Day: November 22, 2023

Mr Gerard Ataogye, the Kassena-Nankana West District Chief Executive (DCE) in the Upper East Region, has called on the Chiefs and people in the area to own and support the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion Project (SOCO) in their respective communities.

The district would benefit from 11 projects in the first phase of the SOCO project implementation across various sectors of the economy.

Mr Ataogye said the Assembly sensitized community members on the SOCO Project after which they chose the projects to be constructed in the various communities themselves.

‘We want the communities to own the projects,’ the DCE emphasized.

The SOCO Project is a multi-country US$450 million credit facility from the World Bank to be implemented in Ghana, Cote d’ Ivoire, Togo and Benin.

The project, implemented in Ghana by the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development, was launched in Bolgatanga by the Vice President, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in November 2022.

The Government of Gha
na received US$150 million out of the total credit facility to implement the project in 48 Municipalities and Districts in the Upper East, Savannah, Oti, North East, Upper West and Northern Regions.

Mr Ataogye reminded community members at brief ceremonies in beneficiary communities to hand over sites to contractors at Kanania, Gwenia, Katiu and Kayoro that, they chose the projects themselves, and urged them to offer the Contractors the needed support to execute the projects.

The Assembly, under the Project, would rehabilitate a Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound at Kanania, construct a 1.8 metre culvert at Gwenia, 16-unit market stalls in the Katiu market and construct a community social centre at Kayoro.

Prior to the handing over of the four sites, the DCE in the company of Mr Abubakari Amadu, the District Coordinating Director and some technical officers from the Assembly, earlier handed over seven project sites to contractors at Sirigu, Kandiga-Atibabiisi, Nabango, Mirugu-Gonu
m, Kajelo, Paga and the Nakolo communities.

All the projects in the district are valued at GH?4.7 million and expected to be completed within six months.

Mr Ataogye said the Assembly received 14 new motorbikes from government as part of the project implementation for monitoring,and expressed gratitude to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the initiative.

At the Katiu market, where there were several trees, Alhaji Danladi Salifu, the Regional Zonal Engineer for the SOCO Project, said the construction work in the market should not affect the trees, and urged all contractors to deliver quality work within the stipulated six months.

Opinion leaders across all the beneficiary communities thanked the Assembly and management of the SOCO Project and said the projects would be a relief to them when completed.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Eastern Regional Coordinating Council (ERCC), has commenced an orientation programme for newly recruited staff of the Local Government Service in Koforidua.

About 394 new Local Government Service staff have been posted to the ERCC, Municipal and District Assemblies (MDAs) in the Eastern Region.

Mr John A. Donkor, Chief Director, ERCC, commended the Government for the additional staff posted to the Region and urged the staff to perform their roles as technocrats at their respective duty stations.

Mr. Cyril Dzinyanu Xatse, Head of Human Resource at the ERCC, noted that the orientation would equip participants with the Local Government Service protocols (laws and ethics) and the working procedures to promote professionalism, accountability, and service delivery within the service.

The inexperienced staff occupy offices at the MDA’s including the Departments of Agriculture, Central Administration, Works, Community Development and Social Welfare.

Dr. Alexander Otopah, Head of Finance at the ERCC, urged t
he new entrants to continuously develop themselves professionally to be able to deliver quality service.

He told them learning had no end and so they should always read relevant materials to acquaint themselves with emerging trends to be relevant in the system.

The participants will be issued with certificates of participation at the close of the orientation.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency, has received truckloads of relief items from the German Embassy and the Deutsche Gesellschaft fr Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

The items included mattresses, metal bed frames, wheel borrowers among others.

Mr Ablakwa expressed gratitude and commended the people of Germany for the support.

He said though the flood had receded, there was still the need to support the victims as most of them were yet to go back to their houses.

Mr Ablakwa also stated that the donation was a testament of common humanity, deep friendship and ancestral ties.

He mentioned that he was particularly impressed with the metallic bunk beds, which would continue to be extremely useful for boarders in the St. Kizito Senior High Technical School long after the VRA-induced flood victims have been resettled.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The National Children’s Parliament has called for an emergency care for children, who are victims of the Akosombo Dam spillage.

They said the spillage had hindered children’s ability to access education, forcing some to resort to unsafe modes of transportation to reach school.

