Day: June 1, 2024

The Management of the Ghana News Agency (GNA) has appealed to the Government to invest in the Agency to function as a modern multimedia news agency.

The Agency mentioned outmoded equipment and vehicles, late release of subventions, and logistical constraints as among key challenges hampering the operations of the nation’s wire service.

The Management of the Agency made the appeal when Ms Fatimatu Abubakar, the Minister of Information, paid a working visit to the GNA in Accra as part of her engagements with agencies and stakeholders under the Ministry.

The Minister, accompanied by some key officials at the Ministry, interacted with the Management and Board of the GNA in a bid to ascertain the operational challenges confronting the Agency to inform policy decisions towards making the state-owned media economically viable.

Ms Abubakar, a lawyer, was appointed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in February 2024, and had served as the Deputy Information Minister for the past three years.

The Information
Minister said she was aware that State-owned media required policy reforms and retooling to effectively deliver on their mandate and assured to champion that cause at Cabinet.

Ms Abubakar said the Government was committed to supporting the progress of the media and ensuring that State-owned media diversified their operational models to respond to emerging threats in the industry.

‘We are in a sector that requires policy reforms, advocacy, support, and retooling. Sometimes that role is left behind,’ she said, and added that the Ministry would visit every media outlet in Accra and conduct cluster of meetings in the regions.

She mentioned the Coordinated Mechanism on Safety of Journalists (CMSJ) and the Media Capacity Enhancement Programme (MCEP) as some key programmes being implemented by the Ministry to support the work of journalists.

Touching on legacy debts, the Minister said the Government had cleared about 80 per cent of the legacy debts of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, adding that GHS17 million
out of an amount of GHS27 million owed the Ghana Broadcasting Cooperation had been written off.

She encouraged media houses to take advantage of Ghana being the host of the Regional Office for International Fund for Public Interest Media and apply for support to retool and enhance their operations.

The Board of the GNA expressed gratitude to the Minister for the visit and appealed to her to make a case for the Agency to retain 100 per cent of its Internally Generated Fund to support its operations.

Mr Ransford Tetteh, the Board Chairman, said the Agency should be prioritised for investment and sustainability by the Government as the nation’s only newswire service.

‘We appeal to you to get Cabinet to accept the unique role of the nation’s wire service so that information can be well disseminated to the people of Ghana,’ he said.

The other members of the Board, who were present, were Mr. Peter Sangber-Dery, Ms. Juliet Amoah, Dr. Charles Kwening, Dr. Ibrahim Lartey, Ms. Ivy Hoetu, and Mr. David Addai.

Mr A
lbert Kofi Owusu, General Manager (GM) of Ghana News Agency (GNA), appealed to the Minister to help secure adequate funds for operationalisation of the Agency.

He said the GNA had depended on the Ministry for such budgetary allocations, however delays in the release of the funds had always been a challenge.

Mr Owusu said in spite of the challenges, the Agency had commenced diversification of its operations by venturing into the digital space.

He said the Agency was in the process of acquiring equipment to produce audio-visual content for television and radio stations and online portals.

Mr Owusu thanked the Ministry for supporting the GNA to receive a grant from African Development Bank (AfDB) for retooling.

He said the first slot of the project was the purchasing of vehicles, which were ready to be cleared at the port.

‘The Ghana News Agency is capable of doing the work. What we need is a little support,’ the General Manager emphasised.

GNA was established on March 5, 1957, on the eve of Ghana’s indep
endence by Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

The Agency was charged with the mandate to disseminate truthful unbiased news.

It was the first news agency to be established in Sub-Saharan Africa.

GNA was part of a comprehensive communication policy that sought to harness the information arm of the State to build a viable, united and cohesive nation-state.

The Agency has been operating in the unique role of mobilising the citizens for nation building, economic and social development, national unity and integration.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Apostle Dr. Kadmiel E. H. Agbelanyo, Founder and Leader of Seventh Day World Theocracy Congregation has called on church leaders to organize bible lessons on frequent basis for their congregations to enable them to learn to be truthful.

