Day: November 29, 2023

Mrs. Ellen Amankwa, the Afadzato South District Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has appealed to Ghanaians to rekindle the communal labour spirit.

She noted that spirit had died down in many communities across the country for reasons she was yet to know.

Mrs Amankwa made the call at Logba-Alakpeti during communal labour organised by the Commission in collaboration with the Community.

The NCCE District Director said communal labour was a civic duty as enshrined in Article 41 (g) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and that everyone ought to partake in such activity.

She also called on them to participate actively in the upcoming district-level elections as it was important just like that of Presidential and Parliamentary polls.

Mrs. Amankwa bemoaned the voter apathy among the populace towards that election; adding that if the trend did not stop it would defeat the essence of introducing the local government system in the country.

She also charged them to be tolerant and law-
abiding citizens as these were cardinal to peace and national cohesion.

Ms. Favour Esenam Fudzi, the District Operations Manager of Zoom Lion Company, Afadzato South urged the citizens to stop disposing of hot ashes with fire into the refuse containers.

She said such an act damaged the containers whenever it was due for disposal. Ms. Fudzi also advised the market women to always keep the market clean to avoid diseases because it is the same environment they eat.

Togbe Philip Gablah, on behalf of Togbe Adza Adiaku V of Logba Alakpeti, was very appreciative of the programme and asked NCCE to continue such activities because it was through their eye-opening education on Social Auditing and with the help of the Afadzato South District Assembly that Alakpeti taps are flowing.

Mr. Nestor Amegbletor, the Assemblyman for the Area, thanked NCCE and ZoomLion Company for their initiative and hoped the good look of the streets would remain clean based on the education from both organisations and pledged to ensure the
continuity of such activity.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Brian Acheampong, the Minister for Food and Agriculture, says the country must stop importing basic food items, including vegetables like tomatoes and onions, describing it as embarrassing.

He said this after visiting the exhibition stands of farmers and stakeholders in the agricultural value chain in the 2023 Agrifest as part of the 2023 National Farmers Week celebration.

The Minister said Government was not happy about the situation and that strategic plans had been put in place to change the narrative and called for support of all stakeholders.

Mr Acheampong said with government’s funding of the planting season in the Northern Region, a bag of maize had reduced at the farm gate from 315 to 160 Cedis.

He, therefore, called on traders to let the price reflect in what they sold directly to consumers.

With poultry products importation, Mr Acheampong said Ghana produced only 15,000 metric tonnes, but consumed 325,000, a situation which made it difficult for the local poultry business to develop.

Gover
nment, he said, was going to support the industry with 18 million Cedis next year to revive the sector.

He said government’s food security plan would also increase metric tonnes of poultry and food crops production from 15,000 to over 75,000 and to 150,000 by 2028.

Mr Ken Ofori Atta, the Finance Minister, said government was also allotting one billion Cedis to support the initiative, including planting for food and jobs.

He said about 10 billion would be invested in the sector to stop importation and as well create jobs.

‘2024 will see a deliberate approach for agriculture to make it attractive for people to venture into,’ he added.

Mr Ofori-Atta condemned the over -pricing by some traders, who charged high prices after buying foodstuff cheap at farm gates, saying ‘that has to change’.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Ghana International Trade and Finance Conference – (GITFiC), with support from the World Bank, Accra and the European Union, will Wednesday present two research papers, they have conducted.

The research papers are on ‘Unraveling the Global Central Banks’ Losses (Focus on Africa and Europe) and Global Debt to GDP Post COVID-19 (Focus on Sub Saharan Africa’

A statement signed by Mr Selasi Kofi Ackom, Chief Executive officer of GITFiC and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday in Accra said the European Union had committed to invite all EU missions in Accra, the US and United Kingdom embassies.

‘Other participants include; African Diplomatic Corps in Accra, five selected industry giants and five students, central bank, heads of commercial banks et al’.

The statement said the two papers would give some revealing findings and brief historic emphasis on the issues, its effects, impacts and recommendations.

‘The two papers are for the purposes of accurate information dissemination, education and sensit
ization on the above subject matters.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Professor Kofi Amegah, an Associated Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Cape Coast, is calling for a dedicated stream of funding for countries on the continent to conduct more studies and implement projects on air pollution.

The intervention, he explained, would contribute to addressing the funding challenge countries at the global south were facing.

For every $1,000 spent by a development funder, just $7 was spent on tackling outdoor air pollution, a latest report by Clean Air Fund indicates.

Reacting to some key aspects of the Report, Prof. Amegah said the lack of data undermined preventive measures and policy decisions.

‘With the development of the specialised funding, call for proposal can be issued for African researchers to compete,’ he recommended.

