Day: October 7, 2021

Cape Coast,– The Hos-Glo Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), has held training on bookkeeping and customer service for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Central Region to improve their operations.

The training organized by the Foundation, in collaboration with Journalists for Women and Rural Development in Africa, was aimed at educating participants on how effectively they could manage their businesses and make huge profits.

About 30 SMEs, engaged in tailoring, hairdressing, agribusiness, manufacturing and trading in the Region, participated in the training.

Mrs Shirley Asiedu-Addo, the Executive Director of Journalists for Women and Rural Development in Africa, in an interview, said the training was necessitated by the lack of managerial skills of many SME’s to boost their businesses.

“We realised that members in the small and medium enterprises had less knowledge in business management and records keeping,” she said.

She expressed the hope that the skills and techniques of the SMEs would be enhanced after the training, adding that it could help boost the local economy and increase the standard of living of the people.

Mr Ernest Ziekye, the Finance and Administration Manager of Business Resource Centre (BRC), who took the participants through bookkeeping, said recording all transactions of their businesses would help gauge performance, letting a small business know whether it was declining or growing.

Also, it ensures participants maintained a proper record of business for effective cash flow management.

Mr Daniel Opoku-Agyemang, Member of Client Officers of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), schooled participants on the benefits of savings with his outfits.

Mr Agyemnag said SSNIT had made significant contributions to the development of the country and urged the participants to take advantage of the benefits and save with them to enjoy during the times they could not work.

He disclosed that currently, the Trust was paying more than 1,000 invalid pensioners and stressed that one could imagine if they had not started contributing early to the Scheme.

He said that currently, the highest-paid pensioner received a monthly pension of about GH¢55,000 with the lowest getting about GH¢300.00.

Mr Baaba Saaed, the Regional Secretary of National Tailors and Dressmakers Association, who was part of the trainees, said most of the SMEs failed to record activities they undertook during business transactions, leading to loss of revenue.

He lauded the organisers for the training and said writing or keeping records of their activities would help them keep track of their transactions, particularly those who bought items on credit.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra,- Mr. Seth Panwum, has been appointed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to chair a 15-Member Board of the National Sports Authority (NSA).

Mr. Panwum, former Chairman of Wa All Stars was a member of the previous Board and has now received the nod to chair the NSA Board for four years.

The 15-Member Board consists of Naa Odofoley Nortey, a member of Normalisation Committee of the Ghana Football Association in 2017, the Director-General of the NSA, Prof. Peter Twumasi, President of the Ghana Olympic Committee, Mr. Ben Nunoo Mensah, and Mr. Samson Deen, the President of the National Paralympic Committee.

Others are, Mr. Frank Kwesi Agyeman of the Security Services Sports Association, Mr. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai of the Tertiary institutions, Mr. Noah Bagerbaseh Bukari, the Director of the National Sports College, Winneba, Mr. Eric Mensah Bonsu of the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

The rest are, Gladys Mamtee Osabutey of the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Eric Nkansah of the Ministry of Education, Stanley Blankson Jnr – Minister’s nominee, Emmanuel Tuffour – Minister’s nominee, Nana Yaw Sarkodie Aboagye – President’s nominee and Johnso Kwaku Adu – President’s nominee.

A letter signed by Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Opare on October 4, 2021, tasked the Ministry of Youth and Sports to swear in the members into office.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra,- The Pumpkins Foundation has called for the promotion of inclusive societies for people with Cerebral Palsy (CP).

A statement signed by Madam Baisiwa Dowuona-Hammond, the Executive Director of the Foundation, copied to the Ghana News Agency, urged improvement in the quality of care for child CP patients with a call for efforts to ensure their inclusion in every aspect of society.

“On the issue of systemic challenges faced by these vulnerable children whom we represent, we believe strongly that there is the need for health policymakers in Ghana to prioritise the public education of Cerebral Palsy to reduce the pervasive and gendered stigmatization.”

The statement was issued to commemorate this year’s World Cerebral Palsy Day.

The Day is set aside for the global movement of people with Cerebral Palsy, their families, and organisations to celebrate, raise awareness and take action to ensure that persons with CP have the same rights, access and opportunities as anyone else in their communities.

The statement noted that though there were negative attitudes towards primary caregivers and children with disabilities, fewer attempts had been made to understand their experiences globally.

It said in Ghana, the stigma of childhood disability was often associated with women’s role in child bearing and nurturing.

“Also very common is a stigma among family members with a child with Cerebral Palsy and fuelled by traditional beliefs, resulting in isolation and societal rejection.”

The statement, said Physiotherapy, according to health experts was one of the most relieving interventions for persons living with CP.

