Day: April 9, 2024

The Electricity Company of Ghana Limited (ECG), Accra West region, has intensified compliance with the Company’s Annual Maintenance Plan (AMP).

The AMP is a strategic document that outlines specific maintenance activities to be carried out on the Company’s electrical network.

Activities under the AMP include monitoring and maintenance of overhead conductors, underground cables and substation equipment like transformers and switchgear, extensible switches, and ring main units, among others.

Speaking during a planned maintenance visit to the ‘A201’ substation at Mama’s Inn, Dansoman, Mr Emmanuel Ankrah, the Accra West Regional Engineer, said, ‘The AMP makes it mandatory for us to visit our technical equipment at least once every quarter’.

He added that during those visits, they did routine inspections, undertook planned maintenance exercises and corrected any identified defects.

Mr Akrah said to engender regular compliance with the AMP, the Accra West region had outlined strategies, including night monitor
ing and deployment of more teams to augment the already stretched technical maintenance team that worked during the day.

Mr Ankrah said due to the recent heat wave, ECG had recorded an increased demand for more electricity in some communities, especially during peak load hours.

‘Our data shows that the electricity demand in some communities during peak load hours are up to the full capacity of their installed transformers, leading to faults and outages,’ he said.

The Accra West Regional Engineer said those transformers had been earmarked for upgrade or injections to relieve some load and ensure a more reliable supply.

Mr Emmanuel Akinie, the General Manager for the Accra West Region, assured customers of the Region’s readiness to ensure that electricity distribution was not curtailed by localised faults.

He noted that fault teams had been stationed at vantage points to respond quickly to customer complaints, repair faults and restore supply at any time during the day, across all operational districts in
the region.

Mr Akinie said the frequency of localised faults leading to outages would be reduced, while the lifespan of technical equipment would be prolonged.

‘Also, the Company gets to know and monitor the load on each distribution transformer, especially during peak hours of the day,’ he added.

The Accra West region has a total of 2,802 distribution transformers, made up of 2,030 pole-mounted transformers and 772 ground-mounted transformers.

The Accra West region has eight operational districts.

These are Ablekuma, Achimota, Amasaman, Bortianor, Dansoman, Kaneshie, Korlebu and Nsawam

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Jonathan Amoako-Baah, a former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), says investment in renewable energy, including solar is not a viable option to drive Ghana’s industrialisation agenda.

He said in the wake of the intermittent power challenges, the country should focus on establishing a ‘very big’ base load such as a nuclear power plant that would offer reliable and affordable power to champion massive industrialisation for development.

Mr Amoako-Baah, a former Board Member of the Nuclear Power Institute (NPI) under the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), made the call when some Staff members and Management of the Nuclear Power Ghana (NPG) paid a courtesy call on him at his residence in Koforidua in the Eastern Region.

The visit was heralded by a tour of the Boti Falls in the Eastern Region as part of NPG’s activities to commemorate the Ghana Heritage Month.

Mr Amoako-Baah said the country required ‘conventional plants’ as baseload to guarantee a reliable supply of pow
er for industries.

He said in the wake of the depletion of the country’s hydro resources, nuclear power remained the viable option to power Ghana’s industrialisation plan in the long term.

‘Renewables cannot power the industries; Tema Steel or VALCO is a case in point. VALCO takes about 345MWe. How much renewable can you put to generate such power considering the intermittent nature of renewable and capacity factors? In the night and during some seasons, you do not have the sun to power the solar panels. The wind is also not consistent.

‘You need a very big baseload plant; conventional plants like hydro (which has been used up); thermal or nuclear. Nuclear is the new thing now,’ he said.

Mr Amoako-Baah called for the active continuation of Ghana’s Nuclear Power Programme to enable the country to achieve the target of building and operating the first nuclear power plant in the near future.

‘The work must continue for us to be able to establish the first nuclear power plant by 2030. Government should pay a
ttention to this,’ he said.

Energy experts estimate that beyond 2025, Akosombo and Kpong Hydropower Plants, the nation’s baseload supply points which currently serve 32 per cent of electricity demand, would have reduced drastically to about 25 per cent.

Ghana in its quest to access affordable and stable power to industrialise sustainably as well as to meet the global energy transition from fossil fuel to clean energy, is seeking to include nuclear power in its energy mix.

