Day: September 21, 2021

The South African Football Association (Safa) says it has held ‘encouraging’ talks with Fifa over a bid to host December’s Club World Cup.

South Africa has expressed a keen interest in staging the tournament after Japan withdrew as hosts earlier this month citing concerns over coronavirus.

Safa president Danny Jordaan travelled to Nigeria last week to discuss South Africa’s possible hosting plans with Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, and its secretary-general, Fatma Samoura.

“The talks were very, very encouraging,” Safa’s head of communications, Dominic Chimhavi, told BBC Sport Africa.

“The president had a chat with the Fifa hierarchy, which includes the president and the secretary-general, and with Confederation of African Football president Patrice Motsepe.

“We have written an official letter to Fifa to ask them about the terms of reference with regards to what is needed for South Africa to host the [Club] World Cup. So everything is all systems go as far as we are concerned.”

Fifa has yet to announce if it has received other bids to host the event, which features six continental club champions and the host nation’s league champions, or if it will open a tender process for countries keen to do so.

Chimhavi added that many cities, including Johannesburg and Cape Town, which hosted World Cup matches in 2010 are interested in staging games.

He is also confident that the plans will get the backing of the South African government, which is vital to Safa’s chances.

“The Fifa secretary general spent almost a week in South Africa a couple of weeks ago,” he explained. “One of the assurances she got from the Minister of Sport was that South Africa is ready to host any major tournament at any given time.”

Nonetheless, South Africa’s continued presence on the British government’s red list – which means anyone returning to the United Kingdom from the country must quarantine for 10 days in an approved hotel – is a complicating factor.

Such regulations would make it difficult for European champions Chelsea to play in a South Africa-based Club World Cup unless the country’s Covid-19 situation improves.

“Our numbers are declining and our vaccination drive is one of the most impressive on the continent,” Chimhavi rallied.

“In the coming months, you might discover that South Africa is one of the safest places to visit because we have an aggressive campaign to make sure that each and everyone is vaccinated. We take this Covid-19 issue seriously.”

“Since we raised our hands in regards to this issue, we have been working closely and constantly with the Minister of Sport. We have been working constantly with the Minister of Health with regards to making sure that everything – concerning Covid regulations – is above board.”

BBC Sport Africa has asked Fifa when a decision will be made about the replacement Club World Cup host but has yet to receive clarification.

Source: Modern Ghana

A former Sports Minister, Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye has said the Ghana Football Association [GFA] should focus on building a long term for the Black Stars and forget about playing in the 2022 Fifa World Cup.

The West African country having missed out on the last edition hosted in Russia in 2018 are bent on making it to the global showpiece next year.

However, after two matches played, the Black Stars sit in 3rd place in Group G.

The team’s shaky start of the qualifying games led to the sacking of CK Akonnor, who was the head coach for the team, together with his two assistants.

Milovan Rajevac is set to be reappointed as the Black Stars coach but Vanderpuye believes Ghana must let go their ambition to participate in Qatar 2022 and rather concentrate on planning long term by putting the right structures in plan.

According to the law maker, the current national team strategy will not yield positive results.

“I will subscribe to ditching the World Cup campaign,” the Member of Parliament for Odododiodio Constituency said on Citi TV’s Face to Face show.

“We cannot achieve results with this current mentality and strategy where we invite players, assemble them to play a match and leave.

“We should plan and build a national team where we have a structure to teams in the lower categories.

“We should set targets for the next 20 years for our teams winning the world cup at different levels.

“We should have a technical structure and have a director to draw up programs for the entire set-up to make use of,” he stated.

Ghana play Zimbabwe next in the World Cup qualifiers on October 6th at home and October 10th away from home.

The Black Stars have played in 2006, 2010 and 2014 in Germany, South Africa and Brazil respectively.

Source: Modern Ghana

Cape Coast,- The Foods and Drugs Authority (FDA) has expressed worry over the influx of Substandard and Fortified (SF) medicines on the Ghanaian market and had warned that it will not hesitate to seize and safely dispose them.

The Authority has therefore implored stakeholders to support its efforts by reporting suspicious activities involving SF medicines for them to be halted immediately to protect the health and safety of Ghanaians.

Addressing participants at a stakeholders’ meeting in Cape Coast on the issue, Head of Communications and Public Education at the FDA, Mrs. Rhoda Appiah, indicated that the FDA’s Post Market surveillances continued to raise concerns about the availability of substandard medicines.

They include, especially uterotonics, she added and warned of its dire effect on maternal mortality.

