Day: July 16, 2021

Tamale,- The Regional Institute of Population Studies (RIPS) of the University of Ghana, in collaboration with the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly (TaMA), has handed over a refurbished adolescents health centre to residents of Kpanvu community in the Tamale Metropolis.

The refurbished centre is stocked with books, television, games and other learning materials to help the youth access information on their sexual and reproductive health rights.

The facility, “Adolescents Friendly Health Corner (AFHC),” is under the RIPS’ Healthy Cities for Adolescents (HCA) project, being implemented, in collaboration with TaMA and other partners, with funding support from the Botnar Foundation.

The HCA project being implemented in Tamale Metropolis seeks to build a multi-stakeholder consortium with the capacity to use evidence-based information for strategic programming to enhance adolescents health and general well being towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The AFHC would provide an enabling environment for adolescents to confidently share issues relating to their reproductive health with health officials to get the right information to help improve their wellbeing.

Mrs Clara Lamisi Weobong, HCA Project Field Programme Officer in Tamale, who spoke during the handing over ceremony, said it was important for adolescents to have a friendly environment to confidently share and discuss their sexual and reproductive needs with health professionals.

She said most adolescents were uncomfortable sharing their reproductive health needs at health facilities hence the need to provide an enabling environment that could take care of their needs.

Mrs Weobong said, “Some of our adolescents feel they are too young to be engaging in issues of reproductive health in the public and because of this, some have made wrong choices due to non-availability of facilities that could protect their privacy.”

Madam Elizabeth Atindana of the Public Health Directorate of the TaMA, who received the facility on behalf of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), expressed gratitude to the HCA project, saying it would enable the adolescents to make positive choices on their reproductive health needs.

Ms Zakaria Hafsah, an adolescent in the Kpanvu community, said, “This centre will give us the confidence to explore, discuss and learn more on methods to enhance our sexual and reproductive health needs.”

Source: Ghana News Agency

Tema,- Isaac Parker Yeboah, who was killed in an accident on the Tema Harbour dual carriageway on Wednesday, July 7, was not registered with the Uber ride-hailing service network.

The 28-year old, who was driving a Nissan Versa Saloon car, with registration number GR 9685-21, according to the Police, crashed into a moving construction vehicle, which had extended into his lane, in the night.

In an earlier report on the accident, the Police said Yeboah, who had two passengers on board his vehicle, was working with Uber.

This, they explained, was based on the information given by his family member.

However, Ivy Shirinda, a Conversation Architect at JNPR, Uber’s PR Agency, has told the GNA that Yeboah was not working for their network.

“At Uber the safety of all drivers and riders is our main priority.

From the information provided such as, the vehicle make, and registration number, Uber’s Incident Response team looked into their records and found that there is no active registered under these details,” Ms Shirinda wrote.

This information was later corroborated by Ms Anna Mensah, one of the passengers involved in the accident.

She told the GNA that she requested the services of another ride-hailing company, but not Uber.

According to the Tema Regional Motor Transport and Traffic Directorate, Yeboah was driving in the inner lane of the carriageway from the Tema Motorway intersection towards the Valco roundabout.

However, on reaching a section of the road opposite the Tema Technical Institute, it ran into the moving heavy duty vehicle, with registration number GT 9258-18, which had extended its bull beyond the central reserve pavement into the lane of the saloon car.

The impact ripped off the roof of the car, killing Yeboah instantly.

The passengers were rushed to the hospital but have since been treated and discharged.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra,- Management of Stanbic Bank Friday commended Constable Prince Fordjour of the National SWAT Unit for his honesty by returning GH¢2,000 he found at the Stanbic ATM at Abeka Total Filling Station to the Bank.

The officer was said to have found the money dropping from the ATM on July 3, 2021, with no recipient present to collect the cash.

The Bank, in expressing its appreciation to the Police Officer, opened an investment fund of GH¢4,000 with their sister company, Stanbic Investment Management Services, a current account worth GH¢1,000, a gift voucher worth GH¢1,000 and assorted souvenir from the Bank.

Mr Mawuko Afadzinu, the Head of Marketing and Communication, Stanbic Bank Ghana, said Constable Fordjour, in the course of his duty, came across the GH¢2,000 at the ATM, picked the money and gave it to Chief Superintendent Theodore Hlormenu, the Commander in charge of National SWAT.

He said Chief Hlornemu took the money to Stanbic Bank and the Bank thought it prudent to show appreciation to the police officer for the gesture.

Mr Afadzinu urged other officers to follow the exemplary life of Constable Fordjour and lift the image of the police higher.

The Inspector General of Police, Mr James Oppong-Boanuh, also presented a cash of GH¢5,000 to Constable Fourdjour for exhibiting a high sense of integrity, which he said epitomized the motto of the Ghana Police Service.

