ASSOCIATION TRAINS WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS (PAGE 11, NOV 13, 2010)

African Aurora, a non-governmental organisation engaged in building the capacity of women entrepreneurs, is training 20 Women Entrepreneurs Associations (WEA) to be self- employed.
The aim of African Aurora is to train three million small-scale entrepreneurs with skills in wealth creation.
This was announced by the National Programme Co-ordinator of African Aurora, Ms Maureen Erekua Odoi, at a capacity building workshop for 30 women entrepreneurs associations in Accra.
Some of the associations which attended the workshop included Path Finder Women Entrepreneurs Association, Christian Mothers Association, Development Action Association and Leading Ladies Network.
Ms Odoi said the participants were executives of women entrepreneurs associations who had been equipped with knowledge in the formation, management and sustenance of their enterprises.
The workshop had also assisted them to improve their organisational, technical and financial capabilities to operate new and existing associations.
The women entrepreneurs had learnt to advocate and lobby for policies and decisions that concerned women entrepreneurs in the country.
She said the workshop, which attracted eight national WEAs throughout the country, had equipped the participants to reach out to more women entrepreneurs.
Mrs Celena Green, Programme Officer of Africa for Vital Voice Global Partnership, said her outfit was collaborating with Africa Businesswomen Network (ABWN) to upgrade the capacity of women associations, as well as improve economic prosperity.
She announced that a unit of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) had developed eight training curricula and tools to support various aspects of women entrepreneurial development, and that the WEA capacity building was one such tool.
Mrs Green said Vital Voices and African Aurora were privileged to share these tools with women entrepreneurs in the country and was looking forward to working a lot more with ILO and ExxonMobil Foundation to raise the standard of living, especially of women who were the engine of growth of the African economy.

ACCIDENT VICTIMS TOP ORTHOPAEDIC CASES (BACK PAGE, AUGUST 26, 2010)

Victims of road accidents formed the majority of the 6,500 orthopaedic cases which were recorded in 2009 at the Orthopaedic Training Centre at Nsawam.
Sister Elizabeth Newman, a director of the centre, made that known when the Kaneshie Area Witness Movement of the Apostolic Church, Ghana interacted with the patients of the centre and presented food items to the inmates as part of its 75th anniversary celebration.
Sister Newman urged drivers to be extra careful on the roads, since accidents on the road resulted in many people losing their limbs.
She said the orthopaedic workshop, the mobile clinic and the children’s department had all been overwhelmed with work as a result of road accidents in the country.
Sister Newman urged corporate institutions, especially the mobile telephony companies, not to concentrate their social responsibility effort in the cities alone but to spread it to cover institutions such as the centre for the rehabilitation of the physically-challenged in the country.
She said the orthopaedic centre spent GH¢10,000 a year to operate the mobile clinic which toured the countryside to handle cases of birth deformities and road accident victims.
The Head Pastor of the Kaneshie branch of the Apostolic Church, Ghana, Pastor Andy Nortey, who presented the items, described the work of the centre as a great service to humanity and said without it many people would have been languishing with disability for the rest of their lives.

EFFORTS AT ACHIEVING GENDER PARITY RATIO...Legon enrols more females (PAGE 11, AUGUST 13, 2010)

THE University of Ghana, Legon is enrolling more female students to enable the University to achieve its gender parity policy of 50—50 ratio.
Currently the student population of the University is 35,000 with males constituting 57 per cent while females make up 43 per cent.
Professor Kwesi Yankah, Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana who was speaking at the orientation course for 80 professionals admitted by the University for the Economic Policy Management (EPM) programme, said the ratio of the girl-child and that of the boy in the University showed a marked improvement from the mid 1990s when the University was dominated by male students.
He explained that at the undergraduate level, female enrolment had risen from 28 per cent in the mid 1990s to 43 per cent in 2009/2010 academic year.
Prof. Yankah also said that female enrolment in graduate schools which was 30 per cent last year hit 35 per cent this year through the enrolment of the EPM programme.
The Pro- Vice Chancellor of the University, therefore, gave the assurance that the University would continue to pursue its gender policy of aiming at a 50-50 ratio.’’
He said the EPM programme had assisted professionals from the sub region to bring their practical experience from the workplace to link the theory of the University to produce all round knowledge for the socio-economic development of the country.
He said the programme was unique which equipped practitioners to draw on a wider pool of policy experience and best practices both within and outside their own regions to develop a sustainable policy framework and implement plans for economic management.
The Pro-Vice Chancellor said unlike the standard master’s programme in Economics, the EPM was designed exclusively for practitioners in governmemt, ministries, departments, agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the private sector.
He commended the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and the joint Japan World Bank Graduate Fellowship Programme for sponsoring the 12-month master’s programme in EPM.
He said the admission of practitioners from Sierra-Leone, Nigeria , Liberia and Gambia would amount to strengthening the already existing bonds of friendship not only at the national level, but also at the University level.
Prof. Yankah said over the years, the University had stretched its arms to help rebuild human resources of neighbouring countries, especially when war and other catastrophes had shattered economies and human resource bases.

VDTE PEOPLE WITH SELFLESS SPIRIT INTO POWER (PAGE 14, JULY 28, 2010)

PRESIDENT John Evans Atta Mills has reminded chief executives, chief directors and chairmen of governing boards and councils of their appointments as opportunities for service to the nation.
Professor Mills said Ghanaians expected that their actions and decisions would be guided by that maxim and that the common good of the country would reign supreme.
In a statement read on his behalf by Dr Christine Amoako-Nuamah, Presidential Advisor, at the Fourth Conference of the Public Service Chief Executives, Chief Directors and Chairmen of Governing Boards and Councils at Elimina, President Mills asked them to work as a team, pay attention to the processes, policies, customs and laws laid down and designed for the proper functioning of their organisations.
He said it should not be difficult to build consensus at all times.
The President reminded them to use the platform to understand their roles and responsibilities between the governing boards and the chief executives and management.
President Mills asked them not to depart from laid down principles and practices that would create crisis between boards or councils and their chief executives.
He tasked them to update their strategic and corporate plan, embark on robust internal audit reporting system with strengthened internal control mechanisms, effective scheme of service and complying with citizen/service charters which specify the services being provided and effective performance management reporting system.
The Chairman of the Council of State, Professor Kofi Awoonor, who chaired the function, tasked them not to shy away from discussing the difficulties they faced in the discharge of their responsibilities.
Professor Awonor also reminded them of the need for the protection of trust, national interest, discipline, integrity, among others.
Earlier in his welcoming address, Professor S. N. Woode, Chairman of the Public Services Commission, admonished participants to take advantage of the conference to break the cycle of bureaucracy and to see how they relate to each other for the better Ghana agenda.

ENTERPRISE LIFE GROWTH RATE SURGES (PAGE 29, JULY 9, 2010)

Despite the worldwide economic conditions, the total assets of Enterprise Life Assurance Company (ELAC) experienced a high growth rate of GH¢33.3 million in 2009 as against GH¢22.8 in 2008 representing 46 per cent growth rate.
The gross premium income of the company also grew by 51 per cent from GH¢15.4 in 2008 to GH¢23.3 in 2009.
Mr C. C. Bruce Jnr, Executive Director of ELAC made this known at the presentation of the company’s accounts for 2009 to the public in Accra.
He said apart from the life insurance policy which still remained the flagship of the company, two other products had been introduced into the market.
He said the new products included risk, funeral and education products since Ghanaians were eager to educate their children, as well as provide dignified burial for their departed relatives.
The executive director said the Educare policy fared better than the family income protection plan which this year would be repackaged and re-introduced to the public.
He said the company had plans to expand its businesses to the rural sectors, as well as to the northern parts of the country where many people could be assisted to take insurance as savings for any eventualities.
Mr Bruce said ELAC had already opened an office in Tamale and when the operations were stabilised, new offices would be opened at Bawku and Bolga next year.
He said the company was also studying the pension opportunities under the pension reforms in the country to come out with products that would serve the need of the aged in the country to assist in making life bearable for them while on retirement.
Mr Bruce said the company had also designed macro insurance policy to suit the financial needs of people in the informal sectors of the economy who had been marginalised for a long time even though they produced the bulk of the nation's wealth.
Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ELAC, said the hosting of public accounts hearing for the company was a testament to the culture of transparency and openness in the conduct of business by ELAC.
Mr Ofori Atta appealed to the Commissioner of Insurance to have a second look at the new solvency regime which would make it difficult for insurance companies to pay dividends to shareholders since profits had to be ploughed back in order to meet the 50 per cent solvency threshold.

