Day: November 29, 2023

Delta Air Lines has affirmed its unwavering commitment to nurturing and empowering young students, equipping them with the essential skills required to transform into exceptional leaders of tomorrow.

The Airline, which has been steadfast in promoting initiatives to benefit the Ghanaian community, held its second innovation camp this year at the Delta Leadership Empowerment Achievement and Development (LEAD) Camp.

Speaking at the event, Delta Air Lines’ Station Manager, Sidoine Rodrigues, said: ‘Delta is strategic in nurturing the next generation of leaders by offering continuous support for their development.

This was contained in a press release issued to the Ghana News Agency by Kingdom Concepts Consult, in Accra on Wednesday.

‘Our active involvement here today is a testament of this commitment. We find ourselves in an ever-changing world with new set of challenges, hence programmes, such as this are carefully designed to nurture leadership and problem-solving skills in the youth.’

Mr Rodrigues challe
nged the participants to embrace the unknown, vastly improve their skills for the future, and immerse themselves.

‘Embrace the unknown not only to upgrade your skills for the future but also to shape your potential, innovations and change makers who are in the room. Be sure you listen and take home something from this camp,’ he added.

The LEAD Camp programme consists of activities focused on Leadership, Empowerment, Achievement, and Development.

It is a unique experiential educational initiative jointly organised by Junior Achievement Ghana and Delta Air Lines.

Specifically, the programme aims to provide students with hands-on exposure to authentic business scenarios, to enable them apply design thinking, creativity, critical thinking, and teamwork in innovative problem-solving, leading to the development of high-performing women leaders who will contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 5 of achieving gender equality.

The Delta Leadership Empowerment Achievement and Development (LEAD
) Camp, was a day-long innovation event, that convened 106 female students from different senior high schools in Ghana to engage in an innovation camp challenge.

Following the Delta innovation camp challenge, participants were taken through a workshop on Innovation and Design Thinking and then worked collaboratively in teams of seven with 15 coaches to develop a solution designed to improve Delta’s customer experience.

The experience is from booking to arrival by utilising modern technology.

As part of the challenge, students were required to demonstrate creativity, critical thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving skills.

The winning teams were awarded medals, high-tech bluetooth headphones, branded notebooks, and bottles, for their outstanding performances in understanding the challenge, coming up with an original solution, structuring the presentation, demonstrating presentation skills, working as a team, and answering questions.

The Delta Innovation Camp (LEAD) event was a transformative experience fo
r the participants involved, igniting the curiosity of young individuals to unlock their potential and create a meaningful influence through innovation.

‘Delta Air Lines maintains its dedication to fostering the next wave of innovators and backing educational initiatives that empower the youth,’ the release said.

The event was held on November 25, 2023, at the Association International School in Accra.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mrs Joana Opare, Board Chair of the Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment (WISE), has tasked media practitioners to strategise and ensure media platforms are used to trumpet the need to eliminate gender-based violence in society.

She noted that considering the effects of gender violence there was a need to create more awareness of its huge consequences, affecting not only victims but the nation in its agenda for development.

According to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), preliminary findings from the upcoming 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey Report indicate that 41.6 per cent of women aged 15 to 49 years, who have had an intimate partner, have ever experienced at least one form of intimate partner violence.

‘Let’s advocate more, let’s follow up on cases through to the end and bring up issues of violence against women, so society will be well-informed’ Mrs Opare stated in her presentation at the launch of the 2023 ’16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence.’

The ’16 Days of Activism Against
Gender Violence’ is an annual global campaign that starts on 25th November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and runs until 10 December, the Human Rights Day.

The launch, which was organised by WISE in collaboration with the African Women’s Development Fund, was on the theme: ‘Unite! Invest to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls.’

Mrs Opare said: ‘The theme for this year’s campaign highlights the need for all of us to come together and use this period to strategise on the role we each need to play on the approach towards eliminating this canker in society.’

The Board Chair also underscored the need for all stakeholders to commit more resources to the fight against gender-based violence and therefore called on corporate entities to support efforts at ending gender-based violence by funding focused campaigns.

Madam Adwoa Bame, Executive Director of WISE, said the campaign created a forum for people from all levels of society to speak with one voice calling for the el
imination of all forms of violence through raising awareness about gender-based violence as a human rights issue at the local, national, regional, and international levels.

She said as part of WISE’s activities for this year’s campaign, aside from the launch; they would lobby the National Media Commission (NMC) to include gender sensitive reporting in its guidelines for local language broadcasting.