The National Children’s Parliament made the call at its fifth session in Tamale presided over by Miss Eunice Issah Alfred, Speaker of the National Children’s Parliamemt, to commemorate World Children’s Day.

The commemoration, which is an annual event, was to solicit the support of everyone to promote the rights of children.

It was organised by the Department of Children under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) in partnership with UNICEF, Plan International Ghana, Children Believe and Norsaac.

The theme for this year’s World Children’s Day was: ‘For Every Child, Every Right’.

The National Children’s Parliament debated the theme at the session to highlight some peculiar challenges that hindered the righ
ts of children.

Some of these challenges included child trafficking, child marriage, child labour, child streetism, online insecurity, children involved in illegal mining, child identity and lack of access to education.

They proposed various recommendations to solve these challenges, which included government providing the basic needs of children to prevent them from engaging in activities that endangered their lives.

Alhaji Shani Alhassan Saibu, Northern Regional Minister, speaking during the event, said the National Children’s Parliament gave hope of the country’s bright future and commended the readiness in the children to defend their rights and serve the country.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Madam Shamima Muslim, Convenor of Alliance for Women in Media (AWMA), has urged media houses to create space and platforms to promote women aspirants in the 2023 District Level Elections.

She said the media should play a key role in women’s participation, gender equality and social inclusion to promote women’s empowerment agenda.

She made the call during a training workshop in Tamale on gender sensitive reporting for journalists and communication skills for women aspirants in the 2023 District Level Elections.

The workshop, organised by AWMA and supported by Canada Fund for Local Initiatives, was to improve visibility of female candidates participating in local governance.

Madam Muslim advised the media to use their platforms to create awareness to engage women to participate in both national and local elections to improve women’s level of visibility and participation to address the gender gaps and equality in decision-making.

Dr Abena Yeboarh-Banin, Head of Department of Communication Studies, Universi
ty of Ghana, called on the media to improve upon activism at the local level to create an environment for women to participate in governance and elections.

She advised women to move from their comfort zones and gather courage to make themselves available to contest for positions in local governance.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Ghana`s National Biosafety Authority (NBA) has published its guidelines on Genome Editing and Gene Stacks with regards Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) joining Nigeria, Kenya, and Malawi, as the fourth country in Africa with the guidelines.

The guidelines, drafted from zero, and validated by stakeholders with technical and financial support from African Biosafety Network of Expertise of African Union Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD-ABNE was signed by Professor Charles ANTWI-BOASIAKO, the Chairperson of the Board of NBA, acted under Section 40(3) of the Biosafety Act, 2011 (Act 831).

The two documents, which was validated in October by stakeholders, can be accessed on https://bch.cbd.int/en/database/LAW/BCH-LAW-GH-265861-1.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr Eric Amanning Okoree said genome editing was an emerging and affordable biotechnology tool that had great promise to deliver high-yielding crop varieties, able to withstand various stresses such as droughts, floods,
insect pests, or diseases and possessed quality traits for use as food, feed, or for processing.

He explained that though the country had a Biosafety law, it made provision for emerging technologies, which included Genome Editing and Gene Stacks with regards to GMOs.

‘Biotechnology is a fast-developing business with new trends of technologies and when the law was being passed, there was nothing like Genome editing, gene drive, or synthetic biotechnology, but we have them now.’

Mr Okoree noted that the law, passed years ago, foresaw that there would be an era with these emerging technologies, therefore, these documents would go into details to outline the procedures to be followed to ensure that the products and the environment were safe and healthy, provide guiding applicants and regulators as well.

This he said would enable scientists and researchers who wanted to add a gene to any product or anything they would be working on would have to follow and be guided by these guidelines to ensure that the prope
r procedures and protocols are duly followed.

Genome editing is a type of gene therapy that involves making targeted and deliberate changes to a specific region in the genome.

Genome editing changes the DNA of animals, plants, and microorganisms with high precision. The technology has a wide range of applications – from new therapies for cancer and inherited diseases, to increasing the muscle mass of livestock.

It can also be used to produce plants with desired traits, such as disease resistance, drought tolerance, or enhanced nutritional profiles. However, there is a societal concern that genome editing may lead to adverse effects to human health and the environment.