Professor Amegah said there was stiff competition from developed countries that had favourable research environment, tools and capacity as opposed to Africa that lacked those resources.

‘For some reasons the research and project proposals
of global west attract attention of multinational than that of global south,’ Professor Amegah, who also leads the Breath Accra project, told the Ghana News Agency.

Professor Amegah, recommended researchers in the global north to collaborate with their counterparts in global south to undertake joint research and implement projects to improve the research environment in Africa.

He said although Clean Air Fund, a U.K – based charity was working towards clean air globally to bridge the gap, ‘We need more substantial funding here because air pollution is big deal here.’

A new Clean Air Fund?report?released reveals that?Africa is home to many of the world’s fastest-growing urban centres – and a crisis of air pollution faces the continent’s rapidly expanding cities.

The continent, home to the world’s youngest population, was expected to see its population nearly double by mid-century, reaching 3.9 billion by 2100.?

However, the report highlights the lack of international and multilateral development funding to
fight air pollution in Africa, with only five per cent of total aid directed at reducing air pollution on the continent.

‘In Lagos, a city home to nearly 16 million people,?the official development funding directed toward air pollution from 2015 to 2020 amounted to a mere $0.25 million. Air pollution claimed 70,000 in the city in 2019 alone,’ it said.?

Between 2015 and 2021, donor governments provided a stunning 36 times more aid for prolonging fossil fuel use in Africa than tackling air pollution, despite the continent facing temperature warming faster than the global average.

The report calls on international and multilateral development banks to provide increased technical support to assist countries in accessing green funds.

About 28,000 Ghanaians die prematurely every year because of air pollution, according to the World Health Organization (2020).

Air pollution is the second highest health risk factor for death and disability, after malnutrition.

Young children and adults over 50 are most at risk
of disease and premature death.?

Poor air quality in Ghana is mainly caused by cooking using wood and charcoal, road transport, slash-and-burn methods of farming, open waste burning, energy generation, accidental fires and industry.

While deaths from household air pollution have decreased since 1997, deaths from outdoor air pollution have increased. ?

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Staff of Standard Chartered Bank has celebrated the International Men’s Day by engaging 100 adolescent boys.

The boys aged between 12 and 17 are students of the Kanda Cluster of Schools and Islamic Basic School.

The students were engaged by staff who volunteered their time in a speed mentoring and coaching session dubbed: Men Mentoring men in the Bank’s head office.

The focus was to expose these boys who live in underserved communities to the opportunities available to them through education and hard work, a release issued to the Ghana News said Tuesday.

The opening session was a talk on Adolescent Reproductive Health and Personal Hygiene.

‘This was an eye opener for the young men,’ the release said.

‘The boys expressed their gratitude for the session and shared their key take out being the session on cleanliness.’

International Men’s Day is celebrated worldwide and focuses on the positive values men bring to the world, their families and communities.

It also offers the opportunity to showcase an
d highlight men as positive role models and raise awareness of men’s well-being.

‘At Standard Chartered, our unique diversity drives our purpose and business success,’ it said.

‘Through Futuremakers by Standard Chartered, we’re championing economic inclusion for young people from low-income backgrounds.’

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) says the mandate of law courts is to apply and enforce the laws of the Republic and not to clothe persons with immunity from criminal investigations and prosecution.

It said the court could, therefore, not injunct the Office from investigating or prosecuting any person.

Mr Kissi Agyebeng, the Special Prosecutor, speaking at a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday, said the OSP needed the support of all stakeholders to fight corruption and corruption-related activities.

He said the decision to investigate and prosecute was the prerogative of investigation and prosecution authorities such as the OSP and that the OSP had at all material times carried out its power to investigate with candour and professionalism being minded of the rights of suspects under its investigation.

The Special Prosecutor said just as it was essential that anyone accused of a crime had free access to the courts so that he may be duly acquitted if found not guilty of the offence, it was also
of the utmost importance that the judiciary did not interfere with investigation and prosecution authorities in respect of matters, which were within their statutory powers.

‘It would be gravely inimical to public policy, the fight against corruption, and the administration of justice if the courts stepped into this arena to decide who should be investigated or prosecuted and who should not,’ he said and lamented that a judge had granted two persons immunity from investigation for suspected corruption and corruption-related offences and hence immunity from prosecution.

‘This decision opens up a calamitous deluge as every person under criminal investigation would be encouraged to take out suits to injunct investigation and prosecution bodies from investigating and prosecuting them.’

‘We are not suggesting that the OSP is infallible and that every case brought by the OSP or against the OSP should end in a favourable outcome – no matter how improbable the evidence,’ he added.

Source: Ghana News Agency