Day: May 22, 2024

Mr Abu Kansangbata, a former Deputy Upper West Regional Minister has urged Ghanaians irrespective of their party affiliations to demonstrate patriotism towards the overall development of the country.

‘Ghanaians should celebrate TUC and Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa for their timely intervention in the sale of some Hotels belonging to the Social Security for National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).’

In a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Wednesday, Mr Kansangbata said the involvement of a party member who is both a Minister of state and a Member of Parliament had raised eyebrows with allegations of corruption and conflict of interest.

‘The timely intervention by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, MP for North Tongu, has been crucial in bringing the issue to light and advocating the protection of state assets.

Mr Kansangbata has therefore denounced the sale of the state property, emphasizing a need for government property to be protected to preserve the nation’s integrity
.

‘The core issue at hand is the potential conflict of interest, where state assets are being sold to a political insider. Such actions undermine public trust and suggest favoritism, raising the spectre of corruption’

Mr Kansangbata has called on the government to promptly address the issue to avoid a potential conflict of interest and maintain the integrity of public office and state transactions.

He said the intervention of the TUC and Mr Ablakwa had highlighted the need for transparency and accountability in the management of state assets and to safeguard public resources and ensure that government actions were conducted in the public’s best interest.

Mr Kansangbata also called on all concerned citizens, anti-corruption agencies, and civil society organizations to support the crusade against the sale of state assets.

‘This issue transcends party lines and should be viewed as a national concern that threatens to undermine the achievements of Ghana’s forefathers.

He said it was imperative to implement
robust anti-corruption measures to ensure that state assets were managed transparently.

‘This includes empowering anti-corruption agencies and civil society organizations to monitor and investigate such transactions. All government transactions involving state assets should be conducted with full transparency. Detailed records should be made accessible to the public, and regular audits should be performed to ensure accountability’.

He said Legal reforms were also necessary to prevent conflicts of interest and protect state assets and policies should be established to regulate the sale of state property, ensuring that the decisions were made in the public interest.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Vice President and Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has commissioned ultra-modern hostel facilities for female head porters, popularly known as ‘Kayayie’ to provide them with decent and dignified accommodation.

The multi-purpose facilities are in Madina and Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region, fulfilling a promise made by Dr Bawumia, on behalf of government in 2019, during a visit to their base in Agbogbloshie.

Accompanying the accommodation facilities was a skills and training programme to empower head porters with entrepreneurial skills to improve their socio-economic wellbeing.

The initiative is a collaborative effort between government agencies, the private sector and civil society organisations.

The Vice President, speaking at the inauguration of the hostels at the Madina Social Centre in Accra, said the Government had gone beyond the initial promise to a step further of empowering marginalised young women in the country.

Dr Bawumia expressed delight at the commission
ing of the hostels aimed at addressing the plight of the marginalised girls, and offering them transitional job pathways, to enhance their socio-economic status.

‘I am honoured to be part of this initiative dedicated to empowering head porters, offering transitional job pathways, and enhancing their socio-economic status. It is a cause close to my heart as it addresses the plight of a marginalised segment of our society,’ Dr Bawumia said.

‘This noble endeavour resonates profoundly with the core values of our mission, as it squarely addresses the pressing needs of a marginalized segment of our society that has long been relegated to the shadows of neglect and indifference.’

The NPP Flagbearer noted that statistics showed that there were more than 100,000 head porters in Ghana.

‘They endured unimaginable hardships such as lack of shelter, inadequate medical care, and harassment in urban centres on a daily basis, which required urgent attention.

‘From the harsh realities of homelessness to the glaring defic
iencies in access to adequate health care and the pervasive scourge of urban harassment, their plight stands as a stark testament to the moral imperative of urgent intervention to uplift and transform their lives,’ the Vice President said.

Dr Bawumia noted that government’s concern was not only to provide decent accommodation to the head porters, but to also create a pathway which will empower them to be self-employed, so that they would not have to go back to the streets, hence, the establishment of the Kayayei Empowerment Programme.

The programme, Dr Bawumia noted, had been meticulously conceived and crafted to provide holistic and sustainable economic empowerment to ‘these resilient young women.’

‘This multi-faceted programme is characterised by a rigorous and exhaustive recruitment process, culminating in the selection of initial training cohorts comprising 5,000 head porters. Over the span of three weeks, participants will be immersed in a transformative learning experience, encompassing essential mod
ules such as baking and beading, supplemented by invaluable soft skills training in personal health care, financial management, and entrepreneurial acumen.’