FORUM CAUTIONS AGAINST REMOVING INDENMITY CLAUSE (PAGE 13, JUNE 26, 2010)

THE issue of the Indemnity Clause and the role of chiefs in party politics keeps coming up at the district and community level consultations of the Constitution Review Commission.
All the contributors on the Indemnity Clause were of the view that the Indemnity Clause should be left as it is in the Constitution.
Mr Olabode Williams of the Ayawaso East Constituency in the Greater Accra Region said any attempt to remove it from the Constitution would open the floodgates of retribution and chaos in the country.
He said the peace prevailing in the country should not be taken for granted and that well- meaning Ghanaians had not forgotten the bloodshed in sister African countries such as Liberia, Cote ‘d’Ivoire and Kenya.
Mr Williams said Ghanaians were witnesses to the day when the former President, J J Rawlings was invited to the National Reconciliation sitting which attracted a lot of Ghanaians from the political divide in the country.
He explained that the presence of the thick crowd showed how Ghanaians could be passionate about the Indemnity Clause when expunged from the Constitution.
Ms Josephine Ameseya, a public servant in her contribution said chiefs in the country had people under them whom they controlled.
She said any attempt to involve chiefs in politics would lead to the polarisation of the people along political lines, which could lead to serious conflicts at the community level since all the people in the community, would not toe the line of their chiefs when it came to politics, and could lead to clashes between those who supported the chief and those against his party.
All contributors to these two issues expressed the same view that chaos and violence would ensue when the Indemnity Clause was removed from the Constitution and chiefs were allowed to participate actively in politics.
On the assemblies concept, contributors, however, differed in their opinions with some stating that the assembly concept had outlived its usefulness and ought to be scraped from the Constitution since most assembly members were not performing their roles as agents of development.
Other contributors, however, said the assembly members were working with scarce resources and that the Constitution should recognise the important roles they play and pay them salaries commensurate with Members of Parliament for them to deliver effectively.
Alhaji Abdul Aziz, a counsellor at Accra Metropolitan Assembly said the Constitution should place more emphasis on gender issues since in Ghana many inequality existed not only between men and women but between the disabled and abled bodies.
Mr Archibold Cabbina of Kokomlemle said the Constitution should be reviewed to limit the powers of the President to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Director of the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) and other military chiefs to ensure that they worked without partiality.
Other consultative meetings on the Constitution were held in parts of Mamprobi and Ablekuma all in the Greater Accra Region.

INVASION OF ALIEN PLANTS (SPREAD, JUNE 24, 2010)

THE Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), says 30 alien plants have found their way into the eco-system and are destroying the country’s biodiversity.
The alien species, according to the CSIR were replacing indigenous plants that were useful to the ecosystem at a very fast rate.
The council, which is spearheading a four-year project to remove barriers hindering the management of exotic plants, has, therefore, appealed to the security agencies and personnel of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) at the country's borders to be vigilant by preventing travellers from bringing alien species into the country.
The Minister of Environment, Science and Technology Ms Sherry Ayittey, who launched four booklets on exotic plants, said the alien plants were causing devastation to crops and forest lands in areas such as the River Afram Headwaters Forest Reserves.
Ms Ayittey whose speech was read on her behalf said these alien plant species were also causing irreparable damage to socio-economic development and posed as health hazards to the people in the areas they were found.
She, therefore, urged agencies such as the CSIR to team up with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to successfully implement the four year project to remove barriers for the management of the exotic plants.
Dr Abdulai Baba Salifu, Director-General of CSIR, who chaired the function, said some biological methods had been introduced by CSIR to control the weeds.
He said one of the methods was the introduction of some species of grasshoppers to feed on the leaves of the exotic plants.
He, however, said such biological control had its limits since the CSIR could not nurture a vast quantity of those grasshoppers to deal with the ever-spreading exotic weeds that were increasing in the country.
Dr Salifu appealed to the government to increase its component of funding the project to eliminate the alien plant species before they took over the ecosystem and destroyed the agricultural sector.
Some of the alien plants included Jatropha curcas (Adadze), Lantana camara (Ananse dokuno), Striga (Wumlim) Cecropia peltata (French Adwuma) Siam Weed (Acheapong).

PINEAPPLE FARMERS INCREASE EXPORTS TO US (BACK PAGE, JUNE 8, 2010)

THIRTY small-scale pineapple farmers in the country increased their exports to the European and North American markets from 26 tonnes in 2006 to 166 tonnes last year under the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA).
That was after they had obtained organic certification to export to that country.
A Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Yaw Effah Baafi, made this known when he addressed an international conference on organic agriculture as a business in Accra.
The four-day conference was organised by the Washington State University and the US Department of Agriculture to present the latest information on obtaining certification, finding buyers and the kinds of organic products that are in great demand in the $46-billion organic foods trade.
Opening the conference, Mr Baafi urged Ghanaian farmers to take advantage of AGOA to export organic foods and products to the US to earn foreign exchange for the country.
He explained that developing countries such as Ghana were facing numerous challenges, including soil degradation, food security and climate change, which did not augur well for agriculture.
He said it was, therefore, opportune for farmers in the country to practise organic farming as a means of increasing soil fertility without the use of agro-chemicals.
He observed that most farmers in the country applied agro-chemicals wrongly, with devastating effects on the environment and water bodies as fish stocks and other eco-systems got destroyed by the toxins.
He said the Ministry of Food and Agriculture regarded organic agriculture as an intervention that was to assuage the years of destruction of the environment, as well as ensure food security within the shortest possible time.
Mr Baafi observed that yields from organic farms were much better than those from the conventional type of agriculture where soil had become degraded due to over-reliance on chemical fertilisers.
Mr David Granatstein of the Washington State University said demand for certified organic foods and products had been growing steadily over the past decade.
He said as a result, efforts were under way in Africa to develop opportunities for trade in organic products.

2,000 CATERERS ATTEN FOOD SAFETY COURSE (PAGE 20, JUNE 8, 2010)

TWO thousand traditional caterers, popularly known as “chop-bar operators” throughout the country are undergoing training in business management, customer service and food safety.
The training programme which started in the Greater Accra Region with the first batch of 200 traditional caterers at the Entrepreneurship Training Institute was to also show the participants the relationship between nutrition and exercise in helping to maintain good health.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Rector of the Institute, Prof. Reginald T.A. Ocansey, said traditional caterers had a role to play in checking obesity, which is rearing its ugly head in the country by beginning to ask their clientele questions as well as providing health tips.
He said when traditional caterers were well trained, they could help in preventing communicable diseases by keeping their environment clean.
That, he said, could encourage more customers to patronise local dishes and contribute meaningfully to the economic growth of the country.
Prof. Ocansey said when the maintenance of good healthy habit was inculcated in the traditional caterers, they could pass it on to the entire population since most Ghanaians patronised the food prepared by traditional caterers.
He advised traditional caterers to stop being in the catering business only to make money but to regard themselves as health agents who served hygienic and nutritious food.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Chief Executive 0fficer of Homefoods Processing and Cannery Limited, Mrs Felicia Twumasi, urged the women to stop using their business capital for weddings and funerals since that could lead to the depletion of their capital.
She, therefore, advised them to inculcate the habits of savings and good record keeping to ensure that they qualified for micro financing to expand their businesses.
Mrs Twumasi also implored them to expand their businesses into related fields instead of moving from one unrelated business to another.
Ms Maureen Erekua Odoi of African Aurora Business Network (AABN), one of the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which organised the eating business programme, (eatbiz) in collaboration with Indigenous Caterers Association of Ghana, said the year-long training programme would be conducted in all the regions for the 2,000 caterers who had been selected to help mainstream the catering service into the economic development of the country.

