforementioned caption, DKB could not fathom why genuine concerns are diluted for political expediency. He noted that whenever concerns are raised, there is a swift attempt by a section of the public to politicize the matter, a posture he condemned without equivocation.
“In this country, if there is a socio-economic problem bothering you and you complain about it, they’ll tell you you’re manipulated by the opposition,” he said.
“Since morning that we’ve not had prepaid to buy and our lights are off, me as a human being, as a Ghanaian, I can’t see that I don’t have light so I need to wait for NDC to tell me that I don’t have light so that I’ll complain about it and it will unpopularize NDC.”
Meanwhile, the Electricity Company of Ghanahas in a statement assured the general public of its resolve to surmount the challenge.
“Affected customers should please note that our ICT team is working assiduously to correct the anomaly and restore the system to normalcy. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this technical challenge,” parts of the statement read.
Some customers in Volta, Kumasi, Accra, Takoradi, Tema, Cape Coast, Kasoa, Winneba, Swedru, Koforidua, Nkawkaw, and Tafo have been affected by the hiccup.
Recreation is important for physical and psychological health, building inclusive communities, and ensuring general life satisfaction.
Nightlife in Accra has promised and delivered delirium for close to 100 years. It is lost on many people that this cherished aspect of living in Ghana’s capital would not have happened at all or at least at its current effervescence if the capital of the Gold Coasthad remained Cape Coast. Becoming the center of political power brought Accra unassailable preeminence in spheres of multicultural and economics. But while Accra’s glory may have been orchestrated in colonialism, its nocturnal gaiety has been anything but controlled.
If the African entertainment listicles online and my well-traveled non-Ghanaian friends are to be believed, Accra presents one of the continent’s premium options in nightlife. My Twitter feed agrees and so do most of my friends in Ghana. In the course of the last few years, I have barely indulged in the thrill, probably because it has also gotten costlier.
But the nightly buzz is not simply taking our money; it may be taking our minds as well. While recreation is a necessary part of psychological growth, I have often wondered what we are hiding from when we constantly turn up where the music is loudest, the drugs drag you higher and the alcohol overflows. Of course, all recreation is not equal and my concerns are a result of what is more popular as a choice for young Ghanaians who wish to celebrate their leisure. One can find in the city centre – an area with a roughly 1,200-metre radius – a saturation of pubs, nightclubs, and other such places. Interestingly, this area also contains Accra’s central business district, a situation that gives some credence to the counsel “work hard, play hard”.
However, most commercial capitals across the world are no different. In these major cities, there tends to be a mutually-sustaining relationship between producers and consumers in the nightlife entertainment industry. The free market is most prominent in the entertainment industry where the symbiosis between producers and consumers shapes each party’s destinies and desires.
The interaction goes on ad nauseam and the general public can lose sight of the adverse effects it creates. For instance, a 2010 experts’ report that analysed and suggested recommendations for tourism and nightlife culture in the European Union submitted that overseers of clubs and pubs often have very little sympathy for the health of consumers and the sanity of entertainment culture. In these spots, alcohol is sold and alcohol is bought. Music is played and the dance floor is occupied.
Whoever is reeling under the effects of alcoholism or has a health condition triggered by the magnitude of activity can only count on themselves or their immediate company.
Two of the recommendations made by the report were for nightclubstaff to be trained in administering first aid and to significantly enforce “restrictions on opening hours for discotheques, and especially for after-hours parties”. I am willing to believe there are set times proposed by local governments for the operation of nightclubs in Ghana but if this will be enforced, along with the training for club employees, your guess is as good as mine.
Apart from the unwanted emergent spurred by alcohol and drugs, women would have to look out for themselves in these spaces where sexual misbehaviour is almost certain to be unleashed by men.
But that’s exactly what frustrates me about the nightlife and recreation in Accra for young people. We place so much emphasis on the young person’s individual responsibility even though the options and conditions of recreation are, to put it kindly, poisonous. Healthieroutdoor recreational options in the city are next to non-existent. Also, you are not guaranteed a lot of protection – as the EU report recommended to European countries – when you check yourself into any of the more popular options we have in Accra.