It said sadly, most CP families were forced to opt out of that crucial component of care for their loved ones due to their inability to pay for the sessions.

“The Pumpkins Foundation avails itself to partner relevant authorities and stakeholders to making physiotherapy free and easily accessible to all children living with the condition.”

CP is said to be a non-progressive disorder of posture or movement caused by a lesion to the developing brain that results in functional limitations.

The diagnosis could vary from one child to another, causing family stress because “it has no cure”.

Around the world, Cerebral Palsy is said to affect some 17 million people.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Ecobank joined the rest of the world in commemorating this year’s World Mental Health Day under the theme “Mental Health in an Unequal World.

Delivering a solidarity message from the bank at a joint press launch of World Mental Health Day, Head of Marketing at Ecobank Ghana, Dr. Kasser-Tee, called on all Ghanaians to join hands to fight against the stigmatization and discrimination of people with mental health issues.

Dr. Kasser-Tee noted that Ecobank is willing to partner and support this year’s mental health agenda because it fits into the 2021 Ecobank Day celebrations agenda, thus the “Together For Better Health” with a sub-theme “Mental Health, Let’s Speak About It!”

According to him, Ecobank Ghana is partnering and supporting this year’s Mental health agenda because it fits well into their agenda for the 2021 Ecobank Day celebrations.

He further mentioned Ecobank Ghana is currently providing support for capacity-building training for Regional Mental Health coordinators in collaboration with Ghana Mental Health Authority.

“We will be creating awareness of mental health through all our social media platforms, as well as intensify staff sensitization on Mental health,” he added.

He indicated that the bank, as part of the World Mental Health Day, will organize “a webinar on October 22, 2021, in all 33 countries to discuss stigma and discrimination.

Below are the planned activities for Year 3, this year, under the theme ” Stigma and Discrimination “

i. Providing support for capacity building training for Regional Mental Health coordinators in collaboration with Ghana Mental Health Authority,

ii. Creating awareness of mental health through all our social media platforms, as well as intensify staff sensitization on Mental health.

iii. Organizing a webinar on October 22, 2021, in all 33 countries to discuss stigma and discrimination

iv. Consciously encouraging people in our catchment areas

Source: Ghana Web

Accra,- Ms Selina Owusu, a Gender Analyst at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), has advised young girls to visualise their dreams and be willing to put in time, energy and sacrifices to realise them.

“Do not be distracted by unwanted interferences from focusing on the important task on working out your success in life,” she said.

Ms Owusu gave the advice in Accra on Thursday at a two-day follow-up session with ‘Kayayei’ mentees of the Chief Justice Mentorship Programme.

In 2016, the UNPFA, through the UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage partnered with the Chief Justice’s Mentoring Programme with support from the Purim African Youth Development Platform (PAYDP).

The programme sought to provide the female head porters known as ‘kayayei’ the opportunity to build self-resilience and shape laudable career goals in life.

The follow-up session, therefore, offered the UNFPA an opportunity to interact with mentees of the Chief Justice Mentorship Programme and monitor on their progress.

Ms Owusu said the programme was to promote the rights of adolescent girls to avert child marriages and enable ‘Kayayees’ to achieve their aspirations through sound pathways.

She said the UNFPA having expanded the beneficiaries to include ‘kayayei’, each year since 2016, at least 20 girls had been selected to benefit from the programme with a total of 150 girls being beneficiaries.

The Gender Analyst said there had been success stories of ‘kayayei’ who had returned to school and had successfully completed their secondary and tertiary education.

Others have also found their feet in businesses and other career paths.

Mrs Aku Xornam Kevi, Executive Director, Purim African Youth Development Platform (PAYDP) said her Organisation with support from the UNFPA had successfully trained ‘kayayei’ from Accra, Kumasi, Assin, Techiman and some parts of the Central region in beads making, sewing, leather works with others at various levels of education.

She said the platform would keep engaging ‘kayayei’ to help them make informed decisions.

Bailawu Awudu, a former ‘Kayayoo’, from Techiman and a beneficiary of the programme, said through the programme, she had been empowered on how to defend and protect herself and others from early and false child marriage.

“Through the training, I received from UNFPA and PAYDP, I was able to report and rescue my friend from false marriage,” she said.

Ms Awudu, with funding from UNFPA, is now a dressmaker apprentice.

Sala Abudu, a former ‘Kayayoo’ who had also abandoned school, travelled from the Northern region to Accra to live and work at Tudu, a suburb of Accra, said the CJ Mentorship programme inspired her to go back to school.

She thanked UNFPA and PAYDP for the support, saying, she was now in second year at the University of Ghana, studying nursing.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Shatta Wale is famed for his outstanding musical talent which has seen him churn out bangers over the last decade but little did we know that the ‘dancehall king’ is a greater ‘investor’ too.