‘Crucially, the provision of post-training support and implementation of a track and trace model, serves as the linchpin of the program’s efficacy, with participants receiving starter packs tailored

to facilitate their seamless integration into new economic opportunities and further ensure that beneficiaries do not return to being head porters,’ Dr Bawumia added.

In addition to the programmes on offer, Dr Bawumia also revealed that discussions with Aayalolo and Metro Mass are ongoing, for the two agencies to also train some of the Kayayei in driving.

The government also intended to build two more facilities to the two newly commissioned facilities in Madina and Ashaiman.

Each facility is equipped with 300 beds, training rooms, pantries, kitchen, a clinic, washrooms, fire extinguishers, CCTV and security and food shed.

Dr Bawumia thanked several gove
rnment agencies, which forged strategic and collaborative partnerships with private enterprises and civil society organizations, to make the project possible.

The government agencies which collaborated are Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET), Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF),

Ghana Gas and BOST, as well as well as the Father Campbell Foundation and BEST.

The leadership of the Kayayei girls, who turned up in their numbers, symbolically with their head pans, expressed profound gratitude to Dr Bawumia and the government for the intervention.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Women go through several life stages, with each phase coming with its own challenges, but while some may enjoy a life free from uncertainties and hardships, others might not be that lucky.

They are often overburdened with socio-cultural expectations of which marriage and childbearing are a paramount prerequisite.

Unfortunately, access to quality healthcare services during pregnancy and postpartum remains a challenge, particularly for those living in remote communities, raising great anxiety and fear of the unknown with Obstetric Fistula (OBF) being one of such dreaded issues.

Obstetric Fistula (OBF) remains one of the most devastating childbirth injuries predominantly found among women and girls living in remote communities without access to emergency obstetric care.

It is a serious medical condition and debilitating childbirth injury resulting from prolonged obstructed labour in the absence of emergency obstetric (medical) care such as a caesarean section (CS) and the delay causes the pressure on the bab
y’s head, which gets locked up within the birth canal to press against the bladder and rectum, creating an abnormal hole.

Sufferers are left with uncontrollable leakage of urine, faeces or both, and this can destroy a woman’s life due to the physical, social and psychological trauma if not urgently corrected.

PREVALENCE

It is estimated that globally, about 500,000 women and girls are living with fistula with new cases being recorded annually, and Ghana’s statistics reveal a worrying 1,300 annual record of cases, predominantly from the three northern regions (Upper East, Upper West and Northern), as well as the Central and Savannah regions.

OBF can be linked to poverty, lack of, or limited education and access to quality healthcare services.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) therefore aims to eradicate OBF by 2030 and urges countries to accelerate progress towards achieving this goal.

PARTNERSHIPS

Based on the premise the ‘Partnerships to End Obstetric Fistula in Ghana’ (PEFIG), was launched in 2023 t
o drive a seven-year campaign to end OBF in Ghana by accelerating repairs and reintegration of fistula cases to reduce the prevalence.

It involves a group of organisations committed to mobilising the needed funding by engaging various actors in Government, corporate Ghana, all well-meaning Ghanaians and philanthropies to donate generously to support the cost of surgical repairs for at least 200 women and girls living with fistula annually and ensure their effective reintegration into communities after full recovery.

The partners include Access Bank Ghana, Fidelity Bank, AT (Airtel Tigo), World Food Programme (WFP), the Office of the First Lady, Ministry of Health (MOH), Ghana Health Service (GHS), the Gender Department of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP), the Media and Communication Advocacy Network (MCAN), and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Dr Chris Opoku Fofie, the Deputy Director for Reproductive Health, GHS, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the
role of the Service within PEFIG is to provide technical expertise through its medical staff for counselling and the surgeries targeted to initially achieve an estimated 100 cases of OBF repairs annually.

However, locating the cases has been a major difficulty as sufferers often shy away from seeking medical care, hiding their condition from the public due to fear of stigmatisation.

He explains that since majority of women with OBF live in remote communities with limited access to quality healthcare services and transportations reaching out to them becomes very difficult without the support of their communities.

Presently, there are no specific data to show an increase in fistula cases in Ghana, ‘what pertains is that there is a backlog of unrepaired cases because of the lapses in finding these women on time to access the free services’.

The GHS’s strategy for mobilising the cases has been through its staff at Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds and other volunteers within these
localities.

Dr Fofie said in collaboration with the Mercy Women’s Catholic Hospital at Mankessim in the Central Region, 30 women were repaired with an additional 15 cases treated in the Upper West Regional Hospital in 2023.

OBF is a product of abandoned labour and poor access to obstetric care, and the hidden cases cannot be easily identified unless community structures are put in place to help reach out to these women and girls.