My friend Earl who lives in the inner-city of Accra Central often expresses fears about the future of young people’s relationship with alcohol and drugs as a result of the above. But if there is little protection for young people who frequent higher-end joints in agreeable parts of the city, there is even less for their counterparts in the inner city. And when you add the fact poorer youth have virtually no space or means to seek therapy and rehabilitation, we face the risk of recreating Victorian England where the instruments of the state placed the vicious cycles of poverty on some deficiency in the moral characters of poor people. This is even more intriguing when you consider the fact that the popular drug-peddling inner-city spot, Ayaata Corner, in the Ashiedu-Keteke sub-metro area, receives nearly as many orders from (upper)-middle-class Accra dwellers as it receives from struggling youth.
Recreation is important for physical and psychological health, building inclusive communities, and ensuring general life satisfaction. Nothing should diminish the centrality of recreation in molding a well-adjusted society. In a way, my case could have been made about the basic poverty of recreational options in the city. But reviewing the principal fundament which is nightlife will translate into attention for everything else. Outdoor recreation for young adults in Accra is ostensibly nightlife.
I am statistics-shy of confidently claiming that we are building the momentum for catastrophe. Nightlife has become synonymous with unfettered exposure to alcohol, drugs, and noise pollution, and all that they bring. A researcher at the University of Ghana 2016 indicated that alcohol consumption on the university’s Legon Campus was nearly 60% among undergraduate students with most students drinking as part of recreation at parties and on outings. To add to that, I personally know a few women and have read the accounts of many more who have to go out in groups due to fear of sexual assault and harassment. For some of them, the precaution they take is so that they do not become repeat victims.
In April of 2021, a nonprofit called Heal and Chill Foundation partnered with more than five of the biggest night entertainment providers including the famous Bloombar and Zen Gardens for awareness creation on sexual consent. This was effectively a non-governmental organization’s intervention in the conversation on sex and gender-based violence, specifically identifying the arena of Ghanaian life that happens to be grounds for so much of such violence.
If there is any scintilla of puritanism in the case I’m making, that is unintended but I sincerely do not even care. Mine is an argument towards prudence – what burdens can we shoulder as a society where some 7 in every 10 Ghanaians are under the age of 40? More than 35% of Ghanaians to are under 15. To put both of these into better context, about 70% of Ghanaians today were not alive or barely remember when the coup of 1981 was made and about 4 out of 10 Ghanaians today were not alive when we redenominated the cedi in 2007.
That is a frighteningly young population for us to throw caution to the wind and maintain a permanent withdrawal of public protections. If we do not reconsider how we urge young people to spend recreation, repercussions for doing nothing will be sternly felt in health, security, employment, and other aspects of our economy.
In many countries where policymaking is chiefly driven by corporate interests, mentioning a dent in the economy often prompts a spirited political response. That is where, if you are lucky, other businesses are given the carte blanche to raise healthieravenues of recreation to compete with the existing ones. Or businesses suffer some kind of ‘sin tax’ to alleviate the disaster they serve the public. Human needs are necessitated and negotiated through the grips of the free market and all society’s problems are seen as economic opportunities. Each rational actor to themselves, the market for us all.
Nevertheless, I am not too sure neoliberalism is entirely at home in Ghana as it is in many other countries. Make no mistake, it is noticeable but over here, neoliberalism is yet premature. Political party considerations – and not business interests – are still the major controllers of institutions, laws, and policies even if you speak of state capture through businesses owned by partisans.
Still, as Ghanaians, we have been trained to see the boom in nightlife adventures as an outgrowth of a steadily growing middle-class.
Classically, a boom in the services sector is read as a sign that a lot of money is going around. So in this case, more hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, event centers (they say there’s even a ‘wedding industry’ in Ghana) etc. spring up and all people can think about is that folks got money to spend. I guess it’s because the services sector is largely viewed through the spectacle of consumption. We do not even ask why people spend money so much on the nightlife. That is the sort of close-mindedness that blinds us to the population abuse committed through Ghana’s nightlife attractions.
Another publication by a researcher at the University of Ghana in 2020 strongly connected depressive states to alcohol use among working Ghanaians. So, are young Ghanaians reaching for the bottle anywhere they can find it because they cannot find other means of dealing with fragile mental health? What if, instead of simply perceiving the dizzying lights of the night, we also spare some concern for dreary lives? Are we forcing young people to drink, dance and drug away a mental health crisis? These are not exaggerated queries.
Many people with whom I have conversed happen to understand the gentrification and economic challenge to locals that come with President Akufo-Addo’s campaign to make Ghana the tourism capital of the Global Black Experience. All I have been saying is that the boon of the nightlife scene has also come with a bane, and there is no way to dodge it.
