Day: January 3, 2023

Sekondi (W/R), Jan. 03, GNA – The Western Regional Minister, Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah has assured the people of government’s resolve to address issues of women and empower them to contribute their quota to national development.

Mr Darko-Mensah who was addressing a cross-section of women in leadership positions in Sekondi-Takoradi during a cocktail with the queen mother of Sekondi said women were able to excel in leadership position when given the needed support.

The Minister said the l initiative was to tell the rest of world that the Western Region appreciated women and their role in the development of the Region.

“The Western Region is developing, hence, the need to appreciates and empower women to contribute to development.”

Mr Darko-Mensah hoped that more women in businesses would be identified to come on board to help assist more women in the region to grow their businesses.

He said the government was a business-minded government and had been able to increase the job rate in the region from 320,000 in the last six years to 720,000, which he said would generate more taxes for development for the region.

Member of Parliament (MP) for Sekondi, Mr Andrew Agyaapa Mercer thanked the MP for Takoradi and Regional Minister for supporting the initiative and the Twin-City collaboration.

Mr Agyaapa Mercer assured that the programme would be sustained.

The Queen Mother of Sekondi, Nana Efua Ehyema who ascended the throne two decades ago, said the recognition of women in leadership would empower them to contribute towards the development of the Region.

She appealed to women especially those in leadership to help train the girl-child to be assertive and realize their full potential in life.

She said it was her desire for Sekondi to undergo massive transformation and development.

Source: Ghana News Agency

It may be one of the most anticipated recessions of all time, but that doesn’t mean it won’t hurt.

Barclays Capital Inc. says 2023 will go down as one of the worst for the world economy in four decades. Ned Davis Research Inc. puts the odds of a severe global downturn at 65%. Fidelity International reckons a hard landing looks unavoidable.

To kickstart the new year, Bloomberg News has gathered more than 500 calls from Wall Street’s army of strategists to paint the investing landscape ahead. And upbeat forecasts are hard to find, threatening fresh pain for investors who’ve just endured the great crash of 2022.

As the Federal Reserve ramps up its most aggressive tightening campaign in decades, the consensus view is that a recession, albeit mild, will hit both sides of the Atlantic with a high bar for any dovish policy pivot, even if inflation has peaked.

Still, humility is the order of the day for prognosticators who largely failed to predict the 2022 cost-of-living crisis and double-digit market losses. This time around, the consensus could prove badly wrong once again, delivering a host of positive surprises. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and UBS Asset Management, for their part, see the economy defying the bearish consensus as price growth eases — signaling big gains for investors if they get the market right.

Expect an uneven year in trading. Deutsche Bank AG sees the S&P 500 Index rising to 4,500 in the first half, before falling 25% in the third quarter as a downturn bites — only to bounce back to 4,500 by end-2023 as investors front-run a recovery.

Perhaps the easy money will be made in bonds at long last. After the asset class delivered the biggest loss in the modern era last year, UBS Group AG expects US 10-year yields will drop to as low as 2.65% by the end of the year on juicy coupons and renewed haven demand.

Meanwhile the crypto bubble has burst. Investments houses are in no mood to talk up the industry, after spending the boom years hyping up the speculative mania as same kind of digital gold for tomorrow, while peddling virtual-currency products to clients in traditional finance. Now, crypto references have been all but extinguished in 2023 outlooks.

And remember Covid? For global macro strategists at least, it’s a distant memory. The pandemic is only a material consideration with respect to China’s high-risk effort to rapidly reopen its economy — the outcome of which could have profound consequences for the world’s investment and consumption cycle.

Source: Ghana Web

Tamale, Jan 03, GNA – Christians have been called upon to model their lives on that of Jesus Christ, the name greater than any existing name.

Right Reverend Dennis Debukari Tong, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Tamale, who made the call, said Christians must hold onto their confession of faith trusting and obeying God.

He made the call while delivering a sermon at church service in Tamale on the first Sunday of the year.

His sermon was on the theme: “No Other Name”.

The first Sunday of the year was recognised by the Anglicans as the naming of Jesus Christ.

Sacrament of confirmation was conferred on some members of the Church, which was an initiation rite that ushered them to the adulthood membership of the Church.

Rt. Rev. Tong said the naming of Jesus was important to the Church and must be celebrated adding that the name Jesus Christ broke tribal and racial barriers bringing the world together. He urged confirmants to renew their baptismal vows and commit to the service of God, to love as God loved human.  

Source: Ghana News Agency

Bawku (U/E), Jan. 3, GNA – Mr Dan Botwe, Minister of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development has urged citizens of Bawku in the Upper East Region not to allow conflict to dictate the pace of life in the area.

He said healthcare delivery, access to education, agriculture and socioeconomic activities were at the lowest end in Bawku, leading to loss of lives, properties and compelled many to flee due to the protracted chieftaincy dispute.

“The guns must be silenced, and cool heads must prevail for the restoration of normal social life and peaceful coexistence.