USE MARKETING TOOLS EFFECTIVELY (PAGE 25, JUNE 7, 2010)

THE Head of Marketing of Unilever Group of Companies, Mr Akofa Ata, has called on corporate organisations to use social communication tools such as twitter and facebook to reach out to customers.
He stressed that it was not shameful for marketing branches of companies to resort to social communication tools to communicate with their customers in order to understand them and model products that would meet their desire.
He explained that marketing branches that ignored the power of Information, Communication and Technology and all its tools for reaching customers were doing more harm than good to themselves and their companies.
Speaking on the topic: “How to Get to Grips with Your Competitors” as part of the series of educational lectures instituted by the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG), Mr Ata said marketers could not function any more in the information economy without knowing the use of social communication tools and applying them in their work.
He also urged companies to invest heavily in advertising and make their goods affordable to attract customers to their products.
He said this could lead their competitors to incur losses because their goods would be priced costly and would drive customers away to those that were affordable.
He said any company which was a leader in a certain segment of the market must not wait for competitors to make inroads into that segment before preparing catch-up and follow-up strategies to fend off the competitors, since that would not work out satisfactorily and it could led to the company losing the fight.
Mr Ata therefore advised companies with a market lead not to play with their competitors but to hit them hard through strategies so that they would not be able to withstand the competition from the onset.
He explained that they could win the competition when they leveraged their strength as soon as they spotted a competitor.
Mrs Josephine Okutu, President of CIMG, said the topics for the educational series were carefully chosen to reflect exactly on what was happening in the business front, as well as in the market place.
She urged corporate organisations to allow their staff, especially those in the marketing branches, to partake in the educational series, since it would impact positively on their organisations.

MET LIFE LAUNCHES SCHEME FOR MUSLIMS (PAGE 29, JUNE 4, 2010)

AN insurance scheme designed to meet the life insurance and investment needs of the Muslim community has been introduced onto the Ghanaian market.
The Labaika scheme, the first of its kind on the Ghanaian market, is based on the stringent requirements of Sharia, which regards high interest rates as unislamic.
Speaking at the launch of the new product the Chief Executive Officer of Metropolitan Life Insurance, Mr Diop Frimpong, said the main purpose of the product was to provide a Sharia compliant investment product for the Muslim community.
He explained that the Labaika product was based on the purest concept of mutual help and social solidarity and was based on the principles of Sharia.
He said it was also to promote the concept of equality, and provided fixed sums should death occur during the term of the insurance irrespective of age, sex, social status and occupation.
Mr Frimpong said the Labaika product was a meaningful way of saving towards the financial requirements of the Hajj.
He said the scheme was also to provide a good opportunity for parents to save towards the increasing cost of education. Mr Frimpong appealed to Muslim communities to patronise the scheme since Metropolitan Life Insurance was offering them a product which respected their faith.
Mrs Nyamikeh Kyiamah , the acting Commissioner of Insurance said the insurance industry had seen a tremendous growth during the last few years mainly due to the improvements in the country’s macroeconomics environment and the emergence of appropriate products on the market.
She said the total life premium income grew from GH¢22 million in 2004 to about GH¢90 million in 2008
She said the life insurance industry had made significant progress in the last few years but still there remained much to be done to reach out to the informal sector.

13,000 STUDENTS EMBARK ON AIDS AWARENESS PROGRAMME (SPREAD, MAY 31, 2010)

Thirteen thousand students from junior and senior high schools nation wide last year took part in HIV/AIDS awareness creation projects designed to prevent the spread of the disease in the country.
The awareness creation campaign, which was undertaken by the students themselves, was to break the barrier of age which sometimes worked against HIV/AIDS campaigns.
The project offered opportunities to the youth to relate stories on HIV/AIDS to their fellow youth, thereby removing the communication gaps which usually existed between the youth and adults.
The acting President of AIESEC, the world’s largest students organisation, Ms Lydia Elim Andrews, said the organisation provided students with the opportunity to develop themselves by avoiding HIV/AIDS, one of the killer diseases affecting the youth worldwide.
She said the Ghana branch of AIESEC also implemented three projects for young entrepreneurs in 2009, including Information and Communications Technology training for students of the University of Ghana, the Central University College and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
Ms Andrews said as part of its achievements in 2009, AIESEC offered opportunities to 200 students to benefit from exchange programmes with other international bodies.
She said only five Ghanaian students were able to travel outside for the exchange programme because of financial constraints and appealed to corporate organisations to assist the organisation in its efforts at training the future leaders of the country.
She said in 2009, AIESEC also assisted in the organisation of Afritour, which was aimed at attracting more tourists into the country and generating foreign exchange for the development of tourism sites in the country.
Ms Andrews said a year-long programme of activities had been drawn up to mark the 50th anniversary of AIESEC, beginning from July this year to July 2011.
Newly elected executive members of AIESEC for 2011 were introduced at the dinner and awards night.
Mr Kwesi Tabiri Fosu, the new President of the organisation, will preside over the projects for 2011.
The dinner also saw the presentation of certificates to a number of institutions for assisting the students movement to undertake projects.
Some of the award-winning organisations were the Ghana Immigration Service for assisting AIESEC members to go through immigration formalities without undue hindrances and delays, the Central University College, the University of Cape Coast and the University of Ghana for running the best AIESEC programmes and projects and for their membership drive.
Another institution that was singled out for awards was Standard Chartered Bank, which sponsored most of the projects and programmes of AIESEC, while Toyota Ghana received commendation for sponsoring the awards nights.

GOVT INCREASES PREMIX ALLOCATION (BACK PAGE, MAY 19, 2010)

THE weekly allocation of premix fuel has been increased from 810,000 litres to 1,380,000 litres as an additional measure by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to enable fishermen to attain bumper yields during the peak fishing season which begins in June.
The Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in charge of Fisheries, Nii Amasah Namoale, told the Daily Graphic that in addition to the increased supply of premix, more than 170 landing beach committees had been formed under the restructuring exercise to be solely in charge of the distribution of premix directly to the fishing communities.
He announced that as part of the preparation for the fishing season, which begins at the end of this month, MoFA had acquired 1,000 outboard motors through the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) for distribution to both inland and offshore fishermen to help them carry out their fishing expeditions with modern equipment.
The Deputy Minister said another batch of 3,000 outboard motors was being negotiated for from India to augment the fleet of outboard motors for the expected bumper harvest this season.
That, he said, was to mark the departure from the lassez faire attitude that characterised the sale of premix in the past and which led to the diversion of the product, at the expense of the fishing communities.
He urged the fishing communities to reciprocate the government’s gesture by desisting from the use of undersized nets, dynamite and poisonous chemicals such as DDT for fishing, which he said destroyed the fish stock, including the fingerlings.
He said the government was seeking funds to undertake feasibility studies of the 14 landing beaches to be constructed in the country with cold storage facilities to add value to fish during the season.
He said the government had streamlined the sale of the product and crafted guidelines to regulate the operations of the landing beach committees, the result of which would manifest during the bumper season in June, July and August.
He said unlike the past when the hyper rich hijacked the sale and distribution of the product and nothing was left for the communities, now 53 per cent of the profit made on premix was allocated to the fishing communities for social responsibility projects.
The Deputy Minister expressed regret that in the past no school or clinic was built for the fishing communities from the profits from the sale of premix and gave an assurance that henceforth the profit made by the Landing Beach Committees would be used to build clinics and schools and purchase fishing nets and gear for fishermen.
He praised some fishing communities where the fishermen had started using the profits to register their members on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Nii Namoale said his ministry had banned pair trawling, noting that since he assumed office as Deputy Minister, no permit had been issued to any company to fish in the country’s territorial waters using pair trawlers.
He assured the fishing communities that any company caught practising pair trawling would be prosecuted.
He said the defunct Ministry of Fisheries left behind a debt of £4 million which had become a great burden for the Fisheries Department to shoulder, in addition to discharging its present commitment to the fishing industry.