Apostle Agbelanyo made the call during a one-day sabbath bible lesson organised for his congregation on the theme ‘Behaviour before’ at Shallom-Otiakrom near Aburi in the Eastern Region.

In his sermon, he noted that because of sins and lies about 14,700 people died by earthquake when Moses was sending the Israelis from Egypt to Canan.

He also stated that Ananias and his wife Safaria also died by the Holy Ghost because of not saying the truth after the sale of a land for the construction of a church building. (Acts 5: -1-11).

He said all churches belonging to God the Holy Spirit only needed truthful persons to worship in them and not those who tell lies, saying Numbers 26:10 stated that over 250 persons died by fire when challenging the Holy Spirit.

Apostle Agbelanyo calle
d on the youth of the church to take the lessons seriously, to grow to become good future leaders who would speak the truth and not lies, because lies were against the Holy Ghost.

Source: Ghana News Agency

In recent years, the development of China’s new energy industry has entered the ‘fast lane’.

The export of China’s ‘new trio’, namely: electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and photovoltaic products has exceeded one trillion yuan in 2023.

As the world faces increasingly severe climate change, weak economic growth, and continued high inflation, China’s high-efficiency, high-quality, and cost-effective new energy products will bring new opportunities for global economic development.

China’s new energy industry will contribute to the global green transformation.

The development of China’s new energy industry has not only enabled the country to fulfill its own emission reduction commitments, but the export of its new energy products (all over the world) has played an important role in reducing global carbon emissions.

China’s wind power and photovoltaic products have been exported to more than 200 countries and regions around the world, and the export volume of new energy vehicles has reached 1.203 milli
on units in 2023.

China’s new energy products have greatly promoted the global popularization and efficiency of green energy, helping countries around the world to solve energy problems, achieve carbon reduction goals, and accelerate green transformation.

Its energy industry will support the stability of the global industrial chain. Currently, there is a serious shortage of high-quality production capacity in the world.

According to estimates by the International Energy Agency, global demand for new energy vehicles will reach 45 million units in 2030, 4.5 times that of 2022. Global demand for new installed photovoltaic capacity will reach 820 GW, approximately four times that of 2022.

The current production capacity for new energy products is far from meeting market demand, especially the huge potential demand in many developing countries.

As the world’s largest manufacturer of renewable energy equipment, China continues to provide the world with high-quality new energy products and has become an importa
nt force in stabilizing the supply chain and industry chain of the global clean energy.

China’s new energy industry will alleviate the pressure of global inflation.

China has started out early in the new energy-related industries.

Combined with her rich highly-skilled human resources and vast range of supporting industries such as raw material supply, parts manufacturing, complete machine assembly, and after-sales services, China is able to produce high quality new energy products with lower prices.

For example, a new energy vehicle manufacturer can find all supporting parts suppliers within a four-hour drive, significantly reducing the cost of that vehicles.

A report from the International Renewable Energy Agency shows that over the past decade, the average leveled cost of energy of global wind power and photovoltaic power generation projects has dropped by more than 60 per cent and 80 per cent, respectively.

A large part of this is attributed to Chinese innovation, manufacturing, and engineering.

How
ever, some countries have falsely accused China of ‘overcapacity’ in the new energy industry in an attempt to distort and discredit its economic relations with the world and maintain its monopoly in the global industrial and supply chains.

This fallacy that equates China’s large export of new energy products with ‘overcapacity’ is contrary to common sense and inconsistent with objective facts.

The behaviour that holds high the banner of green development while wielding the baton of protectionism is double standards.

To politicize economic and trade issue and arbitrarily link them to security will hinder global green transformation, shake confidence in climate change cooperation, and dampen the determination of enterprises to carry out foreign trade and investment cooperation.

China and Africa have complementary advantages and highly compatible demands in the green energy industry and have great potential and space for cooperation.

In recent years, China and Africa have continuously strengthened green ene
rgy cooperation, focusing on clean energy industry and the construction of power infrastructure, and have implemented hundreds of clean energy power generation and power grid projects, which has effectively promoted Africa’s green transformation and sustainable development.