Madam Bame mentioned that there would also be a procession to distribute fliers through the streets of Kokrobite and an outreach program at the Kokrobite School Park.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Keith MacMahon, the Deputy British High Commissioner to Ghana, has stated that the United Kingdom (UK) would work to make Ghana a tech powerhouse to improve its economic growth.

‘Tech is the way out to help most economies in the years to come and we want to work with all countries in an effort to make it a powerhouse for growth,’ he stated.

Mr MacMahon made the statement in an interview with the media when the 12th Edition of the two-day Tech in Ghana Conference was launched at the British High Commissioner’s Residence in Accra.

He said the conference, which was on the theme: ‘Strengthening and showcasing Ghana’s tech ecosystem since 2017,’ formed part of bringing Ghanaian and UK colleagues together to make the powerhouse happen.

‘I think the government knows tech is the future and is trying to create space and legislations to make it easier for companies to start. People want to invest in Ghana because it has very good tech people,’ stated.

Ms Akosua Annobil, Founder and Chief Executive of Tech in G
hana, said tech ecosystem had grown since its inception in 2017 with more tech startups over years and more investment, this was a good sign for the industry.

She said the event was to create platform to promote Ghanaian tech ecosystem to the global audience by making sure we provided more access to knowledge, access to collaborate, access to capital and continue to use the platform also to elevate the ecosystem.

‘We have elevated over 550 tech companies, startups both in the UK and in Ghana on the platform and bring about 3,000 students and they are interested in the ecosystem and we serve more as an umbrella of the industry,’ she stated

Mr Annobil said the Tech in Ghana was about essentially promoting to come together and not just about the massive but the quality of the people who were brought together into the ecosystem.

The next two days is the Kumasi takeover we are going to showcase Ashanti Region with leading startups, farmerline.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Qatar charity an international non-governmental organization has commissioned a brand new 250sqm Clinic facility constructed at Kadewaso in the eastern region.

The event, described as another milestone achievement of the orgainzation was graced by the Country Director Mr. Hasan Owda who commissioned the project alongside the Chief of the community, Nana Osa Barima Duah II, Atiwa East District Health Director, Madam Vida Efua Afful and members of the Kadewaso community.

The clinic, which was part of the greater Dar ElSalam model village project, came with an X-Ray station, dental care room, male and female wards, delivery rooms, a pharmacy section, an emergency unit, medical examination rooms, an administration unit, as well as a vaccination and quarantine section.

Madam Vida Afful said the facility was more than a clinic and they would proceed with the necessary documentations to upgrade the level once the health workers relocated from to the facility.

‘I am surprised at the speed and quality with which
the facility was built and ready for occupation. We are indeed grateful to Qatar Charity for this all-important edifice,’ the health director added.

The health director commended the magnificent edifice, adding that it was a milestone achievement that would strengthen healthcare delivery in the district.

In handing over of the newly built edifice to the Kadewaso community, the Director Hasan Owda thanked the chief for allowing Qatar Charity to establish projects in the community and said in addition to the clinic, there were over 70 housing units under construction out of which 24 were completed.

The housing units would serve as accommodation for workers in Dar ElSalaam as well as other members of the community.

Mr Owda added that there were schools for the various stages of education currently under construction in addition to an orphanage.

He added that Dar ElSalaam could also boast of economic empower programmes such a 10,000-chick poultry farming, a greenhouse farm, a bakery, and cattle for rearing a
nd they were also helping farmers with support to improve their farm yields.

Mr. Owda called on the members and the elders of the community to take good care of the facility as there would be a grand commissioning for all the facilities when the constructions were fully completed; executives from Qatar Charity’s headquarters would be participating in the grand opening.

Nana Osa Barima Duah II expressed gratitude to Qatar Charity and implored Mr Owda to send his appreciation and best regards to the Qatar Charity headquarters in Qatar and to let them know that the people of Kadewaso were grateful for this all important gift.

On the importance of good maintenance of the facility, he ordered the people to take the maintenance of the facility seriously.

‘It seems the problem of maintenance is a problem of Africa not Ghana alone which has to be addressed,’ Nana added.

He thanked Mr Ishak Bekoe who had bought and donated large tracts of land for the clinic and the Dar ElSalaam project to be constructed.

The as
sembly man of Kadewaso, Mr. Emmanuel Annoh, who introduced the dignitaries for the programme to start, thanked the organization for the good works going on in the community and added that he is particularly happy for the clinic as the one they were using was in bad state.