I know how attractive the retort to my argument is – that I could let people live as they please. Or that people are responsible for their own safety. The invalidity of such thinking lies in the fact that the state constitutionally owes protection to individuals. The Ghana Non-Communicable Disease Alliance already tells us Ghana is averaging above the WHO Africa Region figure for alcohol dependence. The dangers of sexual kind posed to women have never gone out of fashion and we do not seem ready to have a good-faith conversation about drugs in Ghana. But lives are at stake.
Hopefully, we can come to generate the perspectives and sympathies to prioritise young people.
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s, and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
According to Bullgod who was guesting on Accra-based Hitz FM on Monday, 26 September, 2022, the booing the Ghanaian President received some time during his address at Saturday night’s Global Citizen Festival was an ample indicator.
“Look, what happened that day, if we were going to the ballot box that day he would lose. Trust,” he declared.
Earlier, he opined the Ghanaian leader was at the wrong place when he came to address the audience and thus was booed.
“That environment is not for him,” had shared before giving the impression Mr Akufo-Addo has failed his people and not shown empathy for their hardship.
“If you are leading a people, you need to listen to them. You need to feel what they feel. You need to make their lives better. That’s why we elect leaders,” he said.
“So if you’re in leadership and your followership is not in the right space, the right frame of mind, conditions are harsh, chale, what do you expect them to do? This is the only way [they could register their displeasure],” he stressed.
Bullgod, an entertainment pundit, also opined about 90 per cent of the crowd present at the event booed Akufo-Addo.
The Daybreak Hitz team led by Andy Dosty challenged him on this but he maintained his stance and added “This is the youth and not even a political crowd. So if these youth are seeing this, or they are doing this, you should know where the country is going.”
In its tenth year, the Global Citizen Festivalheld a simultaneous event in Central Park, New York City, New York, USA and at the Black Star Square, Accra, Greater Accra Region, Ghana on Saturday, 24 September, 2022.
The Ghana Revenue Authority(GRA) has stated that it intends to crack down even harder on companies that are refusing to pay taxes.
A posh event and trading center called “De Icon” in East Legon, Accra, had its facilities locked up by authority representatives on Friday, September 16, 2022, for not paying their taxes to the government.
The goal of the GRA’s intervention is to make sure that all tax payments owed to the state are obtained from culpable companies.
The team locked up the facility to restrain the owners and customers from doing business until the tax registration process is concluded.
Chief Revenue Officer at the office of the Commissioner General, Nathaniel Tetteh told Journalists that the company will be made to comply with the law and pay penalties before it can resume operations.
“We have information that this facility has been operating since December 2021 without the necessary tax requirements. So our assignment here is to lock the place until the right thing is done”.
“We also need some tax documents from the administration, so we can use it to track the business they have done and apply the charges” he told Joy Business.
Friday September 16, 2022 operations was part of an ongoing nationwide Valued Added Tax Invigilation exercise by the authority to retrieve some taxes due the state.
The GRA as part of the nationwide invigilation will continue to embark on mystery shopping exercises across the country to apprehend culprits evading tax.
Meanwhile, all efforts to get the managers or the directors of ‘De Icon’ to speak to the media was not successful.
The ECG has ordered the management of the night club to appear before its project office inAccra.
The action by the ECG comes after it discovered that a hostel connected to the nightclub was using roughly 25 air conditioners, refrigerators, and other electrical appliances through manipulated ECG meters.
The hostel, owned by the night club, is occupied by Nigerians.
The illegality was detected by the ECG revenue mobilisation task force as part of efforts to check metre conditions in the country.
The managers of the night club admitted to the illegality, blaming it on the complex nature of dealing with the power distributing company.
This follows complaints from some motorists concerning the lack of petroleumproducts at some pumps in particular areas in Accra.
In a Citi News interview, Head of Research at COPEC,Benjamin Nsiah noted that NPA must sanction the fuel stations that create artificial fuel shortages.
“COPEC has already been mentioning this particular event to the authorities, specifically NPA to ensure that when prices are about to change, they visit some of these retail outlets to check their tanks and ensure that there are products available. If any retail outlet comes to say there are no products, it means it is an intention to create a shortage.â€
Mr. Nsiah further allayed all fears of fuel shortage, adding that there was enough stock in the system to last a month.
“We believe that there is not going to be fuel shortage in the coming month. What we know is that there is enough fuel to serve the market.â€
The Central Business District (CBD) of Accra was empty with pockets of traders conducting business in front of closed shops and pavement on Tuesday.