PARTNER’S STRATEGY

Mr Olumide Olatunji, the Managing Director, Access Bank, said it was now the time to collaborate with a lot more stakeholders to intensify advocacy against stigma and attract funds to finance more surgeries for affected women and girls.

He said Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an integral part of the Bank’s sustainability strategy and underpins most of its business decisions, cutting across everything it does.

Access Bank is spearheading the fight and involving other key stakeholders to drive its ‘Fist against Fistula Campaign,’ as part of its larger
objective to support Ghana in meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in response to the high incidence of fistula cases in the country.

He made a clarion call for more corporate bodies to join in the fight.

Mr David-Akindele Oluwaseun, the Head of Corporate Communications of Access Bank Ghana, said the Bank’s attention was first drawn to the issue of OBF by a customer Mrs Helena Stephens, the Managing Director of Kaysens Group in 2018, with a proposition for funding for surgical repairs for these women.

This led to its collaboration with the Ministry of Health through the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the United Nations Population Fund which is the UN’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Agency in Ghana, among other partners.

He said the Bank is passionate about women, hence it has through its ‘W’ Initiative (it ensures financial inclusion for women), been championing courses that ensure that women thrive in whatever endeavours they find themselves in, be it in life, education, and business
among others.

‘We have sustainability-driven as a cardinal principle in our CSR under education, environment, entrepreneurship and health,’ he said.

Mr Oluwaseun said in this quest, the Bank’s focus for the past three years has been to intensify its fistula campaign in partnership with MOH, Kaysens Group, Mercy Women’s Catholic Hospital, and National Task Team for Eliminating OBF, the Gender Ministry, and UNFPA with an initial pledge of treating at least 100 fistula patients a year.

He said as part of the campaign a 10-kilometre Walk dubbed ’10 for 10′ was organised across the country signifying the Bank’s 10th Anniversary celebrations in Ghana, aimed at raising public awareness and education on the condition to avoid stigma against sufferers, but encouraging them to go for treatment.

It was also in furtherance to the Bank’s commitment to securing charitable funds for the National Task Team for the Elimination of Obstetric Fistula, which had been mandated by the Government to oversee and coordinate fistul
a interventions in the country.

He said the Campaign which has been in phases, has yielded significant funding contributions allowing for the restoration of dignity to nearly 200 patients and making Access Bank the single largest private contributor towards OBF repairs in Ghana.

Mr Oluwaseun said going forward, Access Bank is poised to strengthen awareness creation to help eliminate stigma and intensify its fund-raising efforts and appeals to other corporate institutions to join in mobilising more domestic funds to accelerate progress towards achieving the UN goal of ending OBF by 2030.

Dr Wilfred Ochan, the UNFPA Country Representative, has said the partnership brings a comparative advantage to deliver towards the fistula work in Ghana, applauding each partner for their contribution.

Annually on May 23rd, the world observes the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula, and the 2024 theme ‘Breaking the Cycle: Preventing Fistula Worldwide,’ is a call on all to ensure the elimination of existing inequalit
ies in access to essential healthcare for all, removing all barriers to maternal health and enhancing investment to improve on national strategies towards eliminating fistula especially, among developing countries.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The 2024 Korea Week celebrations ended with more interactive activities and positive reviews on Korea culture from students who joined the sessions at the University of Ghana campus.

Hosted by the Embassy of Korea, the two-day event was to promote cultural exchange and strengthen relations between Korea and Ghana.

On Saturday, hundreds of students gathered at the Institute of Social, Statistical and Economic Research, ISSER, to sample everything Korean, including cuisines, costumes, fun games, music and Korea drama series.

Some 15 students took part in the Korea-pop contest, exhibiting their skills on various aspects of Korea music and dance, and other exciting events in line with the country’s pop culture.

At the end of proceedings, Joel Amanor, emerged winner of the K-pop contest with Dahlia Taekyiwaa, and Kezia Sarpong, taking second and third places respectively.

Variety of Korean dishes and beverages later featured at a mini-exhibition, where participants tasted rice meals, soups, and snacks prepare
d by Korean chefs and cooks.

Mr Park Kyongsig, Korea Ambassador to Ghana, expressed satisfaction at the events, indicating that the Embassy would consider other avenues for ‘building stronger partnerships’.

Early on Friday, the Ambassador spoke about various areas of collaboration between Korea and Ghana and urged the students to support developmental efforts.

The lively sessions, on Friday and Saturday, proved many students were well-vexed in Korean culture, mainly through engagement with media content from Asia.