Dr Timpo highlighted the importance of having functional regulatory guidelines for emerging technologies such as Genome Editing. This technology he noted had proven to be more precise, effective, and more affordable to African researchers than the usual modern biotechnologies. Hence, the importance for the continent to put in place necessary
regulatory frameworks, which will enable African countries to safely harness the opportunities arising from genome editing for their development.

The African Union, through its High-Level Panel on Emerging Technologies (APET) recommends the use of emerging technologies such as genome editing to help solve hunger and malnutrition issues on the continent.

In this regard, the NBA of Ghana in partnership with AUDA-NEPAD ABNE, has put together the guidelines and its accompanying forms, which were reviewed and validated by the stakeholders.

Dr Timpo told the GNA that AUDA-NEPAD had a mandate to provide knowledge based advisory support to ensure that member states domesticated global learnings within national context after member states, as far back June 2019, saw the potentials in Genome Editing applications in agricultural sector and requested that AUDA-NEPAD provided a general guidance to enable them develop national guidelines consistent with domestic laws and international obligations.

‘To member states, we
have also provided them with access to knowledge products out there which will guide them in the drafting of the guidelines. We also provide them with financial and technical support to help them carry out their work in the drafting their guidelines,’ he added.

‘It is our hope that Ghanaian scientists who want to practice good science and compete in the global research space, will have the enabling policy environment to support the socioeconomic development of the country.’

Source: Ghana News Agency

SEND GHANA and partners, including UNICEF and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP), are set to launch the Rights and Social Protection Campaign in Ghana on Wednesday, November 22.

It will be launched in Accra in line with a 2019/2020 study commissioned by UNICEF on rights and social protection in Ghana, which revealed that Ghanaians generally had limited understanding of the concept of social protection.

The national campaign is to be launched in partnership with the Civil Society Organisations (CSO) Coalition for Social Protection and Social Accountability, to undertake series of interventions geared at increasing awareness on rights and social protection among the citizenries.

It also seeks to strengthen advocacy for adequate and sustained financing, empower citizens to participate in the delivery of social protection interventions and services effectively.

The theme for the launch is: ‘Addressing Poverty and Inequalities through Rights-based Social Protection in Ghana.’

A s
tatement signed by Dr Emmanuel Ayifah, Deputy Country Director of SEND GHANA, said, ‘The overall goal of the campaign is to promote social protection as an inherent right of all Ghanaians regardless of their socio-economic, political or other statuses.’

It said the campaign was aimed at an enhanced public awareness of social protection from life cycle and rights-based perspective as well as aid citizens to demand accountability for comprehensive social protection delivery.

A media coalition on social protection will be launched as well to foster activities under the campaign.

The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection is expected at the event, among other high-profile personalities from relevant Departments.

Source: Ghana News Agency

A 35-year-old refuse collector who allegedly stole a Luojia tricycle valued at GH?10,000.00 belonging to a trader has been put before an Accra Circuit Court.

Mr Yaw Galey is also said to have altered forged Apsonic tricycle documents as Luojia tricycle, which was not genuine.

Mr Galey, who was charged with stealing and altering forged documents, pleaded not guilty.

Mr Isaac Addo admitted the accused person to GH?20,000.00 bail with two sureties.

The matter has been adjourned to December 14, 2023.

Police Chief Inspector Ramata Asumah, prosecuting, told the Court that the complainant Mr Ebenezer Lokko, who resides at Teshie Okpoi-Gonno is a Trader while the accused person resided at Nungua Buade.

The prosecution said on November 6, 2023, at 0300 hours, Police Officers on duty at Nungua Addogonno snap check point accosted and arrested to the station the accused person, who was pushing a green colour Luojia motor tricycle in a suspicious manner.

It said during interrogation, the accused person claimed own
ership of the motor tricycle and produced documents to support his claim.

The prosecution said Police investigations revealed that information on the document produced by the accused person did not match with the chassis number found on the tricycle.

It said on the same day at 1100 hours, the complainant came to the Police station and identified the tricycle as his property which was stolen from his home at Teshie Okpoi Gonno.

The prosecution said the complainant produced documents covering the tricycle.