The stakeholders meeting organised by the FDA with support from the World Health Organisation (WHO), was attended by representatives of the pharmaceutical society of Ghana, health institutions, GPRTU, Over the Counter medicine sellers Association and the media.

It formed part of a comprehensive risk communications approach by the FDA to raise awareness on Substandard and Falsified medicines.

Participants discussed the various initiatives being employed by the FDA to combat the sale and use of substandard medicines and its associated challenges.

They as well explored ways by which stakeholders could assist the efforts of the FDA to adequately address the menace.

She noted that SF medicines mostly entered the country through unapproved routes and that the sustained collaborative efforts of stakeholders and practitioners would go a long way to reduce the illicit trade of SF medicines in the country.

She gave an overview of the counterfeit medicine situation in Ghana and stressed that “if the product is not registered it is a first point of call for you to be concern as a consumer”.

She indicated that although the incidence of counterfeit antimalarials on the Ghanaian market had reduced significantly from 39.6 percent in 2009 to 1.4 percent in 2018, uterotonics remained a major challenge with almost 50 percent counterfeit on the market.

What was even worrying, she indicated, was the fact that such counterfeit medicines were not only found in the pharmacies, but in the hospitals and health facilities as well and called on health institutions and practitioners to support the course.

She the threat of counterfeit medicines not being able to treat a specific ailment and ultimately deteriorate one’s health condition was eroding the confidence people had in the health system.

Mrs. Appiah Mentioned the country’s porous borders leading to smuggling from neighbouring countries, weak pharmaceutical regulatory oversight in neighbouring countries, inadequate funding for product quality monitoring and market surveillance as some of the challenges the FDA faced.

She stressed the need for capacity building for investigation, intelligence gathering, inspections and collation of evidence for prosecution of offenders.

Mr. John Odai-Tettey, Regional Head of the FDA, said the WHO estimated that one in ten medical products in low- and middle-income countries were substandard and considered a multi-million-dollar business that claimed the lives of millions around the World.

He noted that SF medicines continued to be the bane of the developing World of which Ghana was not an exception.

Mr Odai-Tettey spoke about efforts the Authority was making with neighbouring countries through the West Africa Health Organisation (WAHO) and the International Police to combat the menace.

To consolidate the gains, he said the FDA would continue to heighten its surveillance at the ports of entry.

Source: Ghana News Agency

With the ongoing closure of beaches across Ghana, dozens of Beach Soccer teams continue to train and play friendly matches on the low key and without crowds behind closed doors.

However, the patience and resilience of players, officials and coaches over the past 18 months will soon pay off following confirmation by the Ghana Football Association of a FIFA Beach Soccer Coaching Course in the Ghanaian capital in November.

Although Beach Soccer competitions have returned elsewhere across Africa, including the Afcon tournament successfully staged in Senegal, Ghana has been left out of the equation due to the ban on activities at beaches.

The Afcon in Senegal was followed by the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Russia where Mozambique and five times African Champions Senegal made their mark with impressive victories over previous World Champions Portugal and Brazil.

According to a release by GFA Communications, the FIFA Coaches Course will be open to coaches from all registered Beach Soccer Clubs in the country from the 23rd to 26th November 2021.

At least 30 coaches are expected to participate in the course to be led by seasoned FIFA Beach Soccer Instructor Angelo Schirinzi.

This would be only the second time that Beach Soccer Clubs in Ghana have had the opportunity to undertake such a course since 2014 when FIFA Instructor Talib Hilal coordinated a one week course in Prampram for 20 Coaches.

GFA Technical Director Benhard Lippert and Director of Coaching Education Prof Joseph Mintah will be coordinating the course.

Ghana Beach Soccer stakeholders are confident that the lifting of the ban on activities at Beaches across Ghana would be announced soon to allow them step up their activities and competitions.

Meanwhile, non-traditional Beach Soccer communities in the Eastern, Ashanti and Oti regions are set to host a number of competitions away from beaches by transporting sand for beach soccer pitches.

Source: Modern Ghana

Takoradi,- Dr. Nana Ato Arthur, Head of the Local Government Service, has called on Ghanaian specialists in the Diaspora to begin thinking about home, to help build a desirable Ghana.

“No matter what problems confront us as a nation, the Ghanaian diaspora need to learn from the Chinese, Japanese and the South Koreans who learnt and acquired some skills from the West and still left for their countries in spite of the challenges that confronted their countries at the time”.

