Day: July 6, 2022

Hohoe (V/R), July 06, GNA – A total of 89 positive Covid-19 cases have been recorded in June, this year in the Hohoe Municipality.

Aside January and February, which recorded 41 and six cases respectively, no positive cases were recorded in the months of March, April and May 2022.

Mr Sylvanus Hadzitsey, Coordinator, Hohoe Municipal Covid-19 Management Centre in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) disclosed that one death was recorded in February, this year.

He said the total active case counts under management as at the end of June was 15 adding that most of the positive cases were from people, who had not taken any of the Covid-19 vaccine jabs.

Mr Hadzitsey said contributing factors to the rise in positive cases could be linked to the easing of safety protocols and failure on the part of people to observe these protocols and the use of materials such as hand sanitizers and nose masks.

He said there remained the absence of the social distancing protocol, the belief that the disease does not exist, failure on parts of institutions including schools to ensure adherence to protocols.

Mr Hadzitsey urged people to get vaccinated as well as continue to observe the safety protocols.

The Municipality recorded a total of 88 positive cases with one death in 2020 and 615 cases with ten deaths last year.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Agent Felix Afena-Gyan, Oliver Arthur has said that the youngster could be sent out on loan for next season.

The Ghana striker who plies his trade with AS Roma in the Italian Serie was a key figure for Jose Mourinho’s side last season.

Afena-Gyan was part of the Roma squad that won the maiden UEFA Conference League.

According to the agent, although the loan move is not something that is the first option on the table, it is something that could happen in the summer transfer window.

“It’s something that can happen but at this moment it’s not something we have gone deep into it. I think that he needs to finish the season [last season] and then we sit down and plan with the club.

“I have to know the project of the club, I don’t know the program they have for him. If next season, for example, Tammy Abraham is going to leave then it’s possible he can stay on and get a lot of playing time.

“If the club also thinks that he needs more experience then we go forward. He is young and we are open to anything that brings his development.” Oliver Arthur told Radio Gold Sports.

Afena-Gyan made his Black Stars debut against Nigeria in the 2022 World Cup playoffs in March and scored his first goal for the team against Madagascar in the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations [AFCON] qualifiers.

Source: Modern Ghana

Barcelona president Joan Laporta said on Wednesday that Dutch midfielder Frenkie de Jong is not for sale despite rumours of a departure to the Premier League.

De Jong “is a Barca player and unless we have a need or interest in selling him, we don’t want to sell him,” Laporta said as the club unveiled new signing Franck Kessie.

“We know he has offers. If at some moment we were interested, we would consider it, but right now, we’re not selling the player,” Laporta insisted.

De Jong, 25, has been heavily linked with a move to Manchester United and a reunion with former Ajax boss Erik ten Hag, who is preparing for his first season at Old Trafford.

Laporta revealed the club had made an offer to France international Ousmane Dembele, whose contract with Barca expired at the end of June.

“Ousmane is no longer a Barca player, but we made him an offer,” said Laporta. “He hasn’t accepted it yet, but he wants to continue talking.

“We’re going to carry on speaking, at least for now.”

Laporta also acknowledged having lunch with Jorge Mendes, the agent of Portugal superstar Cristiano Ronaldo who is reportedly looking to leave Manchester United.

“We discussed the transfer market in general, but I’m not going to specify if he spoke to me about a player in particular,” said Laporta.

Source: Modern Ghana

A former Chair of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Mark Assibey-Yeboah, has asked government not to take negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for granted.

“We should be careful about negotiating a programme,” he told Umaru Sanda Amadu on Face to Face on Citi TV.

A delegation from the IMF is scheduled to start talks with the Ghanaian government over an economic support package today.

But Dr. Assibey-Yeboah stressed that the engagements do not automatically mean the country would be supported.

“The fund went to Sri Lanka for 10 days. There was no agreement. So they [the IMF] coming here does not mean there’s going to be an agreement,” he noted as an example.

Dr. Assibey-Yeboah thus said, “the rhetoric, the posturing, we have to slow things down.”

In the long run, he expects Ghana’s economic situation to change if it finalises support from the IMF.

“I have argued that when the IMF are in town, we get things done right… If I were Finance Minister, I would park the economy at the Fund,” the former MP said.

“The 17th time will not be the last. We will be going to the IMF and going again,” he added.

The government announced last Friday that it would hold formal talks with the IMF.