The deployment of nuclear power in Ghana is also in line with the country’s medium-term development plans and climate commitments under the Paris Agreement.

The decision is also part of the country’s Green Energy Solutions targets and the government’s medium to long-term strategy of actualising industrialisation and socio-economic development within the West African sub-region.

Dr Stephen Yamoah, the Executive Director of NPG, said meetings and discussions with vendors for Ghana’s nuclear power plant would continue this year.

He said t
he NPG under the policy direction of the Ministry of Energy had targeted taking ‘firm decisions’ on the technology, the financing arrangements, and the project structure this year.

‘We have really advanced and the target this year is to be able to come out with a decision on the vendor and the technology… I am certain,’ Dr Yamoah said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Andrews Mensah, the Bono Regional Coordinating Director, has called for investments into the abundant clay and quarry products, cashew and poultry sectors in the region for job creation and poverty reduction.

He called on the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) to help expose these economic potentials to attract foreign investors, saying the sectors had huge prospects that could turn around the economic fortunes of the region.

That would promote job creation, tackle the teeming youth unemployment and reduce poverty in the region.

Mr Mensah made the call when he addressed the closing session of a four-day cashew apple recipe training organised for women farmers and some youth in the cashew production in the region, held at Fiapre in the Sunyani West Municipality.

MOVE-ComCashew, under the auspices of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), oragnised the training, co-financed by the European Union (EU) under the Samoa Agreement with the Organization of African, Caribb
ean, and Pacific States (OACPS).

In all, 80 women cashew farmers and some youth underwent the training, which exposed them to harnessing the potential and adding value to the cashew apple to enhance economic viability and transform their socio-economic livelihoods.

Selected from the 12 politically administrative Districts and Municipalities of the region, the cashew farmers were trained in the harvesting, post harvesting techniques, nutrition of cashew apples and the preparation of the various tasting and easy to be prepared recipes.

Mr Mensah acknowledged the immeasurable contributions of the GIZ and its partners towards job creation in the region, and expressed the hope the cooperation would consider and invest into the prospects of the region too.

Madam Ernestina Amponsah, Technical Advisor, MOVE-ComCashew, urged the participants to go back home and apply the knowledge they had acquired to bring about positive change in their economic activities.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Benso Oduro Boateng aka Funny Face, a comedian, who allegedly knocked down a woman and two children at Kakraba Junction on the Kasoa-Nyanyano road has been granted bail.

Appearing before a District Court Kasoa Akweley, Funny Face was admitted to bail in the sum of GHC 120,000 with two sureties.

Boateng is facing charges of careless and inconsiderate driving and two counts of negligently causing harm.

Boateng’s plea has not been taken by the court presided over by Annie Adobor. This is because investigations are ongoing.

Meanwhile the GNA has learnt that four of the victims have been discharged but the elderly woman is still on admission because of surgery performed on her legs.

The case presented by Assistance Superintendent of Police (ASP) Thomas Sarfo was that on March 24, 2024, at about 7:50 pm Benson Oduro Boateng, a driver and a resident of Millennium City, Kasoa, was driving a Hyundai Atos Private car with registration number GN 1134-16 from Kasoa towards Nyanyano.

On reaching a section of the roa
d at Kakraba Junction on the Kasoa Nyanyano road, Prosecution said Boateng knocked down a pedestrian by the name Theresah Quaicoe of about 50 years and her two children, Elizabeth Turkson, age about 5years and Robi Turkson, age about 1year, who attempted crossing the road.

According to the prosecution, in the process, Boateng lost control of the steering wheel and crashed head-on with a motor bike with the registration number M-18-GR 1976 ridden by Sam Francis Kwesi Bible with a pillion rider, Nicholas Ashong.

Prosecution said Theresa Quaicoe and Elizabeth Turkson, were referred to Korle-Bu hospital Accra, for further treatment whiles victim Nicholas Ashong was referred to the Ridge hospital, Accra for further treatment but could not be admitted due to shortage of bed and was brought back to Kasoa Community Clinic for further treatment.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Ahead of the 2024 Eid-ul-Fitr celebration, MTN Ghana has donated food items to the office of the Ashanti Regional Chief Imam.

The items included bags of rice, packs of bottled water, assorted soft drinks, cooking oil and a ram.

Mr. Simon Amoh, Senior Manager, General Trade for the Northern Business District of MTN, who presented the items on behalf of the General Manager, said the gesture was to show love to the Muslim community after observing their annual fasting.