“We cannot allow criminals and conflict profiteers among our ranks to destabilise the peace of the area and dictate the pace of life of the vulnerable. Criminals should be viewed and treated as such from both sides,” he said.

Speaking at the 35th annual Samanpiid festival of the chiefs and people of the Kusaug Traditional Area, Mr Botwe said it required the shared responsibility of all stakeholders to restore peace in Bawku to achieve the needed development.

He said the theme for this year’s celebration, “Building Peace: The role of all Stakeholders” was apt considering the reemergence of the conflict and said all residents and stakeholders had roles to play individually and collectively to attain lasting peace in Bawku.

The Minister underscored the urgent need for stakeholders especially factions in the conflict to use social interaction to complement each other’s efforts to avoid and condemn conflicts at all levels to promote respect for human rights and dignity, social justice, and rule of law.

“I wish to passionately appeal through our revered king (Bawku Naba) to urge our brothers, Kusaasis, to return to the Bawku Interethnic Peace Committee to facilitate dialogue among you and our brothers on the other side on the way out of this crisis,” he added.

He reiterated the resolve of government to continue to engage all relevant stakeholders to achieve lasting peace and restore the lost glory of Bawku of economic prosperity.

Mr Cletus Avoka, Member of Parliament for Zebilla Constituency who spoke on behalf of all the six MPs of Kusaug Traditional Area including Bawku, Zebilla, Tempane, Garu, Pusiga and Binduri, said conflict had destroyed the reputation Bawku once held as the life and commercial business centre of the Upper East Region and Ghana.

Mr Avoka noted that the government and other stakeholders had made efforts to ensuring peace in Bawku, but the situation remained the same, and worsened by the day and added that the strict stands by factions in the conflict did not help to resolve the issue.

He said the conflict was retarding development of the area as projects implementation in the area had been stalled including those working on the main Bolgatanga-Bawku-Pulmakom road as contractors were afraid to work there.

“Many of the homes are empty, young men and women and business people are all vacating Bawku and that is a sorry sight. Education, business, and healthcare are declining, if not at a standstill and so we have the collective responsibility to make sure we have peace in Bawku,” he said.

Zugraan Asigri Abugrago Azoka II, Paramount Chief of Kusaug Traditional Area, through a speech read on his behalf, commended government for the efforts made so far to restore peace and underscored the need to expedite actions to achieve lasting peace for sustained development.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Babile, (UW/R), Jan. 03, GNA – The Chiefs and people of Babile in the Lawra Municipality have held their maiden Home Coming event with a call for unity and peaceful co-existence among the people in the community to help ensure rapid development.

The event was characterized by a football competition among the six sections within the community to help bring the people, particularly the youth, together to engender unity and development.

As part of the celebration, the community also commenced an initiative to construct washrooms at the Babile Polyclinic to help improve access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services by patients visiting the facility.

Addressing scores of people in Babile to climax the celebration, Naa Saapiur Dakuar III, the Chief of Babile, explained that the success of the celebration symbolised the readiness of the young people to come together as a family to contribute their quota for the community’s development.

“What I have witnessed here today is a symbol of unity. It shows that we are children of one mother. It is very important to uphold it because it will help develop the community”, he said.

Naa Dakuar, who opened the football finals with a kick, encouraged the sections that lost in the football games to see it as a form of entertainment and not to allow it to generate hatred.

The Chief also advised the young people against engaging in any form of social vice as that could affect their academic endeavours, mar their holistic development, and hamper the development of the needed human resources for the community’s advancement.

“I want to urge our parents and guardians to take a serious interest in the welfare of the children. We should ensure that before we as parents go to bed, the children are already sleeping”, Naa Dakuar said.

Mr Alex Yirikye, the Assembly Member of the Babile Electoral Area, observed that the Home Coming initiative would help bridge the occurrence of such uprisings in the community that could impede the development.

“From the start of the football games to the end, there was nothing like this person is a Muslim, or a Christian, or a Traditionalist.

If we continue to come together like this it will help us a lot by preventing fighting among us like what is happening in other areas in the country where women and children are currently suffering,” he explained.

He also urged the members of the community to report any strange people cited in their areas to the community leaders including the security agencies to help prevent the infiltration of violent extremists in the community considering the occurrences of such activities in neighbouring Burkina Faso.

On his part, Mr Gregory T. Tengzu, the Bipola Naa (Youth Chief) of the community, urged the youth not to give up on their contributions towards community initiatives despite the challenges they may encounter in their daily endeavours.

He commended the individuals, groups, and organisations for their diverse contributions to making the event a success and expressed hope that the lessons learned from the maiden edition would feed into subsequent editions to make them better.

All the teams that participated in the football games were given undisclosed amounts of money as appreciation for their contribution to making the event a success.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Anyinam (E/R), Jan. 3, GNA – The Rainforest Alliance, a non-governmental organisation, and its implementation partners have trained over 50 community volunteers on the need to enforcing the eradication of child and forced labour in various communities.

Participants were led through advocacy, prevention, and detection with the help of the partners – Edmark Rescue and Ark Development Foundations, funded by the Norwegian government through NORAD.