China sincerely welcomes Ghana and all countries around the world to board the express train of her new energy industry development and work together towards a greener future for mankind.

Source: Ghana News Agency

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, has lost its absolute majority for the first time in three decades, the country’s electoral commission announced on Saturday following this week’s parliamentary polls.

With 97.51% of the votes counted, the ANC stood at 40.11% on Saturday morning, the IEC electoral commission said. The preliminary partial result shows a massive loss of power for the ruling party of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

For the first time in the country’s history, the party once led by anti-apartheid fighter Nelson Mandela will have to form a coalition.

Over the past 30 years, since the start of democracy in 1994, the ANC has always won an absolute majority, and governed the continent’s strongest economy alone.

The economically liberal Democratic Alliance (DA) came in at 21.71%, according to preliminary partial results, while the party founded only six months ago by former president Jacob Zuma, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), stood at 14.84%. The Marxist-influenced party Economic Fr
eedom Fighters (EFF) garnered 9.37% of the votes.

Political commentators largely attribute the ANC’s historic loss of power – nearly 17 percentage points since the 2019 parliamentary elections – to the new establishment of the MK, while also pointing to the party’s weak governing record.

The southern African country of 61 million people suffers from a struggling economy, mass unemployment, dilapidated state-owned enterprises, regular power outages, as well as high crime and corruption.

Members of 52 parties competed in the May 29 election for the parliament’s 400 seats. Once the results are announced, the newly elected parliament must form a government and elect a president within 14 days. Provincial governments were also newly elected.

Politically and economically, South Africa is regarded as the ‘gateway to Africa,’ a continent that is becoming increasingly important internationally due to its abundance of raw materials, needed for the global energy transition away from fossil fuels.

Although South Afr
ica maintains good relations with Western countries, the government is closely connected to Russia and China. The country has taken a strong pro-Palestinian stance in the Gaza war and has filed a genocide lawsuit against Israel before the International Court of Justice.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Nigerian military on Friday, vowed to respond fiercely to the recent killing of at least five soldiers by suspected members of an outlawed group in the country’s southeast region.

The five soldiers, murdered Wednesday, following an ambush by the outlawed Indigenous People Of Biafra at a military checkpoint in the Aba town of the southern state of Abia, were among troops deployed to enforce peace in the area and protect citizens, said Edward Buba, a military spokesman, in a statement on Friday.

In response to that ‘dastardly’ act, the military would be ‘fierce’ while bringing overwhelming pressure on the group ‘to ensure their total defeat,’ the statement said.

The suspected gunmen who carried out the attack, rode in three tinted sports utility vehicles, surrounded the military checkpoint, and sprang a surprise attack on the troops, killing at least five soldiers, the statement noted.

The military described the death of the soldiers as ‘a terrible loss,’ saying that it has commenced an investigation into t
he attack. ‘Accordingly, the military must retaliate against this dastardly act against troops,’ the statement added.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Infrastructure Transparency Initiative, formerly called Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST), has organised a training on infrastructure monitoring tools for selected personnel within the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly and the Effia Kwesimintim Municipality. 

The workshop highlighted Ghana’s legal framework supporting disclosure on projects, its compatibility with the CoST formal disclosure requirements at the subnational level, the CoST approach-core features, tools and standards.

The team, comprising planners, assembly members, media persons, persons with disability among other staff of the assemblies, were taken through the electronic infrastructure monitoring tools, step by step usage of the tools and social auditing skills.

Mr Isaac Aidoo, the CoST Manager, Sekondi-Takoradi, took the participants through the 67 proactive and reactive data points of CoST, which he encouraged them to use in disclosing project information to the citizens for effective citizen participation in in
frastructure delivery. 

Mr Aziz Mahmoud, CoST Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, said the integration of social accountability tools was to enhance impact and generate more success stories on the activities of CoST in the eight implementing entities under the project.

The team later undertook a field visit to test the tools. 

Source: Ghana News Agency