SECOND BATCH OF LIBERIAN IMMIGRATION OFFICERS UNDERGO CAPACITY-BUILDING (PAGE 19, MAY 15, 2010)

THE Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) is expected to train 150 Liberian officers and 20 trainers under a two-year project to strengthen the institutional capacity and competence of the Liberian Bureau of Immigration and Naturalisation (BIN).
In that direction, the second batch of 50 immigration officers from Liberia arrived in the country yesterday for a three-month training programme.
The training is aimed at revitalising and overhauling the Liberian immigration sector.
It brings to 100 the number of Liberian immigration officers currently undergoing capacity-building training in border and immigration management in the country.
At the airport to welcome the Liberians were the Deputy Director of the GIS in charge of Operations, Mr Moses K. Gyamfi, and some immigration officials.
Mr Gyamfi appealed to the officers, comprising 40 males and 10 females, to conduct themselves in the same manner the first batch did.
He said the GIS would not compromise on discipline and urged them to channel their grievances through the appropriate quarters, not take the law into their own hands, while undergoing training at the GIS Academy and Training School at Assin Fosu in the Central Region.
He said the training formed part of a tripartite two-year project agreement signed last year among Liberia, Ghana and The Netherlands, under the auspices of the United Nations (UN), aimed at professionally overhauling and revitalising the Liberian immigration.
He said the physical endurance and academic training could enable the officers of the BIN to become efficient and responsive to contemporary immigration trends through training and capacity building.
Mr Gyamfi commended the UN for providing logistics to airlift the first and second batches of Liberian immigration officers from Liberia to Ghana for the course to improve their skills in border management and safeguard the security of Liberia.
Mr Varney Carmon, the First Secretary at the Liberian Embassy in Ghana, who was at the airport to welcome his compatriots, urged them to comport themselves to project the good image of Liberia.
Mr Emmanuel Minnaar, the Immigration Attaché at The Netherlands Embassy, said the course for the second batch would be an improvement over that of the first batch because of the lessons learnt.
He said the course was the result of fruitful co-operation that existed among The Netherlands, Ghana and Liberia and urged the participants to help advance that international co-operation.

DEV DUE TO DEMOCRCY — TUC (SPREAD, MAY 13, 2010)

THE Trades Union Congress (TUC) says Ghana’s experience in poverty alleviation has confirmed the direct correlation between constitutional multi-party democracy and improved living conditions.
Speaking at a public lecture in Accra, the Deputy Secretary-General of the TUC, Dr Yaw Baah, stated that since the restoration of constitutional democracy and the multi-party system of governance in the country in 1992, the living standards of Ghanaians had improved progressively.
He explained that at the moment, less than six million Ghanaians lived below the poverty line of GH¢208 per annum and attributed the gains being made in poverty reduction to the democratic process.
Dr Baah was speaking at the 10th annual Constitution Week of the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) on the theme, “Poverty — A Threat to Constitutionalism and Multiparty Democracy in Ghana”.
He said the multi-party system of government engendered competition among political parties and compelled politicians to excel, which led to an increase in wealth creation.
He said it also created opportunities for education and employment and called for greater focus on education and employment for the total eradication of poverty in the country.
Another speaker, Mr Kofi Bentum Quantson, who is a security expert, called on governments to focus on the survival, safety and well-being of the population to reduce poverty and ensure that people participated in decision-making.
He said poverty was a threat to national security because “if the people are allowed to wallow in poverty, they will become apathetic to government programmes and projects which are meant to serve them”.
Mr Quantson said the resultant effect was political destabilisation because poor people usually lacked the security consciousness for their own survival.
Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso of the University of Ghana said social, political and economic exclusion ought to be eliminated from the country’s body politic.
He explained that poverty ought to be tackled holistically, since any attempt to isolate the economic aspect without tackling the social and political exclusion of the poor could not achieve effective results.
He observed that an attempt to deal with the economic aspect separately would change the value system in the multi-party system from a system where ideas and strategies competed for the obsession with monetary and material gains.
Dr Antwi-Danso, therefore, called on the media to redirect their energies from the New Patriotic Party/ National Democratic Congress dichotomy to discussions on real development issues.
The Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, Mr P.V. Obeng, who chaired the function, expressed concern over the magnetisation of politics in the country where the activities of foot soldiers, which used to be voluntary, were fast becoming a gold mine for party faithful and nobody seemed to care, since it reared its head in the previous administration and had reared its head again in the present administration.

GOVT TO INVEST IN LIVESTOCK, POULTRY SECTORS (PAGE 46, MAY 6, 2010)

The government is determined to directly invest in the livestock and poultry sectors to increase the per capita consumption of meat per person in the country from 11 to 22 kilogrammes by 2050.
This is because meat consumption in Ghana, according to statistics, remains one of the lowest in the sub-Saharan region, as well as on the continent.
A Deputy Minister of Agriculture in charge of Livestock, Dr Alfred Tia Sugri, who announced this at a meeting of experts on livestock in Africa in Accra on Tuesday, said the country’s investment in the agricultural sector had been in favour of crop farming, adding that the government now sought to change the policy to invest more in the livestock and poultry sectors.
He said as a first step, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) had launched the Cockerel Project to enhance food security and increase the intake of animal protein by distributing high quality cockerels to upgrade local breeds of poultry in the villages.
He said another project, the Credit in Kind Scheme under the Livestock Project, had earmarked 21,000 sheep and goats for distribution to Ghanaian farmers to help improve the number of ruminants in 35 districts of the country.
The deputy minister said pig production, with youth groups as commercial producers using the value chain approach, was underway in some parts of the country.
He further said MoFA was establishing legume fodder gardens for feeding ruminants. It was also adopting environmentally sound and sustainable measures, including the promotion of effective livestock housing, to ensure the use of animal dung for manure and biogas production.
Dr Sugri said those measures were not being carried out in a vacuum and that mobile and tele-veterinary medical clinics in the communities were being strengthened to provide animal health care for the numerous livestock schemes in the country.
The FAO Assistant Director-General/Regional Representative for Africa, Ms Maria Helena Semedo, who organised the conference of experts, said the livestock revolution which had hit the world was yet to come to sub-Saharan Africa due to numerous constraints.
Instead, she said, the importation of livestock products by countries in the sub-region was increasing, saying that was an important issue for African producers who were already facing constraints in production, processing and accessing markets.