He commended Stanbic Bank for honouring the police officer, stressing that the gesture would motivate him to do more and encourage others to emulate his honesty.

He said the action of the Police Officer had showed that there were majority of police personnel who executed their duties with integrity.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, has deferred action on a motion for the National Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Sammy Gyamfi, to be hauled before the Privileges Committee.

The MP for Tolon, Habib Iddrisu, filed a motion on the floor requesting the Speaker to refer Sammy Gyamfi to the Committee for making comments he deems contemptuous to Parliament.

This is in relation to Mr. Gyamfi’s comments about the approval of some Ministers for the Akufo-Addo administration.

In comments on Facebook, Mr. Gyamfi described the handling of certain minister-nominees as a betrayal .

The NDC had opposed three of the approvals; Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, minister-designate for Information; Hawa Koomson, minister-designate for Fisheries and Aquaculture and Owusu Afriyie Akoto, minister-designate for Food and Agriculture.

His remarks singled out the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu; the Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak and even the NDC-backed Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin.

“They brazenly defied the leadership of the party and betrayed the collective good for their selfish interest,” Mr. Gyamfi said.

Habib Iddrisu, making the case for Sammy Gyamfi to be referred to the Committee, cited order 38 of Parliament’s standing orders and said: “the following act or conduct shall constitute a breach of privilege or contempt of Parliament.”

Before today, the Tafo Pankorono MP, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, had pushed for Parliament to cite Mr. Gyamfi for contempt .

He had said the comments by Mr. Gyamfi were an attack on the Speaker of Parliament and Parliament as an institution.

Source: Modern Ghana

Accra,– The Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly (KoKMA) Friday decongested the Ministries and Osu enclave as part of the “Let’s make Accra work” campaign, initiated by the Greater Accra Regional Minister.

The exercise, which would be in phases, is to beautify the city, specifically the Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly.

Nii Adjei Tawiah, the Korle Klottey Municipal Chief Executive, said the exercise, spearheaded by the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council, had gone on for two months and the Assembly had begun its first phase.

He said the Assembly took steps to inform traders within the Municipality to remove all unauthorised structures from the pavements and reservations, before July 16.

“People have placed all sorts of structures anywhere they like in the city, and so we gave them notices and came back to engage most of them. Even yesterday at about 0700 hours we were around Railway Electoral Area reminding them about the intended exercise, and so they know, but have paid deaf ears,” he said.

Nii Tawiah said they begun with the Ministries area because when visitors came to transact business, that was their first point of call and it was not very nice to have some of those structures around.

“We want them to send good messages about Ghana,” he said.

Nii Tawiah said that was one of their mandates as city authorities to ensure that pedestrian walk ways were not blocked and water ways were left clear.

“If we do not put in a little more action, the objective of this campaign will not be achieved,” he said.

On the issue of sustainability, the MCE said Ghanaians seemed to have been awaken to that fact that a clean environment was healthy and had bought into the campaign.

He said all the assemblies within the Region had taken it up and so it would be difficult for the squatters to go back.

“Most of them do not have permission to be where they are and we may not be able to afford to resettle everybody, but in some cases where there are spaces, we have engaged for places for them to go and sell,” he said.

Mr James Cobbina, one of the affected traders at Osu, said they were only given two weeks to vacate the area, which was not enough.

“Since the notices was served to us, I have not been able to work because I have been looking for a place to relocate, and I am yet to get one, that is why I have not moved.”

He said he had done business at the place for the past eight years and on daily basis he paid tolls to the Assembly and also paid some monies yearly.

“I do metal works and sell spare parts as well, I have invested so much in this business, but just in a day all my efforts have gone down the drain, they should have given us more time to vacate the place.”

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra,- Dr Yaw Baah, the Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Ghana, has called on government to involve the leadership of Union bodies in negotiations and management of public agreements.

He said the Union body had experts who could work with government in negotiating contracts on behalf of the country to ensure value for money.

Dr Baah made the call at a TUC seminar on “Negotiation and Management of Public Agreements in Ghana – The Role of the Trade Unions”.

He said the country was endowed with natural resources but poor contract negotiations had affected its fortunes in terms of development.

“Ghana has been mining gold over 120 years, but foreigners are making lot of money to the detriment of the citizenry. There is poor road infrastructure in most of these mining communities coupled with hunger and poverty,” he stated.

Dr Baah called on Civil Society Organisations and other bodies to join the TUC to lead the process of creating the political will for government to involve key stakeholders in negotiating agreements.

He cited the Volta River Authority agreement in the 1960s, which was reviewed by Ghanaian experts like Professor George Akilakpa Sawyerr, an Academia, who got a better deal for the country.