He intimated that Ghanaians at home and abroad were the only people who could build the country and that should be a challenge to all and sundry.

Dr. Ato Arthur said this when he launched the GIZ Returning Experts Alumni Network of Ghana (RANG) Programme for Migration & Diaspora (PMD) in Takoradi in the Western Region.

The Network Ghana would create the needed ambience and related structures to foster knowledge sharing across the borders of Ghana and Germany, through migrant experts of Ghanaian origin.

He said more than 50 percent of tertiary educated citizens from over 20 developing countries left their countries to work abroad, while at the same time these countries were spending huge sums of their hard-earned scarce resources on expatriates from developed countries.

The concept of brain drain was seen as a loss of investment by the respective countries because most of the professionals had enjoyed their training from their indigenous countries, he pointed out.

“Over time however, even though the desire by young Ghanaians to go abroad to study and acquire skills have increased with the desire to come home and support the development of the nation after their education and training dwindling”.

The Head of the local government service said many factors accounted for this situation, prominent among them were the relatively downward trend of the economy compared to the post-independence era, what some Ghanaian diaspora see as indiscipline, dishonesty and the moral bankruptcy.

The corruption and the seeming ease with which crimes, including murders were committed in the country of late scared many, coupled with limited job opportunities to them also becomes a disincentive for them to want to come to Ghana to serve…”Even to the extent that, some argue that job opportunities have become political, though debatable.”

He stated that the challenges notwithstanding, the Ghanaian diaspora still supported the economy of the country in diverse ways, adding that for instance 2018 alone, Ghana received over USD3.5 billion in remittances according to a world Bank report.

Prior to the above, in the field of politics, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Prof. Kofi Abrefa Busia and the J. A. Kufuor who were trained outside this country, came to be part of the stock of politicians who were fighting to attain independence for this nation.

Again, Prof. Frimpong Boateng and Dr. Charles Wereko Brobbey also came from the diaspora to support our journey towards national development and growth.

“The roles they played in the health and energy sectors of our economic and social lives are so enormous. There are still so many who cannot be mentioned here today.

“It is generally accepted that the development and progress of any community is by and large influenced by the sons and daughters of that community who by choice or chance migrated from that community to another community in search of knowledge, skills and experiences for life,” He added.

He added that from 1994, approximately 15,000 Returning Experts have been supported by PMD and Centre for International Migration and Development (CIM) Programme of GIZ serving the universities and other sectors of the economy.

“As a Returned Expert myself, I believe that there is the need to bring all of us together to support the development of our dear nation with our diverse skills set, talents and resources in ways that will positively impact Ghana… I am extremely excited with the launch of Returning Experts Alumni Network Ghana… indeed, one person can make a difference.”

Addressing the members of the network, Wilhelmina Onyango, Project Manager responsible for the field of action of the Programme Migration & Diaspora, urged them to continue to promote Ghana in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Senior National Coordinator, Ms. Abena Owusua Amponsah-Bio, said the idea to create an alumni network started four years ago to bring the experts together for shared growth.

The Head of the Ghanaian-German Centre for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration, Mr. Benjamin Woesten, highlighted the support of GIZ to the Alumni Network and charged them to build on their established impact to continue to make their impact felt in the country’s development discourse.

It is expected that the launch of the Returning Experts Alumni

would push forward socio-economic development in the country.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra,- The Sovereign Head of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, Her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, has awarded Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa and a Deputy Director of Nursing Services (DDNS)Hilda Naa Sakya Commey as Officers in the Order of St John.

Prof. Akosa, the Former Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), together with DDNS Commey, a Former CEO, St John Ambulance, were honoured as Officers in the Order of St John, while nine others were also admitted as Members of the Order St John.

In a release issued by the St John Ambulance Ghana to the Ghana News Agency on Monday, in Accra, it said the awards were in recognition of their outstanding service to humanity through St. John Ambulance.

It said St. John Ambulance Ghana was established in 1937, subverted under the Ministry of Health (MOH), and operated as an Emergency Medical Service (EMS) provider in the area of First Aid Services, Ambulance Services, Community Health and Youth Development.

St John offers First Aid Training to organisations and individuals to equip them with skills to prepare for any medical emergencies, as part of its pre-hospital care mandate.

They also conduct health education in many Ghanaian languages on radio and television stations nationwide, as well as provide first aid services to both the playing body and spectators in all football stadia in the country and any mass gathering. Volunteers are the strong pedestal of the nationwide organisation.