The move came after the Akufo-Addo government’s controversial revenue generation policy, the electronic transfer levy, failed to generate the needed revenue targets.

Ghana’s economy is in distress as it currently has a total public debt stock of GH¢391.9 billion, as of the end of the first quarter of 2022.

The cedi is also the worst-performing African currency, having weakened 22 percent against the dollar this year.

Source: Modern Ghana

A leading member of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) has called on all stakeholders to ensure that Assembly and Unit Committee members are given the powers that are due them so that they can effectively work towards the development of the country.

“Much suggestions and ideas have been raised by various persons about the support Assembly members are not getting hence what we see in our areas looks as if they don’t exist,” Mr Paul Kwame Anaman, a CPP Stalwart stated in a paper copied to the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) in Tema.

Mr Anaman who is a local governance student also explained that it was a fact that could not be denied that Assembly members urgently needed support to help them function properly which could be monetary, direction or education.

This, he said may go a long way to awaken and equip them to educate their subjects to avoid indulging in activities that may hinder development such as blockage of gutters which causes flooding when it rains.

He also urged Ghanaians to avoid the construction of buildings in areas that are not assigned for individuals or companies to put up structures.

The CPP Leading Member added, “the time is due to redirect our minds to avoid selfishness and corrupt practices that go a long way to hinder the effectiveness of the assembly concept.”

Mr Anaman, therefore, has admonished the government to upscale and allow local leaders to fully operate with powers due to them for development in local areas.

According to him, local leaders especially the Assembly and Unit Committee Members although have powers to effectively revamp development in various communities, the lack of full operation of their powers was retarding development.

Mr Anaman stated that “It has been decades now since the local government governance system was introduced to the Ghanaian citizenry, which seeks to ensure that governance trickle down to the least communities or persons at various localities.

He said in this effect, the local governance concept was introduced to elect leaders who may be in charge of governance at the electoral area level and also its accompanied Unit Committee levels.

Mr. Anaman, said “If I may ask what role and authority are given to such persons who are the Assembly and Unit Committee members?

“If they are the people to see to control activities at the Unit Committee level, then what are their strength, support and authority to handle the affairs of development in the areas that they exist?

He said the ministry which in charge of the local government should re-direct, educate, and support, Assembly members to walk the talk to effectively revamp development in their communities.

“On the other hand, if the Assembly and Unit Committee members know their role and therefore sitting adamant for things to go wrong, then the government and its local government unit should have a turnaround thought about the concept so that they can effectively take charge of activities that affect the people each time there is rainfall or otherwise,” Mr. Anaman emphasized.

The CPP Leading Member noted that it was long overdue to have the feel and existence of such an important concept dying slowly in communities in the country hence Ghanaians must ask themselves the causes of the non-effectiveness.

He stressed that the government must fast-track its policies to determine if the root cause was monetary, political, social, or economic problems and find lasting solutions.

“If so then leaders should sit down to re-analyze the ideas and put in ingredient that will help the concept grow well to help support the development of the communities they exist,” he said.

Source: Modern Ghana

The Convention People’s Party (CPP) has described the International Monetary Fund (IMF) move as a lazy approach.

In a statement, the party also said that this was a short-term measure.

“Ghana has gone to the IMF for a bailout 17 times and does the Akufo-Addo and Bawumia Government believe this 18th time would create the magic wand that would salvage the Ghanaian Economy? We in the CPP believe that a run to the IMF is a lazy man’s approach to solving the problem as well as a short-term fix which cannot redeem our damaged economy.”

“The CPP thinks it is unfortunate that the Nana Akufo-Bawumia government need an outside body like the IMF to hold them to a fiscal discipline regime where they will be forced to be prudent and to have a plan aimed at prioritising spending,” the party said.

The CPP also called for an apology from the government for “putting us in this mess and reneging on all their promises to Ghanaians.”

“There is no doubt that the IMF and its programs are neo-colonial very imperialist in nature and, with no indication to make life better for the Ghanaian, but today this is where we find ourselves, hooked in and bound to the Apron strings of the IMF because somebody did not do their job well.”

The government announced last Friday that it would hold formal talks with the IMF.

The move came after the Akufo-Addo government’s controversial revenue generation policy, the electronic transfer levy, failed to generate the needed revenue targets.

Ghana’s economy is in distress as it currently has a total public debt stock of GH¢391.9 billion, as of the end of the first quarter of 2022.