Josphine Naa Adorkor Acquaye, a graduate who won the Korea Quiz contest, spoke about learning the language through mobile applications and movies.

‘I have been learning Korean for three years now…Since I graduated last year, I started to learn it more. I used language applications as well as Tiktok and Instagram…I listen to Korean music and get the translation of their lyrics. Early last year, I got a personal Korean teacher,’ she told the Ghana News Agency.

Other participants were impressed w
ith the insight gained through the Korea Week celebrations and activities, saying they may travel to the country in future to have first-hand experience of the culture.

‘The ambience created here is welcoming and I will encourage other people to learn about other cultures and get to know other people.

‘The experience here is great, Koreans have very high morals, their meals are healthy…they are hospitable and I won’t mind moving there,’ another female participant said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

A group of 26 selected fisheries officers of the Fisheries Commission of Ghana have benefited from specialised fish health and biosecurity training, with support from the UK Government.

This brings to 56 the number of officers trained with support from the Animal Health System Strengthening Project (AHSS), a UK overseas development assistance (ODA) project managed by the UK government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

An official statement copied the Ghana Need Agency in Accra, said the training took place in Kumasi with practical sessions run at the Ghana Fisheries Commission’s Pilot Aquaculture Centre at Kona-Odumase.

It said though crucial to detecting, controlling, and preventing known and emerging aquatic diseases, these officers have never previously received fish health and formal biosecurity training.

‘Through AHSS’ partnership with the Fisheries Commission, Ghana’s national capacity for effective fish health disease surveillance and diagnosis will be enhanced.

‘The in
tervention is expected to help integrate aquatic health systems into Ghana’s overall health security framework and further cements the strong partnership between the UK and Ghana in the area of development and science,’ it added.

The training was delivered by four trained Ghanaian veterinarians, who work with the Fisheries Commission, supported by visiting experts from the Fish Health Inspectorate of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), one of Defra’s science agencies, responsible for delivering the AHSS project.

The statement said the trained officers would be guided to utilize the skills and knowledge gained to promote fish disease prevention and management strategies as part of the extension services for fish farmers across the country.

They would also promote sustainable development of aquaculture, it explained.

The UK experts and Ghanaian veterinarians engaged the fisheries officers in both practical and classroom sessions to enhance both their knowledge and skills.

F
ish mortality and disease investigation scenarios were devised to test officers’ knowledge.

Best practice biosecurity measures for aquaculture were discussed and identified risk mitigation measures were reviewed.

Issues of poor water quality, fish stocking, fish husbandry, disinfections methods, antimicrobial use, and resistance (AMR), and standardised data recording documents and templates were introduced to the officers.

The Animal Health Systems Strengthening (AHSS) project in Ghana, is part of a flagship Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding bilateral technical partnership between the United Kingdom’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and countries in Africa, including Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, and The Gambia.

The AHSS project complements efforts made by national government and other key stakeholders to achieve SD Goals 1, 2 and 3 (Zero Poverty, Zero Hunger, Good Health and Wellbeing) and other high level strategic objectives including the African Union (AU) Agenda 206
3, and zero by 2030: The global strategic plan to end human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Environmental and food crop research scientists have been called to embrace collaborative research and forge stronger partnerships to come out with practical and evidence-based outcomes that will help promote environmental sustainability.

Madam Ophelia Mensah Hayford, Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation (MESTI), who made the call, said environmental sustainability was a priority of the government and that initiatives that promoted climate-smart agriculture were essential for achieving environmental objectives.

Madam Hayford made the call at the launch of the ‘Agroecology and circular economy for ecosystems services (ACE4ES) project at the Crops Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-CRI) at Fumesua, in the Ejisu Municipality.

The two-year project, which is being financed by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition of the United Nations Environmental Programme, seeks to adopt agroecology and circular economy to reduce emissions in rice and maize p
roduction.

It is currently being implemented in Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, and Tanzania and has the aim of assessing the effectiveness of agroecology and circular economy technologies in reducing short-lived climate pollutants emissions from agricultural activities.

It is expected that a new land management in agriculture will be developed to adopt agroecology principles such as no tillage, minimal tillage, cover cropping and rotational cropping that can reduce the burning often observed in conventional agriculture and ensure improved yields of rice and maize.

The initiative will engage policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders to promote the adoption of agroecology and circular economy practices and facilitate policy formulation for sustainable agriculture.

The Minister pointed out that, the ACE4ES project with its focus on agroecology and circular economy practices aligned perfectly with the Ministry’s vision for greener and more resilient agricultural practices in the future.