INFO BILL WILL EXPAND FRONTIERS — JOHN TIA AKOLOGO (SPREAD, MAY 4, 2010)

Ghana observed this year’s World Press Freedom Day with a promise by the government to ensure the promulgation of the Right to Information Bill to expand the frontiers of freedom.
The Minister of Information, Mr John Tia Akologo, who gave the assurance, said the Right to Information Law would be a critical tool to enhance media professionalism and ethical journalism in the country.
He said the passage of the bill would inspire media practitioners to practise qualitative journalism and spur them on to even greater heights to promote truth, good governance, freedom, justice, peace and democracy.
Speaking at a flag-raising ceremony to mark the day in Accra, Mr Akologo said the bill, when passed, would strengthen the role of the media in promoting transparency and accountability in the country.
The theme of the day was: “Freedom of Information; the Right to Know”.
The United Nations, in 1993, declared May 3 as World Press Freedom Day to raise awareness of the importance of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The minister said information in every aspect was important for national development and the right to know was even more fundamental.
He said it was important for Ghanaians to have the right information on government policies and opportunities at their disposal for them to make informed choices in their investment and career building.
On the broadcasting law, he said a technical committee would soon be formed to study the bill and make the necessary recommendations for the approval of the Cabinet.
The President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr Ransford Tetteh, said the GJA believed that credible freedom of information and broadcasting laws would enhance the ability of the media to promote healthy debate and contribute to the achievement of mutual understanding.
He said the two laws would be of immense benefit to improve information flow and promote transparency.
He said Ghana’s experience in the broadcast industry during the last elections convinced many people that there could be no more time to waste in passing those two laws, since any delay "will be at our own peril".
The Chairman of the National Media Commission, Mr Kabral Blay-Amihere, said the day should be used to reflect on the past, present and future trends of the journalism profession in the country.
He explained that several members of the media fraternity had suffered various degrees of attacks and said that those heroes needed to be commemorated during Press Freedom Day celebrations.
In his contribution, Mr Kofi Kapito, an official of the Consumer Protection Agency, was of the opinion that the media adopted a lukewarm attitude towards complaints by consumers, because the press and the media depended on companies and multinationals for advertisements.

LET'S DEBATE RIGHT TO INFORMATION BILL — AKOTO-AMPAW (PAGE 13, MAY 4, 2010)

A legal practitioner, Mr Akoto Ampaw, has called on Ghanaians to take interest in the Right to Information Bill and contribute to debates on it before it is passed into law by Parliament.
He was of the view that the existing bill, reviewed by a cabinet technical sub-committee, when passed into law could lead instead to non-disclosure.
Mr Ampaw, said that a few negative provisions had been added to the bill which was before Parliament, and that Ghanaians as a people had to send memorandum to Parliament to ensure that the negative provisions were changed and not passed into law to protect the sovereignty bestowed on them by the Constitution.
He, however, commended the government for tabling the Right to Information Bill before Parliament as part of its campaign promise to pass it into law.
Mr Akoto Ampaw who was speaking at the World Press Freedom Day in Accra on Friday, said some of the negative provisions were the blanket exemption of the office of the President, Vice President and Cabinet from the Right to Information Bill.
Mr Ampaw said if there should be malfeasance , it could have a devastating effect on the country if the three offices were exempted from scrutiny.
He said another critical area was the national security which had been associated with heinous crimes such as arresting people, and to exempt them would be a step backward.
He said the litmus test of every right to information law was whether the information when released could harm public interest, and that these ought to be explained.
Mr Ampaw said blanket exceptions, were therefore, a challenge to the bill which sought to empower ordinary people to check corruption and arbitrariness in the exercise of power.
He wondered how many Ghanaians would use the right to information law to demand information when they had to pay, and called on Parliament to come out with a simplified fee-regime than the current complex fees regime in the bill.
He explained, for instance that the longer it took a government agency to compile an information the more the one demanding the information would pay even if it was the inefficiency on the part of the government agency that contributed to the delay.
He said what was more dangerous was that the right to appeal was not to an independent body but to Minister of Justice who was a politician, and that it would amount to non-disclosure.
Mr Ampaw said five countries in Africa, among them Angola, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, had the right to information laws but they were rather inimical and amounted to non-disclosure instead of promoting disclosure.
He said the right to information law would promote participation and enhance openness, transparency and accountability on the part of public office holders.
Mr Ampaw therefore called on stakeholders to table broadcasting laws before Parliament for the debate to begin.
Mr Ransford Tetteh, President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), in a welcome address, said after the dust had settled in the struggle for the liberalisation of the national airwaves, the time had come for a regulatory framework to guide broadcasting in the country.
Ms Adjoba Kyiamah, Corporate/Legal Affairs Manager of Accra Brewery, said her organisation sponsored the event because the company believed that openness, transparency, accountability and probity promoted business.

10 MILLION BULBS FOR FREE (BACK PAGE, APRIL 28, 2010)

TEN million compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs have been released by the Ministry of Energy for free distribution nation-wide to replace the high energy consuming onion bulbs or incandescent lights.
The adoption of the new bulbs is expected to enable the country to save about 200 megawatts of energy under the second phase of the Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation project.
The first phase of the programme, which was undertaken in 2006 and witnessed the distribution of six million CFL bulbs, saved the country 200 megawatts of electricity and helped to cushion the country against the 2007 power crisis.
Ms Enam Akoetey, the Director of reNew, a non-governmental organisation charged with registering communities countrywide for the free distribution of the bulbs, said they had an expected life span of over 10 years.
She explained that the CFL bulbs provided an energy efficient alternative to the incandescent lamp, using one fifth of the electricity incandescent lamps used to provide the same level of illumination.
She said the distribution of energy efficient bulbs would reduce peak load electricity consumption from residential units and help reduce demand on crude oil used in generating power from thermal sources.
She said stakeholders, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), would be consulted on this life- transforming project and how to dispose of the energy efficient bulbs after their life span had expired because they were manufactured with mercury.
She said the Phillips Company, which manufactured the bulbs, had agreed to collect the disused bulbs back to the US after the project expired to prevent mercury from sipping into underground water.
She said waste disposal points would be created purposely for the CFL bulbs to coincide with the expiry date of the bulbs to ensure prompt collection and shipment to the US for final disposal.
Ms Akoetey warned consumers about the presence of fake CFL bulbs on the local market which could not last the 10-year life span of the original CFL bulbs.

MINISTRY TO ENSURE COMMUNITY-BASED MENTAL HEALTH CARE (SPREAD, APRIL 22, 2010)

THE Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare is shifting emphasis from centralised mental health care to community-based mental health care to expand services to more than 16,875 registered mental patients in the country.
Currently, the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, which has the capacity for 600 patients, is accommodating 1,200 mental patients in what can be described as a “concentration camp”.
The Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, announced the policy decision at an international conference on Mental Health in Accra last Monday.
He said the centralised mental health delivery system had failed to mainstream cured mental patients into society.
Rather, he said, the current policy had increased stigmatisation.
Mr Mensah said when the Mental Health Law was reviewed, it would expand services to the socially excluded and ensure the reinstatement of mental patients who lost their jobs following their illness after they had fully been cured.
He hinted that the government was restructuring the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme to offer assistance to the very poor in society, including mental patients.
Dr Akwasi Osei, the Chief Psychiatrist of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, said mental health had experienced three revolutions in recent times. These included the acceptance that mental sickness was not a spiritual disease and the discovery of drugs to deal with the health condition.
He said the third revolution was the shifting of emphasis from centralised psychiatric hospitals to community-based care and treatment.
Dr Osei said the Ministry of Health had accepted to foot the bills of sending over 600 mental patients who had recovered to their various homes to decongest the Accra Psychiatrist Hospital.