The cedi is also the worst-performing African currency, having weakened 22 percent against the dollar this year.

Source: Modern Ghana

Tamale, July 06, GNA – The government has been urged to establish a dedicated fund for social protection to ensure the financial sustainability of such initiatives for the benefit of the poor and vulnerable in society.

It has further been urged to increase social protection spending as well as strengthen social protection budget execution and our credibility and ensure timely release of funds.

These formed part of the recommendations of the Citizens Assessment of Social Protection Delivery in Ghana: CSOs Social Protection Mirror Report 2021, which was launched in Tamale.

The Mirror Report 2021 was a complementary report to the official government report on social protection delivery with the view to promote mutual accountability in the implementation of social protection interventions.

It tracked the performance of social protection initiatives and shared information on initiatives that had been introduced and how they had been received by the citizenry and intended beneficiaries.

The respondents were made up of all beneficiaries/community members in the country, who one way or the other, enjoyed any of the social protection interventions such as LEAP, Labour Intensive Public Works (LIPW), Capitation Grant (CG), Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) and National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Programme officials from the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) were also interviewed.

In all, a total of 1,496 respondents took part in the study out of which 198 (13.2 %) responded on the LEAP, 201 (13.4%) on LIPW, 301 (20.1%) on CG, 447 (29.9%) on GSFP, and 349 (23.2%) on NHIS.

The Mirror Report 2021 was commissioned by the Civil Society Partnership for Social Accountability in Social Protection and supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

It found that inadequate budgetary allocation had been a major factor hampering the smooth implementation of social protection programmes in the country as the country spent less than 1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on social protection, which was far less than 2.2% of GDP regional average for sub-Saharan Africa.

It also found that the huge variations between approved programme budget allocations and disbursements were evidence that social protection budget planning and execution was a challenge.

The Report, therefore, called on the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to fast-track the completion of the Social Protection Bill to be submitted to Parliament for passage to make social protection binding on the government.

It also called on the government to consider increasing cash grants and allowances to beneficiaries in view of the current inflationary pressures.

Christiana Gbedemah, Social Policy Specialist at UNICEF Ghana expressed the need for the government to accelerate social interventions through increased spending to help reduce poverty in the country.

Madam Joyce Kulevo, Northern Regional Director of the Department of Social Welfare, whose speech was read on her behalf, acknowledged the delays in the payment of LEAP to beneficiaries, calling on MMDAs to factor social protection into the preparation of their Medium-Term Development Plans to improve delivery to beneficiaries.

Mr Mohammed Mumuni, Northern Regional Programmes Manager of SEND GHANA called on CSOs and other stakeholders to advocate the passage of the Social Protection Bill into law to make delivery of social protection binding on the government to prioritise the sector with funds, which would be released on time.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said the good records of the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta are clear for everybody to see.

He said this while answering a question at the 3businesscolloquium organised by Media General on Wednesday July 6, as to whether Mr Ofori-Atta should resign following the decision by the government to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for support.

He said “The record of the Minister, from 2017 to 2019 is clear. Not everybody will agree with that but that is fine, in a democracy not everybody is supposed to agree with the view of one person, there are those who don’t share that view, that is ok.

“His records from 2017 to 2019 speaks itself, his records in previous negotiation speak for themselves. There are things that have changed in the exogenous circle around us which we explain are dominant reasons. I do not think the competence of the people at the table should deny them the ability to do.”

Mr Ofori-Atta suffered flak due the decision by the government to head to the IMF for support despite repeated assurances by him that the country would not go to the Fund.

But some of his colleague ministers including the Minister of Railway Development, John Peter Amewu have defended him.

“This Finance Minister has been one of the best brains so far, everybody can attest to the fact,” Mr Amewu who is also lawmaker for Hohoe told TV3’s Paa Kwesi Asare.

When his attention was drawn to the fact that Mr Ofori-Atta has been borrowing, he said “What is wrong with borrowing? If you borrow for a good reason there is nothing wrong, when you borrow for consumption, that is when you have a problem.

“The infrastructural development that we are seeing today, it is part of the borrowing and we are borrowing for good reason. These projects as have clearly demonstrated, are bankable projects, so if you borrow to finance a bankable project that has shown all elements of bankability, I don’t think there is anything wrong about it.

“The Finance Minister has done extremely well and I think that so far he has been one of the best Finance Ministers we have seen in the Fourth Republic.”

Source: Modern Ghana