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.