'POISON' ON SALE...As traders defy FDB ban (LEAD STORY, APRIL 19, 2010)

Despite the ban on the importation and sale of turkey tails because of their health hazards, there is still brisk business of the meat product in the open market.
Personnel of some security services allegedly provide security cover for the product to be conveyed in containers by agents to the market and sale points, particularly Nsawam near Accra where the business is booming.
Since February this year about 4,095 cartons of turkey tail have been seized and destroyed but the importation of the meat product goes on unabated.
The Food and Drugs Board (FDB) believes that some influential people are behind the illegal trade and are thwarting its efforts to check the trade.
A visit by the Daily Graphic to Nsawam revealed that the trade in the turkey tail was still visible and the patronage was still high despite the hike in prices of the product.
A turkey tail hawker at the Nsawam Lorry Park, Mrs Martha Adwoa Akyewaa, told the Daily Graphic that they used to pay GH¢20 for a carton of turkey tails, but with the ban the same carton was now sold for GH¢42.
She said despite the hike in prices, people still patronised the banned products, especially on weekends when people travel for picnics, weddings and naming ceremonies.
Miss Akosua Manuah, a trader who had been in the turkey tail trade for 10 years, said they used to travel to Accra to take their allocations but because of the ban and police harassment, they had stopped. Rather, she said, they relied on agents who brought the meat in containers to Nsawam.
She alleged that the police usually accompanied the containers to Nsawam where they collected between GH¢500 and GH¢600 from the agents in the illegal turkey tail business.
Miss Comfort Mawusi said even though many people including her had heard about the educational programmes on radio that turkey tails were full of fat and not good for consumption, because they was relatively cheaper than beef, goat and chicken people tended to patronise them.
The Food and Drugs Board has adopted a multi-prong approach to deal with the menace and nip the trade in the bud.
In an interview in Accra on illegal trade in turkey tail, Dr M. Mohammed-Alfa, the Head of Animal Products and Biosafety Department of the FDB, said the new strategy had been necessitated by the proliferation of the banned products on the market in recent times despite efforts to completely stop the importation of turkey tails into the country.
He said the multi-prong approach involved frequent search of major storage facilities to mop up the products still being kept in storage facilities to prevent them from being distributed to the various markets.
He said the public had been co-operating in that respect by providing tip-offs about the loading sites.
He said a network of importers of animal products was being established to ensure that the FDB worked closely with the importers to stop the trade.
Dr Mohammed-Alfa said the network of importers could also act as informants by reporting members and kingpins of the illegal turkey tail business to the FDB.
He said just last Thursday, a consignment of 300 cartons was seized on the premises of Alferdos Cold Stores at Kaneshie and that the war on turkey tails was being fought on all fronts.
He said as part of the multi-prong approach the FDB would visit Nsawam to hold series of meetings with the Akuapem South Assembly to educate members of the Assembly on the need to educate the people on the health hazards for them to move from the trade to other alternative means of making a livelihood.
Dr Mohammed-Alfa said similar meetings and educational tours had been planned for other parts of the country such at Dome and Aflao.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry in 1999 issued a communiqué to all importers to the effect that poultry and poultry products with total fat content exceeding 15 per cent were banned and not to be imported into the country.
Consequently, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture also stopped issuing permits for the importation of turkey tails into Ghana.
The Food and Drugs Board (FDB), therefore, asked the public to give information on any person known to be involved in the illegal importation of turkey tails.
The FDB noted that fat from turkey tails, being of animal source, was likely to have a good proportion of saturated fats which were associated with high cholesterol level and as such were implicated in the occurrence of many diseases, including heart diseases.
On February 8, 2010 the FDB, in conjunction with National Security and CEPS, detained a container of frozen chicken at Kaneshie because it contained 1,970 cartons of turkey tails as part of its contents.
Again, on February 9, 2010, the three institutions impounded a container in which 2,095 cartons of turkey tails had been concealed among 692 cartons of chicken backs.

GHANA EXCELS MDG TARGET FOR CELLPHONES (SPREAD, APRIL 7, 2010)

Ghana has exceeded the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of mobile phone penetration level, five years ahead of the 2015 deadline set by the United Nations.
So far, 15,318,225 cellular phone subscribers have been registered in the country, making it one of the highest growing communication sectors in Africa.
The penetration level accomplished this year is nearly 67 per cent and represents a further improvement on 2008 statistics which recorded a mobile phone penetration level of 11,570,430 subscribers
Taking his turn at the meet-the-press series in Accra yesterday, the Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, said in respect of the MDG which established a minimum penetration level of 25 per cent by 2015, the country had over-achieved its target.
He said the resolve of the government, however, was to strive to secure the availability of telecommunication services that would enable rural areas to actively participate in the digital economy.
On Internet connectivity, the minister said by the end of 2008 the uptake of broadband in Ghana stood at one per cent, which he described as extremely low and inadequate.
He said to improve the ICT outlook required concerted efforts at promoting competitive broadband development and increase bandwidth for accessing ICT and skills acquisition.
He said the National Communications Authority (NCA) had granted licences to land submarine cables to supply additional bandwidth in competition with the existing SAT-3 cable owned by Vodafone.
Mr Iddrisu said the ministry had commenced the implementation of the e-government infrastructure project that would provide a national network for connectivity among ministries, departments, metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies.
He said the ministry was also working with the Ministry of Education to implement the e-education project to make laptops available to schoolchildren at the lower levels of education.
The minister said given the recent spate of fire outbreaks and loss of vital information, the Ministry of Communications had proceeded with the construction of primary and secondary national data centres to store national information in case of fire outbreaks.
He said the ministry was aggressively proceeding with the development of technology parks in the country, in conjunction with the private sector, to support ICT research and development, as well as stimulate the production of ICT products and generate employment
Mr Iddrisu said the ministries of Communications and Trade and Industries were collaborating to develop a technology park in Tema, under the medium, small and micro enterprises project.
On guidelines for the deployment of masts, he said the NCA had finalised the guidelines for commissioning cell sites, in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.
The Minister of Information, Mr John Akologo Tia, who chaired the event, said he was particularly happy and pleased with the work of the Ministry of Communications, since it could impact directly on the dissemination of information by his ministry to the general public, especially to those in rural areas of the country.

HOUSE-TO-HOUSE LAND TITLE REGISTRATION IN ACCRA, ASHANTI (PAGE 39, MARCH 25, 2010)

THE Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources is undertaking a house-to-house land title registration in selected parts of the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions to update the land title register.
The aim of the exercise is to enable landowners to register their lands in a simple, fast and cheap manner.
The exercise, which is on pilot basis, is to reverse the policy of the Land Commission, which was demand driven, to a systematic customer-driven initiative.
The acting Director of the Lands Commission, Dr Wordsworth Odame Larbi, said the present records showed that when the commission was operating the demand-driven policy only 50 per cent of landowners came forward to register their land.
He explained that such a situation did not augur well for development and advancement of the country, since the authorities could not rely on the uncompleted register to plan development of some areas.
Dr Odame Larbi said with the present house-to-house approach, it was believed that the exercise would improve the database for development.
He said areas under the pilot project, which would last for six months, would only pay GH¢50 on receipt of the land title certificate instead of the GH¢250 for property owners outside the pilot area.
Dr Odame Larbi explained that after six months, the exercise would be rolled out to other parts of the country.
Presently there are more than 2,000 land litigation in the southern part of the country with their attendant loss of man-hours in productivity.
Dr Odame Larbi, therefore, urged the residents in Cantonments, Osu, Kaneshie and Dansoman residential areas in Accra and South Suntreso residential area in Kumasi to co-operate to make the exercise successful.
He said all information collated during the six-month exercise would remain confidential and residents should not allow themselves to be misinformed about the exercise.
Dr Odame Larbi urged landowners to take advantage of the exercise, which had been brought to their doorsteps, since landowners who failed to take advantage of the opportunity would have to go through the registration process by themselves and pay the full fees.