This pursuit of the musical icon has now come to light after he bagged a staggering GHC168,593 from betting with Betway.

Shatta Wale in a social media post revealed that he staked a total of GHC3,500 with the Betway app and won the above-quoted amount from two slips.

Shatta Wale in a series of social media posts has been celebrating his victory and also encourage Ghanaians to make Betway their preferred betting choice.

One post reads “never lost in anything I placed my mind to. Money ah di target every day when I wake up. Thanks, Betway Ghana. Fans go on there and try, Shatta spirit is with you. Money deh beeee chaleeee.”

Source: Ghana Web

Burkina Faso’s former president Blaise Compaore will boycott a trial opening next week on the assassination of revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara, where he is the main accused, his lawyers said on Thursday.

“President Blaise Compaore will not be attending the political trial that is being staged against him at the military court of Ouagadougou, nor will we,” Compaore’s Burkinabe and French attorneys said.

In the trial opening on Monday, Compaore and 13 others face an array of charges in the 1987 death of Sankara, a charismatic Marxist-Leninist sometimes dubbed the African Che Guevara.

Sankara took power in the impoverished Sahel state in 1983, renaming the country the following year from the colonial-era Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, which means “land of the honest men.”

He carried out a string of radical policies, including nationalisations, public housing and a ban on female genital mutilation, polygamy and forced marriages.

But he was shot dead on October 15, 1987, aged just 37, during a putsch led by Compaore, a former friend.

Compaore was himself ousted in 2014 by a popular uprising after 27 years in power and fled to Ivory Coast, where he has obtained Ivorian nationality.

Many in Burkina Faso hope the trial will shed light on one of the bloodiest chapters in the country’s long history of volatility.

Compaore, 70, has always denied accusations that he ordered Sankara’s killing.

After his fall from power, an investigation into the assassination was opened in 2015 under a transitional government and a warrant for his arrest was issued the following year.

Those accused include Compaore’s former right-hand man — General Gilbert Diendere, a former head of the elite Presidential Security Regiment (RSP).

The pair face charges of complicity in murder, harming state security and complicity in the concealment of corpses.

Diendere, 61, is already serving a 20-year sentence in Burkina Faso for masterminding a plot in 2015 against the transitional government.

Another prominent figure among the accused is Hyacinthe Kafando, a former chief warrant officer in Compaore’s presidential guard, who is accused of leading the hit team. He is on the run.

‘Immunity’ claim

Compaore’s lawyers, Pierre-Olivier Sur and Abdoul Ouedraogo, said the military tribunal was an “exceptional court” that lay outside common law.

They said their client had never received a summons to be questioned, nor had he received any formal accusation against him, except for the summons to attend the trial.

In addition, Compaore, has “immunity as a former head of state,” they claimed.

“Although president Blaise Compaore does not recognise the justice of President Roch Kabore (Burkina’s current president), he retains trust in international justice,” they added.

They noted a decision by the European Court of Human Rights to suspend the extradition from France of Compaore’s brother Francois, accused in the murder of a Burkinabe journalist in 1998.

The upcoming trial has been hailed by Sankara supporters and others who say that Burkina Faso has long suffered by failing to prosecute his assassins.

The Thomas Sankara International Memorial Committee (CIMTS) said the trial was “a victory” showing that “Burkina Faso, the land of honest men, is a state of law in which impunity is not a benchmark” of justice.

It said that Sankara’s widow Mariam, who has been living in the southern French town of Montpellier since 1990, was scheduled to attend the opening of the trial, “barring unexpected developments.”

Source: Modern Ghana

After losing two full summers of tourism revenue, Britain is getting rid of restrictive quarantine requirements for visitors from 47 countries, including India, South Africa, Brazil and Turkey.

Starting Monday, vaccinated travelers from those countries will no longer have to quarantine for 10 days in a hotel upon arrival in Britain.

Britain recognizes the AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccines.

Visitors from seven countries, including Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela will still be required to quarantine.

People who are fully vaccinated and arriving from countries such as India, Turkey and Ghana will now have to provide only a negative test after two days.

Airline companies like Ryanair and easyJet had complained that complicated travel restrictions have prevented the tourism industry from recovering from lost business during pandemic lockdowns.

“Restoring people’s confidence in travel is key to rebuilding our economy and leveling up this country,” British Transport Minister Grant Shapps said Thursday. “With less restrictions and more people traveling, we can all continue to move safely forward together along our pathway to recovery.”

Earlier this week, Britain lifted recommendations against nonessential travel to 32 countries, including Ghana and Malaysia.

Source: Voice of America