He expressed disappointment over Parliament’s alleged approval of some contract documents without due diligence.

“It is worrying that some of these Parliamentarians approve these contracts because they do not understand the technicalities involved in the document while others do not have enough time to peruse the voluminous documents,” he said.

Dr Kwabena Nyarko Otoo, the Director, Labour Research and Policy Institute, TUC-Ghana, who presented a “Research Analysis of Negotiation and Management of Public Agreement in Ghana,” noted that from 2011 to 2016, the country had experienced extended blackouts – “dumsor”- largely due to generation problem of higher demand over supply of energy.

The generation, he noted, had since increased far in excess of energy demand with current projections being that no additional power generation would be needed until 2027.

But the energy sector faced monumental challenges of unreliability of power, mounting debts, rising tariffs and low investment, Dr Otoo said, and called for capacity building for government appointees on contract negotiations.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Cinkasse (Togo),– The Ghana Boundary Commission and the Togo Lands Commission, through dialogue, have been able to resolve the long standing boundary dispute with reference to the Pulmakom border in the Pusiga District of the Upper East Region.

The stakeholders at the dialogue, which took place at Cinkasse in Togo, agreed that per the legal and national demarcation documents prepared in the 1920s, the Kolpelig River was the official boundary separating the two countries.

Major General Dr Emmanuel Kotia, the National Coordinator, Ghana Boundary Commission, said after a joint discussion and visit to the places of contention, the two countries had clearly understood and appreciated the issue and had resolved to let peace prevail.

It would be recalled that there had been an unresolved pillar and landmark boundary issue between Ghana and Togo, especially along the Kolpelig River, one of the tributaries of the White Volta situated between Konugu in Togo and Gariki and Beliting communities in Ghana.

While the local and traditional authorities at Cinkasse in Togo claimed that the boundary was beyond the river towards Gariki, their counterparts at Pusiga debunked the claim and insisted that the river was the accurate boundary between the two countries.

The situation led to the Togolese authorities preventing their counterparts in Ghana from constructing a bridge at the Gariki community and extending electricity to the Beliting community.

Dr Kotia explained that there was a map produced in 1927 that had the Kolpelig River situated as the internationally accepted demarcation boundary, which was misunderstood by some section of Togolese.

“We have had a very fruitful discussion between the Ghana Boundary Commission and the Togo Boundary Commission and we have jointly gone round to the areas of contention and have both agreed that we will both go by the legal document that was established, so far as the boundary is concerned, in 1927,” he said.

“We have also agreed that places which were not opened to Ghana should now be opened ….and the Togolese have also come to the understanding that our security agencies should now patrol the areas.”

Dr Kotia, a Defence and Security Expert, noted that the boundary commissions of the two countries would work together to construct and replant new boundary pillars to avoid reoccurrence of disputes.

Major General Kotia said the mandate of the Ghana Boundary Commission was to work to resolve boundary disputes.

Mr Douti Lardja, the Secretary of the Land Commission in Togo, affirmed that the Kolpelig River was the boundary between the two countries and reiterated Togo’s commitment to abiding by the agreement.

He called on the traditional authorities in both Cinkasse and Pulmakom to sensitise their subjects to fully appreciate that the Kolpelig River was the internationally accepted demarcation.

Traditional authorities of Cinkasse and Pulmakom attended the meeting.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Imax Media has secured the television production rights for the newly introduced Division One League and Women’s Premier League Super Cup. This follows an announcement on ghanafa.org two months ago inviting bids for the television rights of the two novel competitions.

The Division One League Super Cup, specially created for the best performing clubs at the end of the on-going Division One League season is expected to take off in September 2021.

The Super Cup is for winners of each zone, second-placed teams in each zone and two of the third best-placed teams at the end of the season.

Similarly, the Women’s Premier League Super Cup will be competed among teams who finished in the top four – two from each zone of the Women’s Premier League.

The GFA is introducing this new competition to give clubs more games outside the League by adding to the limited number of matches that are played in the course of the season.

The Mini tournament also aims to give additional incentive to clubs and players ahead of the new season.

Imax Group is a fully-owned Ghanaian private multimedia broadcasting organization that operates one television and two radio channels, namely: Max TV – A digital terrestrial free-to-air channel based in Accra and Max FM – (Accra)| Maximum FM (Takoradi).

iMax is also a stakeholder with StarTimes, a broadcast organization that runs a

Satellite pay TV service, and StarTimes ON App.
The Multinational broadcast company were the only outfit that submitted bids in the bidding process. Deadline for submission of bids was on or before Wednesday, June 30, 2021.

Source: Modern Ghana