INSTIL DECORUM ON AIRWAVES (PAGE 31, MARCH 31, 2010)

Participants in a media development forum in Accra have called for a regulatory framework in broadcasting to instil decorum and a code of ethics on the airwaves to prevent people from using abusive and profane language on air.
Contributing to the debate on whether phone-in programmes were a blessing or a curse, all the participants agreed that phone-ins were an important aspect of freedom of expression and participatory democracy in the country.
They, however, expressed concern that serious challenges existed that ought to be addressed to save the country from sliding into the Rwandan experience that followed the use of radio to inflame passions and cause carnage.
The acting Director of the School of Communication Studies of the University of Ghana, Legon, Dr Audrey Gadzekpo, said there was a vacuum in the broadcasting legislative framework, which must be bridged to set standards and ensure a certain behaviour on the airwaves.
She explained that people, especially serial callers, had taken advantage of the absence of those guidelines to use obscene and abusive language on the airwaves, which are supposed to be a public resource for the general good of the state.
Mr Ayamba Zananiba, a media practitioner, who spoke in support of the statement that phone-ins were a blessing, said in the field of governance, phone-ins had expanded people’s horizon and increased awareness of socio-political issues, as well as rights and responsibilities.
He said, concerning health, many people had been educated on basic hygiene and deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS, influenza and the swine flu through radio phone-ins.
He, however, was of the opinion that the country could reap the full benefits of phone-ins if they were properly managed, especially in governance where people were beginning to participate in the political discourse on how to move the country forward.
Mr Ben Ephson, the Editor of the Daily Dispatch, who spoke against the statement, said if the phone-ins were allowed to continue in their present format, they could create mayhem and spell doom for the country.
He, however, explained that research conducted by his outfit showed that most Ghanaians had come to accept phone-ins as tele-guided and were not paying serious attention to them.
Mr Ephson said more than 9,000 people were sceptical about the genuineness of phone-ins in the research, which polled 10,000 people in various parts of the country.
Mr William Ampem Darko, the Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), said phone-ins had contributed in making broadcasting interesting because of its interactive powers.
He, however, expressed the opinion that there ought to be a legal framework to make it mandatory for broadcasting stations to have delay transmission facilities to help presenters in gate-keeping.
Ms Ajoa Yeboah-Afari, the Co-ordinator of the Ghana Media Standards Improvement Project, which organised the forum in conjunction with the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), said the main objective of the project was to strengthen the capacity of Ghanaian media personnel to be more effective in their work to sustain democracy, instead of derailing it, and also advance freedom of expression.

WATER SUPPLY TO INCREASE BY 2015 (BACK PAGE, MARCH 20, 2010)

THE Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing has drawn up a strategic investment plan for water projects to ensure that the country achieves the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of increasing access to water supply.
This means that by 2015 the coverage of water supply to predominantly poor areas of the population, which is currently 58 per cent in urban areas, would be increased to 80 per cent.
The implementation of the plan is expected to cost the Ghanaian taxpayer $850 million.
The Director of the Project Management Unit of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Mr Daniel Bampoh, who announced the plan at a multi-sectoral stakeholders dialogue in Accra, said under the plan, 26 water supply systems throughout the country had been selected for rehabilitation.
He said apart from the strategic plan, the ministry had adopted a short-term plan to construct a desalination plant at Teshie to purify sea water and supply it to Nungua, Sakumono, Tema, Teshie and surrounding areas.
Mr Bampoh said the plant, when operational, could supply about four million gallons of water daily for industrial activities in Tema, as well as for domestic consumption.
He expressed concern over the fact that quarry activities around the Barekese Water Treatment Plant in Kumasi and Weija in Accra could threaten water supply to the two major cities and called for urgent action to stop quarry operations which sometimes shook the Barekese Dam.
The Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Mr Alban Bagbin, who delivered the keynote address, said the ministry, in collaboration with the development partners and civil society organisations, was implementing a sector- wide approach (SWAP) to provide integrated water and sanitation services in the country.
He said he was leading a campaign to change mind sets to appreciate that water was not only a strategic resource that gave life but also served as a catalyst for development and, therefore, had to be at the centre of all development plans.
He said even though the country was well endowed with water resources, there was the need to guide against complacency, since a water crisis had started looming, a situation which called for prompt action.

GOVT SECURES GRANT FOR EMERGENCY SERVICES (BACK PAGE, MARCH 17, 2010)

The Government of Ghana has secured a grant of $7.5 million for an emergency preparedness plan for Accra and its surrounding areas to mitigate the effects of perennial floods in the city.
Part of the grant would be used to purchase equipment for clearing choked drainage systems and water tanks for the supply of fresh water to flood victims in emergency relief situations.
This was announced by Mr Kofi Portuphy, National Co-ordinator for the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), when he opened a workshop on emergency preparedness for 60 participants drawn from disaster management organisations in Accra yesterday.
The organisations included; the Ghana National Fire service, the Ghana Maritime Authority, the Ghana Navy, National Ambulance Service and the Ghana Police Service.
Mr Portuphy appealed to residents in Accra to put a stop to the practice of discharging refuse into the drainage system especially when it was raining.
He said the Ministry of the Interior was working closely with other ministries to review the building code to empower NADMO to take action against estate developers who build on water courses.
Mr Jan V. Meertens, the Executive Director of International Centre for Emergency Techniques (ICET), said his organisation had entered into partnership with NADMO to share information on the best disaster emergency practices.
He said that could enable NADMO to build its human resource capacity to undertake complicated disaster prevention operations relying on local resources.
Mr Meertens said the workshop was, therefore, part of a series of training programmes designed to raise the emergency preparedness of NADMO and other disaster management organisations.
Meanwhile, with the rainy season a few weeks away, Seth J. Bokpe reports that NADMO has begun clearing major drains in the cities of silt to ensure general sanitation to minimise the possible consequences of the rains on life and property.
Additionally, the organisation has set up a Rapid Response Team for rescue operations during flooding.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, Mr Portuphy, said already 75 per cent of storm drains in Accra had been cleared of silt.
He said NADMO was working with the Hydrological Services Department to clear all storm drains in urban areas in the country of silt.
He said NADMO had embarked on public education throughout the country.
He identified the surrounding areas of the Odaw River, Alajo, North Kaneshie, Fadama, Sakaman, Awoshie, Gbawe, Dzorwulu, Nima, Maamobi, Roman Ridge, parts of East Legon, and Airport West as some of the flood-prone areas in Accra.
He appealed to the general public and corporate establishments to lend support to NADMO’s pre-flooding campaign programme to ensure that it achieved its objective.
The perennial torrential rains that hit the Accra metropolis create heavy floods causing great havoc to life and property.
Last year’s rain just like others in the past killed several people in the Accra metropolis with Kaneshie and its environs being the worst hit.

DISEASE KILLS 61 HORSES (PAGE 32, MARCH 15, 2010)

An outbreak of African Horse Sickness in parts of Accra, which threatens to wipe out the country’s horse population, has been detected by the Veterinary Services Division of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoFA).
The disease, which was detected in January, this year, had so far killed 61 horses.
To check the spread of the disease to other parts of the country, MoFA has declared Accra Polo Club, Burma Camp and the Race Turf Club as the infected areas to enable the Veterinary Services to carry out quarantine measures.
Additionally, the ministry is taking census of horses and donkeys in the country alongside a mass vaccination exercise to enable the Veterinary Services Division to take stock of the toll of the disease on horses and take measures to avoid reoccurrence of the terrible disease.
Dr Andy Alhassan, Research Officer in charge of Disease Diagnosis of the Veterinary Services Division of MoFA, told the Daily Graphic that sometime back in January, the Accra Polo Club reported to the Veterinary Services of the appearance of a strange disease that was killing their horses.
Dr Alhassan said a series of post-mortem were carried out on the dead horses and the samples sent to the World Reference Laboratory in the United Kingdom for analysis which confirmed the suspicion by veterinary doctors that the horses died of African Horse Sickness.
He said the report from the World Reference Laboratory confirmed that it was African Horse Sickness and the strain was Type 11.
He said as a result, MoFA had placed orders to procure polyvalent vaccines from South Africa to vaccinate all horses and donkeys against all the nine strains.
He, therefore, urged the general public not to move animals from the affected areas but to take preventive measure, such as the spraying of their surroundings, against the blood sucking insects known as cullicodes, suspected to be the causative agents of the disease.
He said even though the disease, which was deadly in horses, was not so deadly in donkeys, the danger was that the donkey could be a carrier that could transmit the disease to the horses with a devastating effect.
Dr Alhassan appealed to people importing animals into the country to first come for import permit to enable the Veterinary Services to monitor such imported animals for two weeks before releasing them.