She called on stakeholders
to take advantage of the various policy initiatives including the MESTI Visibility Webinar Series, Campaign and Initiatives on Plastics and E-waste, climate resilience issues among others, to reach out and create more opportunities within the environment.

Dr Kwaku Onwona-Hwesofour Asante, the Project Lead, said the initiative was informed by the challenges in the current food system, adding that, there were a lot of inputs that made agriculture unproductive.

He observed that many pesticides and fertilizers were used in farming and these inputs affected pollinators, soil diversity, and water bodies.

‘Agriculture has been environmentally degradative, and we are hoping that we can adopt a new approach which is agroecology and include circular economy principles in agriculture to ensure that we not only produce food sustainably but also mitigate the effects of climate change.’

According to researchers, food systems were a major cause of climate change, contributing to about 21-37 percent of the total greenhou
se gas emissions through agriculture, land use, storage, transport, packaging, processing, retail, and consumption.

Dr Asante said it was expected that by the end of the two-year period, researchers could scale up the technologies to other countries on the continent and beyond to enable farmers adopt sustainable agricultural practices that would boost food production and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Professor Paul Pinnock Bosu, Director-General of CSIR, described the project as a ‘game changer’ as far as sustainable land management and economic development were concerned.

He said since the model could be applied on any agro ecosystem, it was important partners and stakeholders ensured that project objectives were delivered on time to increase donor funding for future extensions.

Source: Ghana News Agency

It will take a common voice from the Christian and Muslim communities in Ghana to get a presidential assent for the Anti-Gay Bill recently passed by parliament to become law, Sheikh Dr. Al-Hussein Zakaria, an Islamic Scholar, has posited.

The Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill is yet to be signed into law by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo despite being passed unanimously by both sides of the legislative arm of government.

The Presidency has cited pending lawsuits against the Bill in court as reason the President is unable to sign the Bill into law

However, Dr. Zakaria believes the two dominant religions in the country could force the President to sign the Bill with a common voice rather than the current individualistic approach to the advocacy

‘Get Christians and Muslims together one day rising up to say we want the Bill passed and it will be passed,’ he told the Ghana News Agency in an interview on the side lines of a training for religious leaders on violent extremism at Ejisu in
the Ashanti Region.

He said the reluctance on the part of the President in signing the Bill into law was because Christians and Muslims had not come together to demand for the right thing to be done with one voice.

According to him, if the two religions did not work together for the common good of the citizenry, politicians would continue to relax in addressing pertinent issues affecting the very people who put them in office.

‘It is our collective responsibility as Christians and Muslims to get the Bill passed into law and we cannot achieve this without working together for a common cause,’ he insisted.

The Islamic Scholar further stated that, ‘If we have common concerns, why do we want to work for the results independently from each other?

He said it was important to build coalitions when advocating for things that were beneficial to the entire population, saying that approaching such issues individually often yielded little results.

As moral voices of society, it would be a huge disservice to Ghanaia
ns if the leadership of the two religions fail to get the Bill passed to uphold Ghanaian family values as a people, he opined.

BOKASS marks 30 years anniversary

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr. King Cofie Faska, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Faska King Farms, says the cost of producing fish is crippling the aquaculture sector.

Mr. Faska attributed the high cost of production to the rising cost of fish feed, electricity, water, and major tools needed for the smooth running of the farm.

He told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview that production costs have been rising over the years, and that has been a major bane, resulting in some of the farmers shutting down their businesses.

He said the fish feed was a major part of the business as it contains maize, fish meal, soy meal, groundnut cake, and other micronutrients that are important ingredients needed to produce well-balanced feed for the fish; therefore, an increase in its cost would affect the productivity of the farm.

The CEO added that feeds that were low in quality could affect the growth of the fish and sometimes even lead to some malnutrition in them; therefore, getting alternatives was not advised.

He said fish were a majo
r source of animal protein for Ghanaians, hence the need to adopt best fish practices and purchase the best ingredients needed for fish growth and survival.

Mr. Faska explained that with catfish, for instance, the water containing the fish needed to be changed twice a week, and farmers using boreholes needed electricity to pump water into the fishpond, adding that failure to change the water could lead to mortalities.

He mentioned that the aquaculture industry had become a major source of employment for the youth in the country and therefore appealed to the authorities to find solutions to the production problems to encourage the youth to produce on a small scale for survival and not close the business.

He called on the government to consider waiving taxes on the main ingredients needed for feed production to enable the farmers to produce more fish for both consumption and exportation.

Mr. Faska said the government’s investment in the sector could boost production, increase the employment rate in the sect
or, and have a positive impact on the country’s gross domestic product.

Source: Ghana News Agency