Participants were drawn from government agencies such as the Ghana Education Service, Social Welfare, the Ghana Health Service, and members from the Atiwa East Assembly.

In a presentation, Mrs Joyce Poku-Marboah, the Project Director, noted that the consolidated gains in child labour over the last two decades have been hit by a downturn of events, with alarming figures indicating an increase of 8.4 million children in just over four years, as published by the International Labour Organization and UNICEF.

She indicated that, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and school closures throughout the world, the number of cases of child labour increased to over nine million.

She emphasised the distinction between child work and child labour, noting that not every work done by a child was considered child labour.

She described child labour as the positive participation of children in economic and non-economic activities that are not harmful to their health or mental and physical development.

“The line is crossed, however, when children perform hazardous work that is likely to harm their health or limit their education,” she said.

Mrs Poku-Marboah said a lot had been done by stakeholders and government officials to stop child labour, particularly in mining and cocoa farming communities, highlighting that producing and consuming countries have raised numerous concerns about the menace and are working hard to prevent, identify, and eradicate child labour.

She announced plans to launch a US $5 million Africa Cocoa Fund to support farming communities in Ghana, adding that a portion of the funds would be used to establish community-based child protection systems across the Ashanti region, with a focus on protecting local children from hazardous farm work and assisting them to stay and succeed in school.

She emphasised the need for institutions to collaborate with NGOs, the government, and community members to win the battle against forced and child labour owing to its complexity.

The meeting brought together representatives from the Atiwa East District Assembly, Ghana COCOBOD, Olam Food Ingredients, and Federated Commodities, as well as religious leaders and educators who are all duty-bearers in the fight against forced and child labour.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Koforidua, Jan. 3, GNA – Reverend George Bright Gyamfi, Minister-in-Charge of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Ramseyer Congregation, Baakokrom in Koforidua, has advised Christians to remain on the lookout for either the second coming of Jesus Christ or death.

He said death and the second coming of the Saviour Jesus Christ, were inevitable, and that Christians must prepare thoroughly in order not to regret their decisions and acts in the future.

Rev. Gyamfi was preaching on the theme: “Watch” at church service with the congregation being led through a series of praises, adoration, and scripture reading, alone with prayers, as well as preaching.

He encouraged Christians to examine what they see with their eyes, where their legs take them, what they say, what their thoughts are, how they use their time, and to know and be aware of their adversaries.

To be fully prepared for 2023, Rev. Gyamfi said Christians must guard against temptations, control their diet, guard their faith in Jesus Christ, nourish their spirit with the word of God as they feed their body with food, and be their brother’s keeper.

Citing the Bible, he said, “Lot’s wife turned and looked at the burning Sodom and Gomorrah, and she turned into salt,” and added that angels appeared to the shepherds in the field as they watched their sheep at night and disclosed the birth of Jesus Christ to them because they did their work diligently.

He advised Christians to take their work seriously and work diligently, as did the shepherds, to guarantee their success in 2023.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Former Deputy Minister for Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, has shared some economic forecasts which are likely to happen in 2023 amidst the economic crisis in the country.

According to him, 2023 will be one of the toughest years as there will be high unemployment, high inflation, and further cedi depreciation among others.

In a Facebook post, he shared 10 economic forecasts which included layoffs from the financial sector, government foreign-financed projects, among others.

The year 2022 was a tough time for Ghanaians as a result of the economic turmoil. Several businesses had to close down, the prices of goods and services became expensive, and fuel kept skyrocketing.

Several Economists have predicted worse in the year 2023. According to experts, hardship would be a global issue.

Below is Ato Forson’s full statement:

1. This year, Ghana’s economy will record one of the worst non-oil GDP growths due to the impact of the debt restructuring and a plethora of extremely tough fiscal and monetary policies.

2. The haircut on domestic bonds and Eurobond is expected to adversely impact the health of the banking sector, local businesses, and individuals! Also, Bilateral debt restructuring will lead to government’s foreign financed projects being abandoned.

3. Unemployment will worsen due to the freeze on employment, debt restructuring, poor business climate, and massive austerity.

4. Ghana will default in the payment of interest and principal on domestic bonds, Eurobonds, and most of our bilateral loans in 2023. These will be compounded by the ff:

5. Expected layoffs from the financial sector due to the impact of the debt restructuring and expected layoffs from gov’t foreign financed projects.

6. The complete reversal of discount on import values on goods and vehicles coupled with the introduction of the 2.5 % INCREASE IN VAT and other taxes on businesses will keep prices of goods and services high, and, in some cases, higher than current prices!

7. Also, government’s policy of automatic adjustment of electricity tariffs will exacerbate the high cost of living in 2023

8. Inflation is expected to be above 30% for the most part of 2023.

9. Government’s gold for oil policy will not make any major impact on the price of petroleum products.

10. The cedi will inevitably depreciate further, from Jan to June. before a possible IMF board approval in the Q2, 2023.

Source: Ghana Web