YOUTH TRAINED TO RECYCLE PLASTIC, METAL WASTE (PAGE 29, MARCH 15, 2010)

TWO hundred young entrepreneurs have undergone a training programme to enable them to recycle plastic waste into handbags as a means to generate income.
The venture, popularly refer to as Trashes for Treasure, is being provided for women, especially young girls, under the auspices of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) project.
The project, which is aimed at women empowerment, recycles trash such as plastic and metal waste to manufacture bags, door mats and metal waste to mould sculptures.
Sixty of the trainees were drawn from Abokobi and its surrounding areas in the Ga East Municipal Assembly to empower the young girls and discourage them from immigrating to the urban centres in search of non-existent jobs.
The remaining 120 women were drawn from the campus of the Institute of Professional Studies, who were required to use innovative ways of creating employment for themselves when they graduate from the institute instead of waiting for employment from the government.
Mr Francis Antwi, the Co-ordinator of the IPS branch of SIFE, in an interview, said the branch undertook the training in collaboration with Rural Women Support Network based in Abokobi and Village Network, also a local NGO.
He said Students in Free Enterprises was the initiative of an American who lived and worked in Ghana and experienced the harrowing experiences women had to undergo to secure training and macro credit to start their own income-generating ventures.
He said the SIFE, therefore, attached great importance to the granting of macro-credit facilities to rural and urban poor for the starting of their businesses.
He said currently, a Fulani herdswoman had been selected from Abokobi to be used as a model in the establishment of a diary plant for the manufacture of ice cream and yoghurt products.
Mr Antwi said the project to turn the fresh cow milk into yoghurt, when successful by patronage, could be replicated across the country to help eradicate poverty and break its cycle in the rural areas.
The co-ordinator expressed the hope that when the rural areas provided the enabling environment for the youth to earn a livelihood, it would discourage them from migrating to the urban centres in search of jobs.
Mr Antwi appealed to the youth, especially those dwelling in the rural areas, to learn a trade or acquire a profession instead of migrating to the urban centres to look for non-existent jobs, which often landed them in bad company with its attendant antisocial activities such as indulging in pornography and prostitution.

KRISTO ASAFO HOLDS TECHNOLOGY EXHIBITION (BACK PAGE, JHAN 5)

A FULL body scanner is being installed at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) to be operational by the close of this month.
After the installation, the equipment will give security officials the opportunity to fairly assess every passenger or persons using the airport.
The measure forms part of security arrangements instituted by the authorities to forestall any security breaches at the airport.
Security concerns have heightened worldwide following a foiled attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, to blow up a North West Airline Flight 253 from Amsterdam, Holland, to Detroit in the United States of America on Christmas day.
A Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, told the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday that though the use of the equipment would raise moral questions, the national security was in charge to come up with the best decision in the interest of individual travellers and national security.
Describing some of the reports on Mutallab as inaccurate, Mr Ablakwa noted that “now is not the time to indulge in blame games and as a country we have no wish to point accusing fingers”.
He disclosed, however, that the Nigerian arrived in Ghana on December 9, 2009, at 0320 GMT aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 911 from Dubai and indicated on his immigration form that he intended to stay in Ghana for three weeks.
According to the deputy minister, the traveller further gave a hotel address but did not stay at the address given on entry and rather chose a different hotel.
He said on December 24, 2009, Mutallab checked in at the KIA, Accra on Virgin Nigeria Flight 804 for Lagos, with that flight terminating in Lagos.
“He was, therefore, processed at the airport like any other ECOWAS national travelling within the ECOWAS sub-region. Again during security checks nothing incriminating was found on him,” the deputy minister said.
According to Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa, there was no indication that Mutallab was travelling beyond Lagos, but later checks “revealed that whilst here in Accra, he had purchased a ticket from KLM in Accra for Lagos-Amsterdam-Detroit-Amsterdam-Lagos which ticket he subsequently used to travel from the Lagos Airport.
Mr Ablakwa noted that Mutallab departed KIA at 1706 hours (GMT) on Virgin Nigeria Flight 804 for a one-hour flight to terminate in Lagos Nigeria.
“It is observed that after that flight had terminated, he checked in for a fresh flight altogether — North West Airline Flight 8588 from Lagos to Amsterdam and connected in Amsterdam on North West Airline Flight 253 to Detroit.”
Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa said the suspect took the flight from Lagos at 2255 hours on December 24, 2009 giving him (suspect) virtually five clear hours of time in Nigeria on arrival from Accra.
“His flight on North West Airline to Amsterdam and the connection to Detroit were both not and indeed could not have been in the anticipation of the relevant Ghanaian Airport security officials,” he stressed.
The deputy minister stressed that at no time before the event had the relevant Ghanaian security authorities been informed that Mutallab had come to security notice, adding that the suspect had, therefore, been treated like any other ECOWAS national travelling to another ECOWAS member state.
“The relevant Ghanaian authority pledges its commitment and resolve to ensure flight safety and shall continue to co-operate with our global partner agencies in the effort to make airline travel safe for all.
“Airport security has become a global responsibility and it is our belief that the lessons learnt from this event will serve to actualise the required mutual co-operation to enhance airport security capacity to common standards the world over,” he noted.

WOMEN MAKE MONEY OUT OF TRASH (PAGE 19, JAN 1)

One hundred and eighty women have undergone a training programme to enable them to recycle plastic waste into handbags for sale in supermarkets.
The project, known as Trashes for Treasure, is being provided for women, especially young girls, under the auspices of Students in Free Enterprises (SIFE).
The project, which is aimed at women empowerment, recycles trash such as plastic and metal waste to manufacture bags, door mats and the metal waste to mould sculptures.
Sixty of the trainees were drawn from Abokobi and its surrounding areas in the Ga East Municipal Assembly to empower the young girls and discourage them from emigrating to the urban centres in search of non-existent jobs.
The remaining 120 women were drawn from the campus of the Institute of Professional Studies who are required to use innovative ways of creating employment for themselves when they graduate from the institute instead of waiting for employment from the government.
Mr Francis Antwi, the Co-ordinator of the IPS branch of SIFE, in an interview said the branch undertook the training project in collaboration with Rural Women Support Network based in Abokobi and Village Network, also a local NGO.
He said the Students in Free Enterprises was the initiative of an American who lived and worked in Ghana and experienced the harrowing experiences women had to undergo to secure training and macro-credit to start their own income-generating ventures.
He said the SIFE, therefore, attached great importance to the granting of macro-credit facilities to rural and urban poor to start their businesses.
He said currently a Fulani herdswoman had been selected from Abokobi to be used as model in the establishment of a diary plant for the manufacture of ice cream and yoghurt products.
Mr Antwi said the project to turn the fresh cow milk into yoghurt, if patronised, could be replicated across the country to help eradicate poverty and break its cycle in the rural areas.
The co-ordinator expressed the hope that when the rural areas provided the enabling environment for the youth to earn a livelihood, it would discourage them from migrating to the urban centres in search of jobs.
Mr Antwi appealed to the youth, especially those in the rural areas, to learn a trade or acquire a profession instead of migrating to the urban centres to look for non-existent jobs, which often landed them in bad company with its attendant antisocial activities such as indulging in pornography and prostitution.