Overseer of the works on Daar El Salaam Village, Mr. Hassan Mohammad, urged the health workers of the Clinic to take care of the entire facility and alert authorities if there was any problem beyond their control in maintaining the Clinic for the appropriate action to be taken.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Justice Professor Henrietta Mensa- Bonsu, a Justice of the Supreme Court, has urged external peace initiators to stop setting peace priorities and foisting them on host nations and the local population.

She observed that sustainable peace building initiatives that lacked inclusive participation and sense of ownership only worked in short term, lacking needed commitment in the long term.

Such initiatives, she said, could also be abandoned as soon as proponents withdrew funding or focused attention on other theatres of conflict.

‘The requirements of donors among other interest groups have to be respected but must not be so represented as to operate to obscure the requirement for national ownership,’ she said at a conference on Sustainable Regional Peacebuilding in Africa: Practices and Disconnects.

The conference was organised by the Meridian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) 9th Interdisciplinary Fellow Group 9, which is made up of five scholars who have conducted collaborative research ove
r a four-month period.

Speaking on the topic, ‘Sustainable Regional Peace Building: Reflections of an academic-practitioner’, Justice Prof Mensa- Bonsu said an approach to a sustainable peace building that had national ownership must respect the wisdom of the host community.

The Professor of law also advised that the dignity of the host community be kept in mind as international actors took the role of facilitators who provided support and observed the direction of the initiative’s progress.

She noted that in instances where the national ownership may require timeframes for programme execution that may not be in tandem with that of international institutions and /or international actors, it was important not to evoke an aggressive adherence to set timetables.

‘The least important consideration to international actors should be the desire to showcase their achievements in the field and fill required reports of progress made in periods predetermined elsewhere than in the host country,’ she added.

Justice P
rof Mensa- Bonsu also said that while the concept of national ownership was important in sustainable peace building initiatives, it should not be taken to mean that the international actors could not suggest and initiate programmes they might consider as urgent.

‘For instance, a host community that has endured a long-drawn-out conflict may be so broken that peace education may be a priority to help them mend their broken societies and avoid a relapse into conflict.

‘It might also serve the ends of conflict prevention where peace education, particularly of the youth, is undertaken in earnest,’ she said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Courage Cornelius Sonu, the Principal Executive Officer of the Western Regional Rent Control Department, says the department has recorded and handled 610 rent cases between January and November this year.

According to him, 43 of the cases were referred to the court for settlement while 567 were being handled by the department.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview, in Takoradi, he explained that some of the cases that came to the department were on claims, rent arrears, unlawful rent increment, recovery of possession, nuisance and rent assessment.

Mr Sonu said: ‘The department is to address cases amicably between parties, and that cases are only referred to the court when both parties involved feel dissatisfied with the department’s judgement.’

Touching on the Rent Control Act, the Principal Executive Officer said the Act only made provision for house owners to charge an advance payment for a maximum of six months, ‘but the landlords and tenants turn out to flout the law and make the
ir own agreement which violates the law’.

According to him, the department had proposed a law to increase the advance payment duration from six to 12 months, however, authorities were yet to accept it.

‘What we are saying is that landlords after building their houses, ought to come to the rent control department and register vacant premises as well as register tenants who wish to occupy their premises to avoid future disagreements’, Mr Sonu stated.

He encouraged house owners and tenants to always comply with the Rent Control Act to help preserve peace in their various houses.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Madam Lariba Zuweira Abudu, Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, has called for women to be granted equal access to financial resources, educational opportunities, and entrepreneurial support.

‘When we invest in women, we invest in the prosperity of our nation,’ she said.

Madam Abudu said this at the Gender Ministry’s fifth annual Summit held in Accra.

The Ministry launched its maiden annual summit in August 2019 and has since been institutionalised to become an annual event to enable the Ministry to brief its stakeholders on the performance of the entire sector to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency in service delivery.

The theme for this year’s Summit is: ‘Sustainable Social Protection and Social Welfare: A Key to Financial Inclusion for the Vulnerable’.

Madam Abudu said the Ministry stood for an inclusive society that ensured all citizens had equal opportunity to participate in nation-building and a chance to realise their full potential irrespective of their status.

She said fi
nancial inclusion was important, adding that: ‘It is not merely about providing the vulnerable with monetary support, but also about empowering them with the tools and knowledge to manage their finances, make informed decisions, and contribute meaningfully to our economy.’

The Minister said access to credit, savings mechanisms, and insurance must be made available and tailored to the unique needs of the most marginalised.

Madam Abudu said people must recognise that gender equality was integral to those processes.

She said in collaboration with key partners, the integrated Social Services were in 170 Municipal, Metropolitan and District Assemblies (MMDAs) with 160 enrolled on the Social Welfare Information Management Systems (SWIMS) for effective case management and referrals.