The Ghana News Agency monitoring team, during a tour of the CBD on Monday to assess the impact of the elections on sales, showed that most shops at Makola, Rawlings Park, and Tudu were closed.
The usually busy streets were empty while commercial drivers struggled to get passengers.
Speaking to the GNA at Tudu, Emmanuel Arhin, who trades in ladies dresses said sales had generally been slow, and that, he was among the early voters at Santa Maria and decided to come down to the market to do business.
He said because of low sales, he would be leaving the market for home.
Ama Achaa, who deals in men under wear said she came to Tudu about 05:30 hours but but sales has been bad due to the ongoing polls.
Achaa said she would be voting at Kinbu Senior High School later on, saying that; “I will only walk to the place and cast my ballot.
Ruth Quaicoe a roasted plantain seller at the Rawlings Park said she arrived at the Rawlings Park at about 09:00 hours to sell for the few people around who may need food to eat.
Ruth said she was yet to cast her ballot at Dansoman, adding that, due to the low traffic, she hopes to get to Dansoman early to cast her vote by 15:00 hours.
A middle aged woman who only gave her name as Erica said she travelled from Osu to purchase some items but the shops were closed.
According to her on previous holidays, she gets whatever she wants to buy but this time around almost all the shops were closed.
Belinda Mensah, a resident of Kasoa, who was at the CBD to sell pepper and onions has not made enough sales because a few people were around.
Belinda said “sales has been slow. I will soon pack my items and go home to cast my ballot”.
Another trader, Anita Sammy, who sells nose masks said she thought people would need nose masks for the election but the Makola market area was virtually empty.
According to Anita she would be casting her vote at Kwashieman but was waiting to see if some customers would show up to buy before leaving.
A brilliant software developer in Ghana who identifies himself on social media by the name @The Dynasto has made an amazing racing game with the city of Accra.
Photos, videos and screenshots of the game have been sighted by YEN.com.gh on different social media platforms as many Ghanaians have been excited to see the innovation.
The developer calls the game RWC Racing and is available for both android and IOS users to download and enjoy.
Until now, games many Ghanaians and Africans have been playing feature beautiful places overseas and @TheDynasto has broken that status quo in a remarkable way.
Apart from the popular landmarks in Accra that have been featured in the game, the game also has the different varieties of cars used in Ghana.
One of the most interesting vehicles spotted was the ‘yellow-yellow’ or ‘Mahama Camboo’ whose usage is only beginning to increase in the capital city of Ghana.
Transport operators in the Volta Region have closed down all bus stations for Accra and Kumasi routes.
This development comes after the President directed a partial lockdown of Greater Accra including Tema, Kasoa in the Central Region and Greater Kumasi for two weeks.
The Accra and Kumasi stations have remained empty since the lockdown came into effect with buses grounded.
Although the GPRTU and PROTOA station officers at the Ho-Accra station refused to speak on record, it was detected that they had closed down the Accra, Ashaiman and Madina stations in particular.
A similar action was taken at the Kumasi Station.
The STC terminal and the Metro Mass Transit terminal also closed.
A Metro Mass driver who plies the Ho- Koforidua Kumasi route said “We are at home. We are all not working on any of our routes including the Accra and Kumasi routes.â€
The MMT driver who gave his name as Akyea noted that even the Koforidua route has also been affected by the lockdown because it is the Kumasi bus that serves that route as well. At Hohoe, Kadjebi, Sogakofe, Dzodze and Kpando residents say Accra and Kumasi vehicles alike are not available.
The station officers nonetheless revealed to DGN Online that after the announcement of the lockdown last Friday evening, traffic from Accra and Kumasi into the region increased considerably.
A ticketing personnel of the GPRTU station at Madina who gave his name as Sammy said, “Saturday 28 and Sunday 29, March, 2020 was very busy for us. We run out of buses and left some of the travellers stranded.â€
He said over 200 buses going to the region: Ho, Hohoe, Aflao, Akatsi, Kpando among others transported a lot of people who he believes were trying to avoid being caught in the lockdown.
A 14-day restriction on movements in parts of the Greater Accra Region and Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region, as part of measures to control the spread of the coronavirus, comes into effect today.
The lockdown affects areas are where significant numbers of virus infections have been recorded.
According to the security services, there shall also be complete sealing of entries and exits into the affected areas.