‘We appreciate you as an extension of our society and also the fact that you are members of our subscribers who use our products,’ he said at a brief ceremony to hand over the items.

He said apart of rewarding them for their loyalty, the donation also sought to empathise with them after their month-long spiritual journey.

‘As they end the fasting, we pray that God will protect and preserve them and above all grant whatever they desire for themselves,’ he prayed

Sheikh Abdul-Mumin Haroun, the Regional Chief Imam, thanked MTN Ghana for their c
ontinued support over the years.

He said the company had since its entry into the Ghanaian market shown love to Muslim community and that it had always been in their thoughts and prayers,

The Imam attributed the conducive atmosphere that the company was enjoying to peace in the country and urged Ghanaians to embrace peace as the 2024 general elections approached.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Ejisu by-election will be held on Tuesday, April 30, the Electoral Commission (EC) has announced.

The announcement was made at an Inter-Party Advisory Committee meeting on Tuesday.

The polls have been necessitated by the death of the former Member of Parliament (MP) and Deputy Finance Minister, John Kumah, whose demise was reported on March 07.

Ahead of the election, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), which occupies the seat, and the largest opposition Party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), have geared up their campaigns.

The NPP, for instance, has approved nine candidates to contest in a primary to elect a candidate for the election.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Some young businesses within the Central and Western Region of the country are undergoing a five-day boot camp on circular economy to be better equipped to take advantage in that sector for growth.

The business owners would also learn of best practices during business-to-business tours, proper book-keeping and leverage the opportunities such networks brought for continuous improvement practices.

Mr. Erasmus Ackon, the Chief Executive Officer of Duapa Werkspace and organisers of the programme, told the Ghana News Agency that it had become necessary to provide coaching, mentorship and other learning tools to such SMEs who had embarked on the journey of solving societal needs.

The programme would also expose the businesses to digital tools while helping them to relate to regulatory agencies to become abreast with requirements for business registration, meeting industry standards and ultimately taken advantage of the export market.

Madam Rosemond Afful, one of the Facilitator and Agripreneur, said the boot ca
mp would also change their perceptions of the SMES and help them to work in Sustainable productions that did not compromise the quality of the environment.

She recalled how her training with opportunities for young entrepreneurs helped her into self-discovery, ‘we are drawing their minds to the essentials of the economy and their businesses.’

Madam Afful also urged SMEs to open up, learn and network more, to inculcate the needed best practices in their businesses.

Duapa Werkspace is a business incubation hub, ICT oriented social enterprise working to build capacity of young entrepreneurs to find their feet in the world market

Source: Ghana News Agency

Nine police personnel sustained various degrees of injury during an operation in Nandom, Upper West Region, when their Service vehicle they were on board had accident on the Nandom-Hamile highway.

They are: Chief Inspector Fatawu Jangu, Constable Sandra Abdul-Rahman, Constable Rose Amu, General Constables: Felix Amponsah, Emmanuel Asare, Emmanuel Oppong, Christian Antwi as well as Ezra Kwaku Lamedeku.

The injured officers are responding to treatment at Nandom, a news brief has said.

It said the team, on April 5, 2024, at about 0800 hours, had responded to a distress call that a group from Dagaaba/Sissala conflict in Lambussie intended to block the road from Fielmor to Piina to prevent its opponents from attending markets in the two towns.

The Police vehicle driven by the Chief Inspector, left for Lambussie through Piina, Suke and Bugnuo on the Piina-Fermor Road on patrols to check and prevent the road blockade.

The brief said when the team found out that the information was untrue, it was returning when
at Bu near Nandom on the Nandom-Hamile Highway, their vehicle got involved in the accident.

The accident vehicle has been towed to the Nandom Police station.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) of Ghana Cocoa Board, (COCOBOD), in collaboration with Goshen Global Vision, an NGO, has engaged about twenty media houses across the Western-South Region to educate them on COCOBOD farmer-friendly interventions.

The move is to recognize the role the media played in educating cocoa farmers to understand such programmes.

Speaking at the engagement to media men and women who have special interest in cocoa production in the country at Tarkwa, Western-South Manager, Mr Samuel Osei expressed concern about the decline in cocoa production in the Western-South Region.

