Day: December 23, 2023

The Senior Staff Association of the National Sports Authority (NSA) has held the 2023 end-of-year dinner and awards night, with 30 retired senior staff receiving awards for their contribution towards the development of sports in Ghana.

In attendance were the retirees, dignitaries, other guests and Professor Peter Twumasi Director General of the National Sports Authority (NSA).

Speaking at the ceremony, Madam Christiana Naa Merley Ashley said the programme was part of her campaign message.

‘During my campiagn, I promised to bring the retirees together for us to learn from their experiences and this event is a testimony to that.’

She said, ‘this award is so dear to my heart, and I wish I can orgnanise it twice a year. Our retirees outside think we have forgotten about them, but today they were sharing tears of joy at my office’.

‘I’m happy we met them, enjoy and learn from them. They have rich experience and I want to get more and learn more from them, to make my work very rich.’

Mr. Avio Song a r
etired staff who has worked for 25 years thanked the organisers of the programme.

He said, ‘I feel very happy that this thing has come on at least for today I have an answer for what my boy used to ask me years back, that daddy! what shows you have work with NSA before?’

‘But for today I have something to tell him that my efforts have been recognized.’

‘And this is a refreshing for most of us and we thank the organisers, the President of the senior staff association, the Director general, we pray that many more of such things should come on.’

The programmed was sponsored by National Sports Authority, Stanbic bank, Jolly Homes, Golden Coast Hotel, Cave and Gardens Gh Ltd, Egalite, Soccer box, Stephen Asante Bekoe, Jolly Homes, Ocean Spray, Condor Peak, Estracie event and ushering agency.
Source: Ghana News Agency

The Yison Tech Hub, an Information Technology (IT) hub in Wa, has launched the ‘Smart Woman Project’ seeking to empower about 200 rural businesswomen in digital skills including Facebook, internet of things and MoMo fraud detection.

They would also be trained in business management skills to enable them to expand their businesses.

Mr Serikpera Naa Issahaque, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Yison Tech Hub, speaking at the launch of the Project in Nadowli, said the training would equip the women with the skills to access the digital market for their products.

He indicated that the project, to be implemented from October 2023 to September 2025 in the Nadowli-Kaleo District, was the first of its kind in the country and supported by the Internet Society Foundation in the United States of America (USA).

He said the beneficiary women were selected from ten communities in the district including the Sankana, Takpo, Charikpong, Serekpere and Nadowli in consultation with the various stakeholders at the di
strict and community levels such as traditional leaders and appropriate institutional heads at the District Assembly.

Mr Issahaque explained that though women outnumbered men in the country, men dominated the business sector, and expressed hope that when the women were empowered with the digital skills, they would also participate actively in the business environment.

‘One of the challenges is that people have products but there is no market. Sometimes these middlemen take advantage of them, so we are trying to prevent these challenges that women face in doing businesses,’ he indicated.

He stated that women played a critical role in the local and national economy but access to the needed business support and skills development had been a challenge.

He expressed the hope that building the confidence and ability of women in the use of the Internet would help improve their business activities.

Mr Issahaque said the project intended to build an e-commerce platform so the women could continue to link the
women’s businesses to markets as well as work with other stakeholders at the district and community levels to help sustain the project gains after it elapsed.

He said that would also help stop women from travelling to the southern sector to engage in miniature jobs and sometimes end up in social vices such as commercial sex work.

Dr George Dery, the Board Chairman of Yison Tech Hub, expressed the hope that the project would generate the needed impact among the women in the district.

Mr Alhassan Tonsuglo, an Assistant Director at the Upper West Regional Coordinating Council, who represented the Upper West Regional Minister at the launch, observed that limited access to technology had held back rural women for a long time though they were a critical component of the local economy.

He indicated that through the project the women would not only be equipped with the digital skills, but they would be empowered and transformed to take advantage of the digital marketing platforms.
Source: Ghana News Agency

The Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) has presented the 2023 Overall Best Farming Institution award within the Metropolis to the Sekondi College (SECKO).

The award, which formed part of the 39th edition of the Farmers’ Day celebration, was in recognition of the College’s outstanding contributions to the development of agricultural production in the Metropolis.

The STMA’s Overall Best Farmer award was initially presented to Mr Stephen Osagyefo Rowell, the Head of Agricultural Department of SECKO, but was later stripped of the award.

This was after investigations by the STMA proved that Mr Rowell presented farms belonging to the College as exhibits to the Metropolitan Agricultural Extension Agents to be considered for the award, and subsequently stripped of same.

Madam Grace Alswell-Aidoo, Deputy Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the STMA, speaking at a brief ceremony to present the award to the College, said the initial awardee presented exhibits which did not belong to him personally, so
the awards committee found out and took the necessary actions.

‘The former award winner actually made the Assembly believe as though he owned the farms, but after investigations proved otherwise, we decided to do the right thing by taking the award from him and give it to the actual winner,’ she said.

She noted that it was appropriate that the award be given to the rightful winner to encourage them to do more.

Mr Daniel Asimenu, Director of Agriculture at the STMA, said the award was to motivate the College to continue making strides in the agricultural sector within the Metropolis.

He urged other institutions to emulate the good steps of SECKO by blending academic work with agricultural activities to help produce their own produce to feed themselves.

Ms Guddy A. Kermah, the Head of the College, commended the STMA for taking the necessary steps to give the award back to the deserving winner.

She said the College had been into farming since 2003, and that it was not the first time that SECKO had be
en recognised for its agricultural excellence.

She indicated that: ‘The Metropolitan Agricultural Extension Agents visited our farms to assess them for consideration for the award, but we were surprised that we did not receive anything because we knew our farms met all the criteria.’

Ms Kermah expressed joy that the College had been giving what it deserved and pledged her commitment to ensure the school continued to work hard to receive bigger awards in future.

This year’s Farmers Day celebration was on the theme: ‘Delivering Smart Solutions for Sustainable Food Security and Resilience’.

The College received knapsack sprayers, pairs of wellington boots, cutlasses, bags of organic fertilizer, a motor tricycle and a certificate of recognition among other prizes.
Source: Ghana News Agency

Fire has gutted UDS Mall, a shopping centre at the Tamale Campus of the University for Development Studies, destroying everything in the facility, which serves the student community and some members of the public.

The fire was said to have started around 1000hours on Friday and destroyed the shopping centre, which had facilities such as a printing press, a hairdressing salon, and a provision stall. Mr Christian Abi, Chief Executive Officer of UDS Mall, who was in tears while narrating the incident to the Ghana News Agency, said the items destroyed were worth over a million Ghana Cedis.

He said the situation was unbearable as he had lost all his investments and appealed to members of the public to come to his aid.

Meanwhile, personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service, who were called in, have begun investigations into cause of the fire at the facility.
Source: Ghana News Agency