‘Given the role social protection and welfare service play in the protection of the vulnerable, we need to ensure our programmes create opportunities for their full participation in governance as well as inclusion in the local econom
y,’ the Minister stated.

Madam Abudu announced that payments to Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) beneficiaries and School Feeding Caterers were up to date with the 6th cycle LEAP payments ongoing.

Mr Osama Makkawai Khogali, Country Representative, UNICEF, called for the scaling up of the integrated social service flagship initiative of the Government supported by many developing partners.

He called on stakeholders to find sustainable and innovative financial solutions to support the Gender Ministry since it was one of the least funded social sector institutions receiving less than 0.6 per cent of the Government’s total expenditure.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Onua TV and Onua FM have sued the National Media Commission (NMC) at the Accra High Court seeking an order for perpetual injunction restraining the NMC from taking any steps that will adversely impact the media operations of the Company and its associates.

A statement signed by Gilian Heathcote, Head, Corporate Communications Department, Onua TV and Onua FM, said the suit ‘followed numerous attempts by the NMC to use its constitutionally mandated office to harass Onua TV and Onua FM.’

It said the suit was asking the court to among other things declare that some orders issued by the Commission to Onua TV and Onua FM were unlawful and that the conduct of the NMC in refusing to give the stations an opportunity to be heard before imposing sanctions on them was a breach of the law and of natural justice.

The statement said on Tuesday, November 14, 2023, Media General received a letter from the NMC, which was ‘wrongly directed’.

It said the letter complained of a broadcast simultaneously carried by Onua FM and
Onua TV and in the same letter, the NMC

imposed sanctions on the two stations without asking for their side of the story.

The statement said in response to the letter, the Company drew the attention of Mr George Sarpong, the Executive Secretary to the error and stated that the stations should be given an opportunity to be heard as was required by the procedures of the National Media Commission’s own Complaints Settlement Committee.

It said Mr Sarpong had, however, refused to give the stations the opportunity to be heard and had also not named any complainant.

The statement said meanwhile, he had allegedly threatened to have the frequency authorisations of the two stations suspended among other ‘illegal actions’.

It said Media General found the actions and posture of the Executive Secretary ‘arbitrary, unconstitutional and against the principles of natural justice’ and, therefore, filed a case in court to stop the Commission from further ‘harassing’ the two stations.

‘The Company states in the suit that
the Media Commission by its actions has constituted itself into a complainant, a prosecutor and a judge in complaint and from its actions cannot now be trusted to be a fair and impartial arbiter in any case against Onua TV/Onua FM.’

‘The Media General Group’s Board vehemently rejected the NMC’s actions in letters to NMC dated 21st November 2023, and 27th November 2023. In reaction, the Executive Secretary said he was going to have the frequencies of the two stations

suspended and secretly wrote to the Advertisers Association of Ghana on this veiled threat.’

The statement said the NMC did not have the power to influence editors or to suspend the frequencies of media houses.

It said allowing that to happen would be a serious threat to media operations in the country as the Commission could take steps to arbitrarily withdraw any broadcaster’s authorisation without giving them a hearing ‘if the Executive Secretary in his personal view did not like one presenter or the other to be on air.

‘If this behaviour i
s allowed, it could destroy the business of media houses by getting advertisers to stop advertising on their media just because the Executive

Secretary with political views does not like a media house or a presenter, especially in election seasons.’

The statement said Media General and its subsidiaries Onua TV and Onua FM were ready to cooperate with the NMC to achieve the highest standards in media practice.

However, it would not allow itself to be intimidated and shall take all steps to protect its business and editorial independence, including actions from the NMC, which appeared to be politically motivated.

‘We urge media houses and members of the public to rise up against this blatant abuse of office else we lose the democracy and the right of free speech for good.’

Source: Ghana News Agency

Right Reverend Dennis Debukari Tong, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Tamale has urged Christians to attempt faithfulness to make up the remnant of God’s salvation.

He said God, in His righteousness, saved the remnant, who were the faithful few, adding God destroyed the disobedient.

While delivering a sermon during church service in Tamale, Right Reverend Tong said being faithful meant living in accordance with the scriptures that would reflect in all aspects of a Christian’s live and not taking God’s call for granted.

The sermon was on the theme: ‘The Remnants of Israel’.

He said though Christianity was widespread, only few people, who exhibited faithfulness, would enter the kingdom of God.

He said, ‘God loves all of us as His children but only those, who respond to this love positively by obeying Him, are given the inheritance as His true children.’

Source: Ghana News Agency