Affected areas in Accra are:
Accra Winneba route with total sealing at Weija Toll Booth.
Accra Akropong route with sealing of the Ayimensah Toll Booth.
Accra Dodowa route with Mensah Bar at Oyibi to be sealed.
Oyibi Appolonia Kubekrom- Ashaiman, Afienya New Jerusalem Appolonia route to be blocked at appropriate points.
Tema Akosombo road to be blocked at Asutuare junction barrier with Tema- Aflao at Tsopoli barrier.
That of Ashaiman Santow at Adjei Kojo while Ashaiman Appolonia at Appolonia.
The Tema beach road will be sealed at the Sakumono level crossing.
In the Ashanti Region, the Kumasi Tamale road is to be blocked at Kodie while the Kumasi Accra will not go beyond the Ejisu Toll Booth.
The Kumasi- Mampong movement ends at the Manponteng Toll Booth.
Kumasi Obuasi road will be blocked at Pakyi No. 2.
The road linking Kumasi Sunyani will be blocked at Abuakwa Manhyia and that of Kumasi Bibiani at Sepase close to Abuakwa.
Adankwame Asante Mampong, Juaben, Effiduase, Agona and alternate routes to be blocked at appropriate points.
Within the Kasoa and its environs, the following routes will be blocked against movement.
These routes are:
Kasoa Amasaman road blocked at Adam Nana
Kasoa Accra at Pink FM
Kasoa Nyanyano road at Kakraba junction.
The Ghana Meteorological Agency has warned that there will be moderate to heavy rainstorm in some parts of the country today March 24, 2020.
The rainstorm is expected in the North-Eastern and mid-portions of Ghana and later move westwards and affect places in the northern half of the country.
It is expected to begin at 4 pm to 11 pm in most areas.
They added that places like Eastern, Volta, Ashanti, Greater Accra, Central and Western regions could experience general cloudiness with thunderstorms.
The Ministry of Health (MoH) has identified, Accra and Tema in the Greater Accra Region and Kumasi in the Ashanti Region as the epicentres of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Ghana.
At a press briefing in Accra Tuesday, the Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman Manu said: “What we have identified so far in Ghana now, we may have, we can describe two areas in Ghana now as our own epicentres, Accra and Tema together and Kumasi.”
“We are doing what we describe as contact tracing, in Accra we have deployed 98 field officers …that have been trained doing the tracing and we are getting to people.”
The Minister said in Kumasi for instance, about 50 trained people have been employed who are still doing contact tracing.
He, therefore, advised that based on the evidence, “wherever we are, all those our brothers and sisters who have come in, we should advise them to put themselves in self-quarantine if we haven’t tracked them yet.
“And they should also talk to health authorities in the area where they live, to send teams to serve them, they can be calling on telephone describing their conditions to health officers they get in touch with such that, we can protect the rest of the population against community spread, the horizontal spread we are seeing in our country at the moment,” the Minister said.
New cases
As of Monday night [March 23, 2020], a total of 27 positive cases had been recorded in Ghana with two deaths. There were only 25 existing cases.
But at the press briefing Tuesday morning [March 24, 2020], the Minister of Health explained that an additional 25 cases from those who arrived in Ghana in the last few days and were in mandatory quarantine have tested positive to bring the total positive cases in Ghana to 52, with two deaths.
There are 50 existing cases which are being managed in isolation.
In all, a total of 1030 travellers who arrived in Ghana after air, land and sea borders were closed are currently on mandatory quarantine for 14 days.
Out of the 1030 number, 611 samples have been taken and 185 has been processed and 25 tested positive
The rest is yet to be tested.
The Minister of Health said those on quarantine, psychologists have been deployed to have charts with them.
He said the Ministry was also in the process of handing them over to the case management team in isolated areas for treatment.
“Definitely, not all of them will be critically ill and they are not, some might not be ill at all, but decisions on them will depend on individual case management issue. If you are not even ill, you still have to be quarantined for the mandatory 14 days.”
He said early on, there were indications that if a person tested negative, “we release you after four days but, [based on] technical advice, and we have met all the doctors and we cannot [continue] do that and we have to keep you for the entire two weeks, which is the 14 days.”
He said: “We have adequate rooms in Accra… to actually take care of all those who have tested positive at the moment. But going forward, a team is going round identifying places that we can use for isolation for case management, not only in Accra.”
A nationwide consultation with the Ghanaian private sector to access their readiness for African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) implementation has begun in Accra.