The release said the agency was also a member of the Association of St John worldwide. HRM Queen Elizabeth II was the Sovereign Head of the Order of St. John.

Every year, the Queen gives award to people who have performed distinguished service through St John Association worldwide and this explained the current recognition and award of 11 distinguished personalities in Ghana.

“By convention, every Director General of the GHS was the Council Chairman of St John and has the mandate to supervise its activities. The mandate given by the MoH is to make the GHS coordinate the activities of the agency in line with its overall activities nationwide.”

It said the award winners had supported first aid education in various forms during their tenure in office either as Director General of GHS, or Council Member, or Staff or a Volunteer in the community.

The other award winners include Dr Ebenezer Appiah Denkyira, Former Director General, Ghana Health Service, DDNS Esther Abla Mawufenya Anyidoho, Former CEO, St John Ambulance, Dr. Anthony Kwame Apedzi, Current CEO, St John Ambulance, Emmanuel Kwasi Asante, Ashanti Regional Coordinator, St John Ambulance.

The rest are Mr Eric Obu Buetey, Volunteer of St John, Obuasi, Dr. Gilbert Nyaledzigbor, Former Council Member, St John Ambulance, Madam Dorothy Christiana Quist, Staff, Lawyer Dometi Kofi Sokpor, Former Council Member and Legal Advisor, and Samuel Laryea, Volunteer and Head of Teshie Division, St John.

The release said the award winners were approved by the Queen on August 24, 2020, and listed in the London Gazette of September 10, 2020, and each one of them received a medal and a certificate from the Buckingham Palace.

“For Prof Agyeman Badu Akosa, the award is very significant as he has been awarded a Companion of the Order of Volta in Ghana and now, Officer of the Order of St John from the Buckingham Palace. All these awards are in recognition of his contribution towards healthcare delivery in Ghana and beyond, and thanked the Queen for the award, on behalf of the award winners.”

It said the British High Commissioner to Ghana, Her Excellency Ms Harriet Thompson was delighted to have presided over the award ceremony as one of her major duties since she assumed office in Ghana, and encouraged St John to continue with the First Aid Service and its charity work.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Akyem-Tafo (E/R),- The Akyem Abuakwa Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG) in the Eastern Region has launched a 100,000 Ghana cedi endowment fund to cater for the welfare of its ministers and catechists after their retirement.

The ministers and catechists, who are called agents of the church, are posted to work in the service of God in many of the church worshipping centres, which are scattered in various locations.

The source of the fund, according to church leaders, would come from proceeds from the launch, monthly contributions from the Presbytery’s congregation and preaching joints as well as annual fundraising by all congregations.

At the launch, Rev Dr Seth Kissi, Presbytery Chairman, said, “The establishment of the Akyem Abuakwa Agents Endowment Fund has become necessary owing to the fact that many ministers and catechists go on retirement in deplorable conditions.”

He described stipends given to the church agents as meagre, resulting in small insurance premiums and consequently, scanty pension benefits.

He indicated that most congregations were in rural areas and financially handicapped, adding: “This means that most of our agents are transferred from one economically challenged area to another, impacting negatively on their financial fortunes resulting in poor retirement [benefits].”

The inspiration for the establishment of the fund, he said, “Is based on the fact that Jesus is not only concerned for the success of the mission of his disciples, but also for their welfare, and insisted that his disciples as labourers deserved wages.”

Throwing more light on the fund, he said just like any other pension fund, there would be no borrowing from it to ensure the target groups benefited fully after retirement.

He appealed to members of the Church to support what he called a noble cause that would inure to the benefits of all.

Mrs Abena Osei Asare, a Deputy Finance Minister and member of the fund management committee, who launched the fund pledged the support of Presbyterians in the ruling government to ensure the success of the endowment fund.

During the luncheon, donations totalling more than 70,000 Ghana cedis were received from Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister, Kwasi Amoako-Atta, Roads Minister, Asante Bediatuo, Executive Secretary to the President, Samuel Atta-Akyea and many others.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra,— The Police are searching for three persons who on Monday, allegedly robbed a 33-year-old woman off her GH¢29,000.00 at gunpoint at Apenkwa in Accra.

A statement signed by Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Kwesi Ofori, Acting Director-General, Public Affairs and copied the Ghana News Agency, said the victim escaped unhurt, however, a bystander sustained some injuries and was responding to treatment.

It said anyone with valuable information on the incident should contact the police on 18555 or 191.

“We want to assure the public that these criminals can run but they cannot hide. We will get them,” the statement added.

Source: Ghana News Agency