It said on November 5, 2023, at about 0600 hours, investigation disclosed that the complainant parked the said tricycle with registration in his home at Teshie Okpoi Gonno but could not find the same on the following morning.

The prosecution said the complainant visited the Nungua Police Station to lodge a complaint and found his tricycle there without the number plate.

Source: Ghana News Agency

When the evening lights begin to shine, the pedestrian street of Qingyun Road on the banks of Nanming River in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province is brightly lit and crowded with people. The aroma of delicious food was pervasive in the air, and the speciality and snack shops were filled with diners. From time to time, people stopped to check out and take photos in front of different murals. Night view, night show, night tour, night entertainment, night snacks, night shopping, night stay, the night in Guizhou has a completely different flavor from the day. Nowadays, Guizhou’s ‘nightlife’ is no longer limited to the city, and the townships have created colorful night activities such as the ‘V(illage)BA’ Basketball Game and the ‘Village’ Football League, which have become new business cards of Guizhou.

The short video series ‘Be My Guest · Modern Guizhou’, originally produced by Guizhou Satellite TV, invites foreign friends to Guizhou in the form of reality shows to record their real lives in the local area. Migue
l Hernandez, a young Brazilian, was invited by his friend Wang Ke’ai to Guizhou (China) to enjoy the nightlife here. After touring the Internet-famous attractions in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, learning to use the land-surfboard, participating in a frisbee competition, and tasting the local cuisine, Miguel and Wang Ke’ai went to Rongjiang County in the Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture in southeastern Guizhou Province to watch the ‘Village’ Football League game that prevails on the Internet and mingle with the locals.

‘It is the first time for me spending such a lively night in China. I did not know that spicy things can be so delicious, and the city at night is of so much fun! My family is envious of the atmosphere I feel in Guizhou.’ Miguel commented this night trip to Guizhou excitedly that it has given him an unforgettable impression. And he hopes to bring his family and friends to Guizhou in the future to experience the colorful nightlife here.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Minister of Information, says the foundation for sound policies and decisions lies in quality, timely and robust data for structural economic development.

He said data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) would serve as an analytical truth to help provide and structure governmental projects timely and appropriately.

He said this at the climax celebration of 2023 African Statistics Day on Tuesday in Accra, the celebration was on the theme: ‘Modernizing data ecosystems to accelerate the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA): The role of official statistics and big data in the economic transformation and sustainable development of Africa.’

The Minister said the theme called for modernising data ecosystems in the country for the production and utilisation of high-quality official statistics.

Speaking on the importance of statistics, he encouraged all departments, government, and agencies to increase advocacy for support for major statistical operations
, including censuses and surveys, to provide the needed official statistics to inform decision-making at all levels, and monitor socio-economic development policies and programmes.

He said the availability of data from the GSS ensured effective policy planning implementation, and decision-making, which in turn provided the needed impetus for promoting peace, security, and socioeconomic development.

Mr Nkrumah said trade statistics was important as it provided invaluable insights into the trends, challenges, and opportunities that shaped the landscape of international commerce.

‘As we navigate through the complexities of our interconnected world, the importance of accurate and timely data cannot be overstated’, he added.

He said data was a needed tool for fostering economic development, improving trade policies, and ensuring the well-being of communities engaged in these activities.

Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, the Government Statistician, presenting the Ghana 2023 mid- year trade report, said the count
ry spent about US$2.0 billion to import poultry, rice, sugar, vegetables, and other food products annually, which had placed undue pressure on the cedi.

He said due to global trade disruption since March 2020, the cost of imported food had risen and contributed to the high level of inflation.

Food inflation by mid- 2023 was above 50 per cent largely due to the importation of staple foods such as rice, tomatoes, and onions, which could be produced in adequate quantities locally.

Prof Anim said trade in Africa contributed the most to the trade surplus recorded in the first 2023, and Ghana’s import vulnerability was highest with China, generating high cost of food commodities and products in the country.

However, other dignitaries at the ceremony encouraged all to delve into data analytics to aid in policy and decision making, urging the youth to read statistics as part of their course for career development.

The trade report provides additional insight by assessing change in Ghana’s trade value between the
first two halves of 2022 and 2023, highlighting changes in trade value for

specific commodities across the continents and countries between the first two halves of 2022 and 2023.

Source: Ghana News Agency