The consultation is focusing on six sectors of Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) members who are in agri-business, food and beverages, pharmaceuticals and herbal, garment, textile and leather, plastics and hardware as well as hospitality and tourism industry sectors.
“The stakeholder consultation with the private sector is very important as it would help in assessing their knowledge and understanding of AfCFTA, rules of origin, capacity to produce and export to other African countries as well as identifying the challenges that would impede their ability to take full advantage of the AfCFTA,†said Appiah Kusi Adomako, the Country Director for CUTS.
Mr. Adomako added that the ability of Ghana to take full advantage of the AfCFTA agreement depends largely on the readiness of the Ghanaian industry. Whilst a company can be ready at the firm level, there is also the need for our macroeconomic variables to be ready. For example firm in Ghana which borrows on the average of 28% per annum cannot compete with firms in South Africa, Rwanda, Mauritius that borrow on an average of 7 percent per annum.
The consultation forms part of a study assessing the readiness of the Ghanaian private sector for AfCFTA implementation. The study is being undertaken by a research and advocacy policy think called CUTS with support from the BUSAC Fund.
BUSAC Fund is a donor pooled fund to support private sector advocacy and it is supported by the DANIDA and the USAID.
It is expected that the study will produce a diagnostic report which will help to develop practical steps in addressing the gaps and challenges identified by the private sector with regards to the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
The Ghana Railway Company has announced that it will offer free train rides on its Accra-Nsawam line between Wednesday 12th February and Friday 14th February, 2020.
The company said the free rides come after it addressed some technical challenges with its service and conducted a test run on the line with the Ghana Railway Railway Development (GRDA), its regulator.
The free ride service was to take place in January 2020 but it was postponed due to the challenges.
A statement from the company noted that “GRDA has given certification for GRCL to commence passenger service on the line.â€
The train will depart from the Nsawam station to Accra to 5:45 am and depart from Accra station to Nsawam at 5:30 pm each day.
Read excerpts of the statement below:
The Management of Ghana Railway Company Limited (GRCL) wishes to inform the general public that it intended to run free passenger service on the Accra-Nsawam rail line last month but had to postpone it due to some technical challenges.
After successfully addressing the technical challenges, the GRCL conducted a joint test run with Ghana Railway Railway Development (GRDA), the Regulator, to ensure the suitability of the line for passenger service.
After the test run, GRDA has given certification for GRCL to commence passenger service on the line.
In the light of this, GRCL will provide free passenger service from Accra to Nsawam on Wednesday 12th and 14th Friday, 2020.
The train will depart from Nsawam station to Accra to 5:45 am and depart from Accra station to Nsawam at 5:30 pm each day.
The general public is again being assured that the rail line has been certified by GRDA, the Regulator, that is fit for commercial operations but any problem when may crop up during the period will be quickly addressed by the GRCL engineers in the subsequent days after the free passenger service to ensure passenger safety and comfortability.
Free rides in Takoradi
Free passenger rides on the Takoradi to Tarkwa line that was undertaken last month was fraught with challenges including delay in the movement of the train, rough rides and shaky coaches and the derailment of a cargo coach.
Life support Foundation Ghana, an NGO, has donated food, clothes and drinks worth thousands of Cedis to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital.
During the presentation of the items, Madam Sylvia Naa Odarley Amporful, co-founder of the NGO, expressed joy at having fulfilled her desire to spend time with the patients on her birthday.
She said the donation was meant to put smiles on the faces of the patients as she has always been sensitive towards the cause of helping and uplifting others, especially the disadvantaged in society.
According to her, she chose the Accra Psychiatric Hospital over other aid needing institutions because of a personal bitter experience, of a close relative who has being living with bipolar disorder.
She disclosed how challenging this has been for her family in the last decade.
Speaking about how her NGO which is less than a year old begun, she said it was fuelled by the burning desire to help touch lives.
She envisions doing more to help society, especially children and women. She expressed gratitude for the support received so far and called for more help to extend the works of her NGO.
“We hope to collaborate with the hospital to educate the public on mental illness in schools, churches and corporate organizations. This will help people know what signs to look out for and how to minimize stigmatization.â€
Madam Sylvia Naa Odarley Amporful was accompanied by close relatives and friends who also vowed to be regular donors to the hospital.
PRO of the Accra Psychiatric hospital, Mr. Emmanuel Aboagye, thanked the organization for the kind gesture and urged the general public to continue showing unflinching support to the hospital.