He said from a peak of 284,000 metric tonnes in 2020/2021 season where Ghana recorded an unprecedented production volume of 1,047,000 metric tonnes, Western-South alone contributed about 27%, which was very phenomenal.

The Manager said for the past eleven years, average cocoa production of the Region stood at 231,000 metric tonnes, but recent developments such as heightened activities in illegal mining
had further reduced production.

Mr Osei indicated that an estimated 5,000 hectares of cocoa farms had been lost to illegal mining activities, affecting the production potential in the Western-South Region.

Besides, the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease has affected over 100,000 hectares of farms in the Western-South Region alone out of the 590,000 hectares lost nationally under the Swollen Shoot Virus Disease.

He underscored the negative effect of smuggling of dried cocoa beans through the Western border to neighbouring La Cote D’Ivoire, which peaked during the 2022/2023 and the current 2023/ 2024 seasons, due to price differential at the onset of the season and activities of those who sold at the black market to take advantage of the spot price unlike Cocobod’s forward sales mechanism which ensured guaranteed producer price.

The Manager said climate change had also worsened the situation, culminating in excessive rainfall pattern of high intensity and long duration leading to flooding in some cocoa growi
ng districts such as Elubo and Gwira.

The same phenomenon has also led to the El – Nino Weather effects with extreme temperatures causing significant stress and wilting of many cocoa trees and further catalysing the declining production in the Region.

The Manager highlighted the scarcity of labour for cocoa farming activities due to the high interest of the youth in illegal mining activities and urged the media to help educate all and sundry about the negative effects of galamsey on the environment, human health and overall negative consequences on the economy so that, the youth would come back to work in the cocoa ecosystem space.

The Regional Manager said with the introduction of cooperative led Mass Cocoa Pruning this year, being supported by the Mass Sprayers workforce and provision of standard pruning saws by Cocobod Management, Cocobod was looking forward to pruning all productive cocoa, about 200,000 ha in the Region for enhanced production this year.

He called on the media to support CHED to let f
armers appreciate that, pruning was the first agronomic activity that unlocked the potential of the cocoa trees to flower and with the special package to spray every pruned farm with effective foliar fertilisers six times for every cocoa farmer from May to July,

He explained that by using bi-weekly application interval, the flowers would be sustained and developed into cherelles and under the reinvigorated spraying regime, the pods would be protected for higher productivity per unit area.

Mr Osei said the cost of the application of the foliar fertilisers were also borne by Cocobod and all that cocoa farmers were to do was to fetch water for the spraying teams to spray the foliar fertilisers for them following a dedicated timetable at the community levels.

He again explained that because the Mass Sprayers were supporting the pruning exercise, the first round of insecticidal application which commenced in April and ends in May would be done by the Cooperatives, Groups and Association after Cocobod had provid
ed the various cooperatives and groups with insecticides and premixed fuel support.

The manager pointed out that same arrangement would be done for the fungicidal application first round in June and July 2024.

He charged all cooperatives, groups and associations (CAGs) leaders to ensure chemicals were not shared but used for spraying the farms.

Mr Osei said his outfit would follow up on all chemicals issued to the CAGs to ensure they were used according to the instructions and established protocols.

He further sensitised the press about the Traceability System put in place to ensure no person diverts or steals any chemical meant for cocoa farmers.

The Manager said the Region had targeted that each acre of cocoa farm must produce a minimum of 10 bags of cocoa this season and that was the basis for Agenda Restoration (AgRes – 300 K!), which aims to increase production of the Region from the 152,000 metric tonnes in 2022/2023 to 300,000 metric tonnes by 2024/2025.

He said if cocoa farmers and other key sta
keholders sustain the education on poultry manure application and adoption of cocoa hand pollination, the Region’s committed vision of 300,000 metric would become a reality within the timelines.

Mr Osei said all field staff of the Division shared this vision and called on all cocoa farmers to come on board to adopt these supported interventions (Pruning, Foliar and Inducers, Fertilisers Application, Poultry Manure Application, Hand Pollination and Crop Protection) for enhanced cocoa production and benefit from the good international cocoa price being experienced due to the scarcity of the chocolate commodity.

The manager urged the media to support the realisation of the ideals and objectives of Agenda Restoration (AgRes – 300 K!) through effective education and sensitisation of cocoa farmers in the Region, which would ultimately lead to improvement in the livelihoods of the numerous cocoa farmers and their dependents in the Region.

Source: Ghana News Agency